October 6th, 2005
October 7th, 2005
October 8th, 2005
October 9th, 2005
October 10th, 2005
October 11th, 2005
October 12th, 2005
October 13th, 2005
October 14th, 2005
October 15th, 2005
October 16th, 2005
October 17th, 2005
October 18th, 2005
October 19th, 2005
October 20th, 2005
October 21th, 2005
  10/7/05 - Springfield, IL

Wow, talk about déjà vu, it was another banner first day again. We woke up to bad weather, and tons of traffic, tech melt downs and such, but after a fun sendoff with Greg we headed south out of town. Route 66 winds its way southwest of Chicago, it probably made a whole lot of sense when it was planned but now it is a zig-zag through places that time has unfortunately passed by. Relics still exist and are kept alive, showing what is truly American, something we can all be proud of and aspire to. (One of the people responsible for keeping us on track will make an appearance later, so, pay attention)

We stopped at the Launching Pad for lunch, swingin Bar B Que, underneath the giant. “Take us to you leader…dude” The weather and our schedule precluded any hits on the street, but we were ready just in case. Then, we got to Funks Grove home of the best maple sirup (sic) but they were sold out for the season, just gotta hang around until the sap runs…uh uh, this sap ran instead, I’ll cop on the internet.

We sped into Springfield, one of our best hits on the original challenge, to the warm and generous greeting of Uncle Lew Grigsby, a fine trumpet player ands country lawyer, who I know from hanging out in Monterey, he comes and plays at the Dixieland Festival. He put us up at the Route 66 Hotel, and set us up at Gabbatoni’s a swingin pizza place that adopted quite well to Cow-lifornia swing, and Lew and Kevin Cox made a few cameos. Our friend from the last trip Dr. Jim Bonacum came by, hung like a champ and made probably the quote of the tour while Greg was videoing: “I always listen to Cow Bop while cloning DNA specimens, and my experiments always turn out successful. I think all scientists should listen to Cow Bop during their experiments…in fact, I think Cow Bop should get the Nobel prize for their contribution to the field of science,” or something like that…wow! It just goes to show: 1 out of 1 doctors dig Cow Bop!

Palomino Patty came by, and she was the director of the Route 66 Heritage Project and very instrumental (pun intended) in making sure the road is well marked, a number of times during the day when we thought we might have been off course we found a sign and said: Thanks Patty!” People like her, who love our heritage and embrace the spirit of the road, which is about connecting with new people, new places and our historical legacy make these trips so special and why we continue to do them, along with supporting JazzMasters Workshop.

Wanda, who heads the Springfield Jazz Society brought a whole contingent by the gig and donated to the program, man, this is so great, but I must remember last year, and don’t get too cocky. Gotta keep it goin, but I promise you Springfield is a town we’ll return to, and not soon enough!

Greg has been a most important element of our trip. Of coursed, he represents our travel and tech sponsor SCO, and is documenting a lot of the beginning of the voyage but he is doing so much more than that, everything from front man, to support staff, to bodyguard and guardian angel, they don’t come any better than him…thanks Greg!…I don’t know how we’ll manage without you!

Well, it’s getting late and we have a date at the Cozy Dog Diner (where the corn dog was invented) so gotta get some rest, stay tuned we’re just heatin up here. Got a gig out in Dawson tomorrow then we continue south, to the world’s biggest catsup bottle, and I thought every day was going to be like this?!

A gentle reminder: We are doing this to support JazzMasters Workshop, a no charge music-mentoring programs for kids. Please consider a per mile pledge, we’d appreciate it. You can do it right from this site! Thanks!