Saturday in Litchfield started early with cars lining up just after 9:00 AM for the busiest day of the festival. We arrived at the Illinois Association tent at about that time and setup a slightly revised (read: shinier and more impressive) version of the preservation poster that we had displayed at Farmersville. Winds were horrible, so we just laid it on the table (we had two, so space was abundant). The poster and my binder filled with 8.5×11 inch vivid photos of Route 66 landmarks were well received, and Jaime Anderson had several posters filled with pictures from a number of Association events that represented the fun of the Mother Road in Illinois.

As we manned the fort and crept away at times to sample the other booths (including the amazing Association, Artisans, et cetera booths inside Victory Lane Ford) more and more classic cars lined up, Young Elvis performed and Bigfoot smashed cars as a great crowd turned out on a beautiful day. We picked up a copy of Skip Curtis’s Show Me State guide at the Missouri Association booth (to complement his History of Springfield, MO book I’ve owned for a while) to aid us in the trip down the road in Missouri that we hope to take in the next several months.

At night attention turned to the banquet, with dinner catered by JoDannis of Benld. Amazing pasta, and even better chicken. After Michael Wallis gave a stirring speech reminding us just why we love Route 66 and donate so much of our time and energy, he and Jim Conkle handed out the eight awards for 2008:

New Business of the Year: Four Women on the Route
Founders: David Clark
Person of the Year: Ron Warnick
Business of the Year: The Ariston Cafe
Wallis 66: Emily Priddy
Cyrus Avery Preservation: Trailnet
Life Time Achievement: Tommy & Glenda Pike
Will Rogers Award: Swa Frantzen

The festival went off quite well, and with next year’s event scheduled for Flagstaff, Arizona in September ‘09 I really hope that we can make the trip. My prose in reporting on the events here is far from as luxurious as the Association’s Motor Tour a fortnight past, but the past few days have been tiring and I look forward to settling back into regular life.

Not that the work ever really ends. Along with stopping by a few businesses in the area before long, I have ideas for a podcast/weekly four or five minute radio show that I’ve been kicking around that need formally developed sooner than later. We’ll see.