October 4th, 2013     LeClaire, Iowa to Atlanta, Illinois

We started off today by watching rain drops hitting the windows of the hotel.  A storm was going through eastern Iowa and we got some early morning showers from it.

While we waited for the showers to subside we  played a little bit with the software and tablets.  It seems we are having problems getting the photos to load into blogger running on iPad or android.  I'll continue to try to get it worked out, but it may be beyond my capibilities to do.  If that is the case, I'll have to add the pics after I get home.  :(

At about 10 a.m. we dried off the cars and headed off to Antique Archeology (home of the "American Pickers" show on History Channel") in St Claire.  I have watched the show for a few years now and I really enjoy the mysteries of what items are worth.  Since we were in St Claire to pick up the cars at mikE's farm, it was just a few miles out of our way to visit the Antique Archeology store.

When we arrived at the store, my first impressions were:  1) Wow... that place is Tineeeee!  And, 2)  They sure do have a lot of people jamed into the parking lot!  We went in and toured the shop, it was interesting to see all the items in the shop that have been featured on the American Pickers show.  I guess they don't sell most of the stuff they feature on the show, because almost every piece was still there.  They had a lot of NFS tags on items, and just a few price tags on the rest.  After the parking lot had cleared a bit, I drove Lola up next to the front of the shop and David took a pic.

Notice that Lola is almost as long as the tiny shop is wide!

After a couple more pics of the store, we headed out for Joliet, Illinois.  Joliet is where we planned to get on Route 66, The Mother Road.  Cruising on the freeway in Lola is very nice.  David updated the sound system with a current cd/tuner/ipod player and speakers.  Everything looks pretty stock, including the am radio in the dash, but the sounds are definately newer.  With the top down at 70 mph the wind is not bad, and it is definately quiet enough to enjoy the tunes.

For a big car on smaller tires, Lola handles pretty well.  The engine has plenty of power and the car is wide enough to corner quite flat.

Enjoying some tunes and cruising to Joliet

After we arrived at Joliet, we turned onto 66, got some fuel, and headed south. The first stop was the Route 66 raceway.  There are two tracks there, a drag strip and a circle track.  There were no races going on, so the security guards letus drive down and have a look at the empty stands and track at the dragstrip.  

Souveniers truck for the Route 66 Drag Strip

We noticed the the Chicago Land NASCAR track was across from route 66 Raceway, so we drove over there and watched some of the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience  folks learning to drive a nascar race car at moderately high speeds.  

Top - Steve and Renie checking out the cars while in the background a car whizzes by

Bottom- A racer's car sitting on the grid

It was time to go to lunch, so we drove south to tThe Polka Sot Drive Inn and had great burgers and shakes.  The Polka Dot is famous for it's life sized statues of some famous stars.  

Can you guess who they are?

From the Polka Dot we headed down to Pontiac, Illinois to visit the Pontiac Museum.  For a small building, they had a lot of nice cars inside.  One of the nicest ones was a 1963 Bonneville, one of the largest hardtops ever built.