On the way home from the Red Carpet Corridor on Sunday, we decided to go out of our way and visit the Riviera in Gardner, Illinois. It was one of our favorite places and I'd heard they were open again.
This is a bit out of our way as we usually take Il-47 at Dwight to get home. We were disappointed to find it closed, but hoped that maybe they just weren't open on Sundays. We WERE REALLY happy to see that the entrance by the road had been paved. There was some big-time potholes where we bottomed out whenever I would forget about them.
The place looked a bit run-down and there was a chain across the backyard where the diner is located.
Today, I read in the Route 66 Yahoo E-Mail group that the owner and town are having some serious problems and it is closed for now. Let's hope they work it out. They need each other, especially now that the town has all that great Route 66 signage and even shields on the road.
We were "forced" to cruise on up the road to Braidwood where we were "forced" to stop at the Polka-Dot and had the first banana split I can remember having in a long tine. It was huge and had two halves of a banana in it and was around $3.60.
This is a Special Place. --RoadDog
RoadDog's RoadLog Blog: Being my travels down those great two lane highways of this nation as well as news I learn about them from media sources. Since I'm also very interested in historic preservation, there will be a lot of that as well.
The Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan, Missouri. It can be yours for $125,000. Lots of possibilities. Actually, now you're too late. Missouri's Roamin' Rich bought it.
2 comments:
Sad news on the Riviera Restaurant in Gardner, Illinois. It caught on fire during the evening of June 8th 2010. It looks like a total loss. Hopefully the historic dining car in back of it was saved but weren't able to get close enough to see. I waitressed there over the last 8 years. I am saddened at the loss of history that went with it. People from all over the world came there. My thoughts and prayers are with the past owners that have been there since the 70's. They are great people.
Little did we kinow thta was going to be the last time we'd ever see the old place.
But, we sure had some great times in it with Peggy and Bob.
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