Never beat yourself up over car problems B52. It happens to all of us, especially when we least expect it. The only way to find out what's wrong is to drive them, as long a distance as possible. No apology needed on my end. Fix her up and get her running again.

I am disappointed that we won't be able to use Power Tour as an excuse to meet up with you and your wife but we still have the possibility of Woodward in August. I will try to pin my hat on that event instead.

While this is bad news for B52, it gives me a small break. Now I can get to the Tulsa venue as early as possible to get my Long Hauler plaque and then get out of dodge ASAP to start my long 14+ hour cannonball back to Michigan. The sooner I get started, the sooner I will get to go to sleep in my own bed.

As for pictures from the road, I have them but by the time I get around to uploading them, I am beat. Driving Route 66 takes concentration to watch your speed, other traffic, and the turn-by-turn navigation instructions so you don't miss a turn or a point of interest. I promise to post the whole lot when I get home and get some rest. However, if I have a few minutes while I am on HRPT, I may tease you with some things.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Frosty

Oh yeahhhhh! Thanks for the teaser Frosty one! Drive safe bud.

Nice Ford GT! Those horseshoes make it double lucky?

More teasers. I drove from St. Louis to Springfield and then I drove on to Tulsa today so I can cannonball out of here in the morning ASAP. Long day driving but a lot of neat stuff, as well as long lines and traffic.

YYYYYYEYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Frosty

soooo cool frosty

i am there with you ! so so enjoy your prospective !

Edited June 12Jun 12 by 64 kiwi boni

Anybody going to guess who the statue is?

That would be Rat Fink, by Big Daddy Roth

7 hours ago, Frosty said:

Anybody going to guess who the statue is?

I recon it looks a bit like chuck berry

Goodnight Violet! You did well all week and exceptionally well today! Daddy is proud of you! Sleep well little lady! You’ve earned it!

Glad y'all made it back in one piece!

Okay let's start the picture extravaganza.

This year's Power Tour had a much different feel to it. Last year, there were known celebrities scheduled at each stop for autography and photograph sessions. None announced this year, although I did run into and talk with Lucy Costa and Mike Cotten at some length. They were the only "celebrities" I found all week, mind you, I was not looking very hard either. This year's tour was more about Route 66 and less about the stop venues (to me at least). So that is what I concentrated on - Route 66 and side visits and less on the venues, the pictures will show that.

On with the show, this is it!

Day One - Joilet IL - Route 66 Raceway Park

On my way to the track, I decided to make a little side trip before I got there. If you are fan of the original Blues Brothers movie, you will recognize this place. This is old Joilet Prison, that was used in the movie.

You can tour the prison. I did not, but judging from the cars in the parking lot, I was not the old person on Power Tour to think of coming here.

Jake and Elwood on a nearby parts store wall.

"We gotta' go see the penguin!" "We're on a mission from God!" LOL!

Here we are at Route 66 Raceway. It was a cluster getting in though. It seems that Chicagoland Speedway and Route 66 Raceway share the same access road. So those folks that didn't pickup their credentials on Sunday, or single and/or multi-day participants still had to go to Chicagoland first before going to Route 66. So the traffic getting in was twice as bad, since traffic handlers has to determine who was going where.

I did run into Lucky Costa while I was there.

This is the same Peak car that was built on one of the last episodes of Hot Rod Garage.

The green Corvette is the top of the line ZR1 with a flip flop color (it shows green now). This Vette convertible is $188k as built! Woof!

The Power Tour swag truck showing the 2026 PT route.

Cars in the vendor areas.

I see this guy on PT and Roadkill Nights al the time. He always has a different female cop model with him.

Lucky Costa - before I chatted with him.

The Power Tour motorhome. This is the closest I would get to it since taking a photo with your car next to at the end of Power Tour in Tulsa is out of the question for me.

Lucky's Ford Galaxie wagon from HRG. It is Coyote powered now. He's done a lot of work to it. He's documented a lot of that work on his YouTube channel, if you follow him.

A Charger EV

The only thing on the track at the moment is the lane dryer. They started drying around 12 noon. As I was leaving around 2:30 pm, they ran a couple of races and then (as I was still walking to my car) it started raining again. I have no idea how many races were actually run that day.

Some of the folks waiting in the staging lanes - waiting for the track to open.

Back out onto Route 66 - On my way to a place I missed yesterday.

Welcome to Wilmington IL - home of the Gemini Giant

The Gemini Giant is a re-purposed fiberglass "Muffler Man" statue from the 1960s. They are all over the USA. Some we will see later too. You can read about it's history on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_Giant

Did I mention it rained some more?

A quick drive by of the Odell Standard Oil Gas station.

Heading south. RR tracks to the left, I-55 to the right.

This old Texaco station had a broken down Fox body Mustang. I offered to help but they said they had it well in hand.....okkkaaay. Off we go.

Onto Memory Lane park.....

Very cool mailboxes!

The Kicks Restaurant on Route 66. Nice play on words.

This gets me to the end of Day 1 - just north end of Bloomington-Normal IL. Tomorrow PT will come through this area before turning east towards Rantoul IL. I can run down to here in the morning and head towards the state capital, Spingfield.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Frosty