Litchfield 1st Annual Route 66 Classic Car Festival
Litchfield, Illinois
June 26 - 27, 2004

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We heard about the Litchfield Classic Car Festival from John Weiss a couple of weeks ago during our trip to Tulsa. He said that Paul LeMat, who portrayed "John Milner" in the 1972 movie "American Graffiti" with the actual 1932 Deuce Coupe from the film. A bonus was that they would show "American Graffiti" at the drive-in Saturday night. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem with the movie (they could not get a copy of the movie in the correct size film reel to fit the drive-in's projector).  So, they showed "Viva Las Vegas" instead. 

Since it was a Car Festival, and it was close enough to take the Corvair, we're happy to report the Corvair made the 4 hour trip with no problems. The weather was fantastic and there were about 125 cars lined up along the 4 lane alignment through Litchfield, which was closed to traffic. For a first year event, this was a very good turnout.

Also in attendance were Jim Ross, Shellee Graham, Paul & Sandi Taylor, John & Lenora Weiss, Tom Teague, Bob Waldmire, and Helen Flint (Be sure to check out Helen's work at www.helenflint.com). Kip, Quinn, and Natalie Welborn also made the trip up from St. Louis.

Once the show was over Saturday, we met Jim, Shellee, Trevor (Shellee's son), and Helen for dinner at the Ariston. We waited around outside til dusk to take some shots of the neon there. Then it was off to the Skyview Drive-In where it seemed like a time capsule with the majority of the car show participants parked in the first 3 rows.

We skipped the car show Sunday (as did almost everyone else) and did a little 66ing north after having breakfast at the Route 66 Cafe in Litchfield (A+!). We ran into a pack of about 8 or 9 classics from the 50's & 60's from Minnesota in Atlanta that were cruising 66 from Minnesota. We then ran into the Weiss' again at Funk's Grove, where we gave our first ever autographs to a couple there cruising 66. (We signed our "Memory Motel" article from the current issue of American Road). John put us on the spot & made us instant celebrities to this couple! How cool was that!?  From there, we continued north to Chenoa where we had dinner at the Chenoa Family Restaurant at the corner of 66 and US 24.

Lexington, Illinois - Route 66

Atlanta, Illinois - Route 66