Ready for Takeoff 7/2/2013

Here's a sight you don't see often -- a 30-foot-tall giant astronaut! I ran into this big fella in Wilmington, Illinois along the Highway 53 portion of Route 66. He's known as the Gemini Giant, and was apparently named after NASA's Gemini space program in the 1960s. The giant spaceman welcomed diners driving along Route 66 to the Launching Pad Drive-In Restaurant for decades, but when I arrived for a bite to eat, I found out from the locals that it had closed down last November just before Thanksgiving. Many restaurants and stores along Route 66 went out of business when the highway was decommissioned back in 1985, and the trickle-down effect of less traffic moving along this stretch of road seems to still be taking its toll today. On a brighter note, I met Bianca and Markus from Austria, who flew to the United States just a few days ago to take the same journey as me along Route 66 from Chicago to L.A. We exchanged e-mail addresses, and I told them that they would be on my blog -- so "hi" Bianca and Markus! I hope you're having a safe trip and enjoying all the sights along Route 66. Maybe I'll run into you again at some point during our adventures.