Day 3 - Pontiac to Springfield, Illinois

Another morning largely filled with museum visits in the delightful little city of Pontiac.

Firstly, the Pontiac Oakland Motor Museum, a small affair celebrating Pontiac cars (although the actual factory was in Detroit, Michigan, and General Motors discontinued the use of the brand in 2010).

Just around the corner is the Route 66 Association of Illinois museum that is located in the old city hall and, spread over three floors, incorporating sections documenting the death of President Lincoln (more of which tomorrow), the sinking of the Titanic and a huge collection of military uniforms of ex- service personnel from the Pontiac area. We concentrated on the Route 66 section!

A passer by suggested we didn't leave Pontiac without trying the coffee and doughnuts at Pfaff's - it would have been rude not to .....

Quite by chance, outside the museum was a free trolley bus offering a ride around Pontiac primarily to view the magnificent murals addorning various buildings. We jumped aboard and were royally entertained by the driver, Robbie, en route.

We left Pontiac and continued down Historic Route 66 driving on a short stretch of the original 1927 road in Lexington called Memory Lane that showcased a variety of different roadside advertisements from years gone by:

Next came (another) old gas station, Sprague's Super Service Station in Normal:

As we continued on south we stopped off at Dixie's Truck Stop in Maclean for coffee and pie:

Our last stop-off was another quirky Route 66 display/museum in the town of Atlanta, Illinois, dedicated to the Giants that used to be dotted about promoting businesses, predominantly in the 1960s:

And that was about it for today!

We arrived at our final destination, Springfield, Illinois, around 5pm with another 110 miles under our belt.

Comments

  1. MelyOctober 11, 2026 at 5:40 AM

    Those murals are amazing 👏

    ReplyDelete
  2. Boorman Ross in SFOctober 13, 2026 at 11:33 AM

    This reminded me of how Stephen Stills, Neil Young and co. came up with the name Buffalo Springfield. On checking, I discovered that was Springfield, Ohio, not Spingfield, Illinois! However, Stephen Stills and Neil Young did spot each on the highway in LA, Neil having driven down from Canada in a second-hand Pontiac hearse.

    ReplyDelete

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