Day one of the Official Route 66 Festival went off pretty well. Both the morning and afternoon meetings at Lincoln Land Community College were informative and accomplished a bit in rolling towards a unified national alliance of associations; I wrote up a couple brief summaries on the Yahoo! Route 66 board and Ron Warnick should have a more concise summary at his excellent Route 66 News site before long. Illinois was decently represented, but I think Missouri’s association had us beat. Lunch in between sessions at the Ariston was great (duh).

This evening we returned to the Ariston for an evening reception that was well attended and, again, delicious. The highlight of the evening came as Emily and I headed for the door: owner Nick Adam brought a British couple back into the reception room that were traveling the road and had wandered in and asked “if anyone knew anything about Route 66.” They were immediately introduced to a number of experts including Michael Wallis, whom they knew of, and we wondered if anything they encounter the rest of the way can possibly top this reception in Litchfield.

Emily and I with the Sheriff himself.

Afterwards Emily and I briefly cruised Litchfield with Geri and Marty Bilecki in their gorgeous blue ‘57 Chevy. As we headed up State Street several of the shopkeeps were painting their storefronts, part of the ongoing restoration efforts that the city’s main downtown stretch has seen over the last couple weeks. Litchfield should be in great shape for the next two days.