Hello Everyone!
In my last blog I talked about traveling the West side of Route 66’s first main realignment and giving some general directions to Wilmington, Illinois. In retrospect, Wilmington is where a lot of the fun on Route 66 truly begins here.
Before driving into Wilmington, I checked my geocaching map and there were 3 geocaches that I targeted in this town.
The first one I went for is called, Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor - Wilmington (GC4AQMP, placed by pam.monson4, 57 favorite points). It is in one of Wilmington’s parks and according to the geocache description, “Wilmington is one of the rare Illinois towns whose main business district is still bisected by historic Route 66. The sparkling Kankakee River and the manmade millrace create two lovely island parks, which you will visit in your search for this cache.” and “Page through the cache logbook, you're bound to find entries from visitors from around the world who are traveling the Mother Road from Chicago to Los Angeles...”
I made my search for this geocache harder than it had to be and it became one of my favorite finds on my trip. The picture below is from the Northeast corner of the park. The concrete structures in the picture looks like that they might have been some sort of damn.
If you are Geocaching Route 66, you’ll notice that there is a string of towns and cities that have labeled a stretch of Route 66 as, ‘Red Carpet Corridor’. According to their website, http://il66redcarpetcorridor.org/:
“It is all about family fun on the most famous road in America - Route 66. Sponsored by the twelve communities which make up the 90-mile linear museum from Joliet to Towanda. The annual festivals invites everyone to experience the good life in the slow lane. Each community will produce its own events. From full-blown festivals to antique and craft sales, art sales, car and motorcycle shows, live entertainments, and plenty of yard, garage, and sidewalk sales along the way, everyone is sure to discover something unique.”
After I left the park, I went for another geocache, Route 66 Charger (GC4B7K1, placed by darla noises, 34 favorite points). I recorded this find on Facebook Live. Click the link below to check it out.
As you can see, this was cleverly placed and I added to the favorite point to it’s total. If you are having trouble seeing the Facebook Live recording. You might want to friend me on Facebook and see if that helps.
I then kind of geeked out on my next find which is by one of the ‘Muffler Men’ of Route 66. The geocache is called, RT66:IL - Wilmington’s Gemini Giant (GC4KZAE, placed by sunnyside7, 12 favorite points).
Muffler Men are large sculptures that were sold to various businesses to help advertise their services during the Sixties. Some places had the 18-30 foot tall fiberglass sculptures custom made. The Gemini Giant was done in honor of the Gemini Space Program. It stands near an iconic restaurant, The Launching Pad, which is no longer in business and went up for auction a couple of months before I arrived.
According to some information I got from route66university.com, “John Korelc and his wife, Bernice, opened the Dari Delite on Baltimore Street in 1960. But in 1965, they changed the name to The Launching Pad Drive-In. The restaurant became famous across the country after they found something to make it distinctive. That was a 28-foot tall, 500-pound fiberglass green giant with a space helmet. The Launching Pad became famous with the help the green giant, which was called the "Gemini Giant." Korelc liked the idea of the Gemini Giant and it fit into his plan to sell customers on the restaurant. The restaurant, which was also on the old Route 66, drew tourists because of the green giant. He retired in 1986. But in an article for The Herald News in 1991, he was making occasional deliveries and helping prepare the food.”
I recorded this find on Facebook Live too. Click the link below and see how it went.
Again, if the Facebook Live link didn’t work for you, try friending me on Facebook and see if that helps.
That’s it for now. Next blog I travel to Braidwood, Illinois to capture some more fun.
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Having the time of my life on Route 66 and you will too. But, you got to experience Route 66 for yourself.
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