Outside Stuff on Illinois' Route 66-- Part 3: Rock Run and Midewin Prairie

In case you get tired of riding in the car and want to stretch your legs.

ROCK RUN PRESERVE

3669 Black Road, Joliet

Explore Illinois as it was centuries ago at Rock Run Preserve, a wetland with direct access to the Illinois & Michigan Canal.  Conveniently located just outside Joliet, the park is a major destination for those looking to picnic, fish, hike and bike a rambling 329-acre site.

You'll find a diverse natural habitat featuring wetlands, prairie and forest landscapes open to the public year round.

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MIDEWIN NATIONAL TALLGRASS PRAIRIE

30239 S. Illinois Route 53 Route 66) , Wilmington

Known as "The Largest Prairie Restoration Site East of the Mississippi River," the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is also the single largest open space in Illinois.

It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and recognized as a U.S. National Grassland.  Bison were reintroduced on October 2015, making the gorgeous plot of prairie even more authentic.

They have nature talks and guided car tours.

--RoadDog

Bison Roaming Over a Bridge on Mississippi River?-- Part 2: The Fred Schwengel Memorial Bridge

The I-80 bridge's westbound lanes would turn into grassy grounds for bison to roam.  The eastbound lanes would feature a pedestrian and bike path offering a close-up view of the large land mammals that are estimated to at one time to have numbered over 60 million in North America.

Swaths of prairie land would connect to the base of the bridge on each side of the buffalo lanes.

The Fred Schwengel Memorial Bridge that carries I-80 over the Mississippi River opened in 1966 and was  named for a local Iowa Republican congressman who was instrumental in backing the Interstate Highway Act.  Each day, roughly 42,000 vehicles drive over the more than half mile long bridge, which connects Rapid City, a small Illinois town of about 1,000 people, and LeClaire, a quaint city of aboutb 4,000 in Iowa.

--RoadBison

News From Along Route 66, April 2016: Gay Parita Reopens

APRIL 14--  Braidwood, Illinois, resident Chris Farley wants a preservation ordinance for the town along the Route 66 corridor.  The Polk-A-Dot Drive-In is probably the best known site in town, but there are also others.

APRIL 15--  Gary Turner's daughter has reopened his Gay Parita stations.  it was closed for the past 15 months after his death at age 70.  She quit her long-time job in Charleston, S.C., to move back.  And, we're so thankful.

APRIL 17--  Midewin Tallgrass Prairie is now the leading bison town in Illinois.  It is located near Joliet in the former Joliet Arsenal.  There is another large buffalo preserve near Franklin Grove, Illinois, near the Lincoln Highway.

--RoadDog

News from Along Route 66: October 2015

From the Route 66 news site.

OCTOBER 23--  More Route 66 adventures in a 1959 Cadillac.  These movies were taken 1994-1995 at Hackberry General Store in Arizona and feature good old Bob Waldmire.

OCTOBER 24--  Bison reintroduced at Midewin Prairie near Joliet, Illinois.  Bringing it all back.

OCTOBER 29--  A look inside Bob Waldmire's bus in Pontiac, Illinois.  We never saw the bus, but sure saw that old VW van of his often.

 Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, is 50 years old.  Always impressive and we hope to go up in it eventually but you have to get tickets way ahead of time.

OCTOBER 31--  A group wants to remove Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, Texas.  They call themselves Erase Marsh Madness because Marsh, the creator, has been sued for multiple counts of sexual abuse of underage boys.  Regardless, I would hate to gave the site removed.  Perhaps take his name off it.

The new 5,000 square-foot Pops store has opened at 6447 Avondale in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma, just north of Oklahoma City.  It features 600 different varieties of pop, or do you call it soft drinks.  The first one is in Acadia.  Just another place to see on the road.

--RoadDog

Lincoln Highway's Baby Bison in Illinois: First Born Wild in Nearly Two Centuries

From the April 9, 2015, Chicago Tribune "A Great Thing to See."

A bison calf was born early Monday April 6 and was pictured staying near its mother as it walks with the herd.  It was born at the Nachusa Grasslands, near Franklin Grove, Illinois, (headquarters of the Lincoln Highway Association).

The site hosted what may be the first birth of a wild bison east of the Mississippi River in nearly two centuries.  The bison on this land are treated as wild animals, roaming what soon will be 1,500 acres and touched by people only once a year for a veterinary checkup.

Conservationists say bison are a crucial role in the restoration of the prairie, which once spread across 22 million acres -- about 60% -- of Illinois.

"It is a great thing to see these animals being restored to the land," one bison expert said.

"Where the Buffalo Roam."  --RoadDog