Joliet museum hosts fans paying homage to legendary Route 66

Route 66 enthusiasts returned to Joliet on Saturday with tales to tell of their experience on the legendary Mother Road as they enjoyed another Red Carpet Corridor festival.

The tour through 14 Illinois towns, which continued Sunday, includes a stop at the Joliet Area Historical Museum, the starting point for most of the travelers from the Chicago area.

While at the museum before the start of his trip, Rich Bogar remembered his outrage at gas priced at 21 cents a gallon when he and his wife Nancy honeymooned on Route 66 all the way to California in a 1967 Mustang convertible 55 years ago.

“We made it to the Painted Desert and stopped for gas,” Bogar said.

“They wanted 21 cents a gallon,” he said. “I told them they were a bunch of crooks. We went on, and we ran out of gas just as I pulled into a Chevron station and paid 17 cents a gallon. I wasn’t going to pay 21 cents a gallon for gas.”

The Bogars took their daughter and granddaughter for the Red Carpet Corridor tour that included stops in the Will County towns of Wilmington, Braidwood, Godley and Braceville in a trip that went to Bloomington and back.

The towns on the tour each provided their own welcoming committee and showcased their place in Route 66 history for the Red Carpet Corridor travelers.

Those stops included Gardner, the hometown of Jody Perone.

Perone now lives in Yorkville and and was making the Red Carpet Corridor trip for a sixth time with her family in a 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger.

“It’s just a fun day to spend together,” Perone said.

Her son, Aidan, 14, has become a Route 66 enthusiast and someday wants to make the complete trip on the historic route to the Santa Monica Pier in California.

“Four years ago, I turned my whole bedroom into Route 66,” said Aidan, who picks up Route 66 memorabilia each year on the family trip along the Red Carpet Corridor.

The old Route 66, which ran from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, was one of the first major highways before the development of the interstate system. Route 66 in Illinois was replaced by Interstate 55, but the old route continues to be marked for its historic value and lasting draw to travelers.

Byron Fuelling of Beaverville said he used to drive it when he commuted from his childhood home along the Mississippi River in central Illinois to a job in Aurora on weekends.

“That was the interstate then,” Fuelling said.

Curt Herron, a visitors guide at the Joliet Area Historical Museum, said the museum takes pride in its Route 66 exhibits and stocks travel pamphlets from Illinois towns along the route to provide to travelers.

“I know we’re doing something right because people come here and say this is a must stop,” he said.

Herron himself is a frequent Route 66 traveler and enjoys getting off the interstates wherever he goes to see America up close.

“I like going through the towns,” Herron said. “I used to travel not even knowing where I was going. I knew generally where I was going. But going that way, I found a lot of interesting places.”

Many of the travelers on the Red Carpet Corridor make the trip in vintage cars.

Janice Williams of Joliet was in a group making the trip in eight such cars, including a 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air, a 1967 Ford Fairlane and a 1970 International Harvester Scout.

The appeal of the drive, Williams said, “is just getting to see the world that you would bypass on the major routes.”