Two teams from the Chicagoland MG club met in Saint Louis to participate in the Thirteenth running of the Missouri Endurance Rally. The MER is a test of navigational skills as well as the mettle of cars and drivers. The father/son team of Mark and Mark Michalak join Kim Tonry and me for a fun adventure traveling the roads of Missouri. Robert Rushing, rallymaster, always includes stops all around the state. The two Marks were driving a red MGA coupe this year, Kim and I were in my green MGB. We had twelve stops to make in the twenty-four hours allotted for the rally.
Kim and I left early Friday morning and decided to drive a portion of the old Illinois section of Route 66. We picked up the old road at I-55 and Joliet road north of Joliet. We drove through Joliet and stopped at some of the remaining landmarks along the route. We did photo stops at the Rocketman café in Manhattan with its giant man statue. We passed the Dixie Cup in Braidwood and stopped at a restored gas station in Odell. Alas, the old Pig Hip restaurant burned to the ground in March of 2007. All that is left is a bronze plaque to commemorate its existence. We stopped at the octagonal public library (now a museum) in Atlanta, Illinois. The years have not been great to old Route 66, but if you look you can still find a lot of the old Mother Road. Over the five years I have been driving MER, I have enjoyed driving sections of the original