Outside Chicago, wondering what people find most attractive about Route 66 in the Midwest, I visited the man who wrote the book about Route 66 in Illinois, John Weiss. He had recently been involved in restoring an old gas station, and I wondered why someone would give up their days and their weekends to rebuilding and repainting a gas pump. A past president of the Illinois Route 66 Association, John is muscular, with curly brown hair swept back over his forehead. He looked like John Travolta portraying President Clinton. His slim wife Lenore had a permanently youthful look and light, blond-streaked hair. "How did you manage to write Traveling Historic Route 66 in Illinois?"

"It only took me eight months. I carried a tape recorder and recorded what I saw as I drove." "Can there be too much development on Route 66?" "No," they both shake their heads. "After all, that’s the way Route 66 started. What’s the big deal? The road was always about some people traveling and others earning a living from the travelers."

Of course one can take preservation too far: should we dig up the freeway to restore Route 66? Should we then dig up Route 66, in order to restore older Indian trails? John and Lenore Weiss are boosters. They just want the world to know that Illinois is not only where the old road began, it has some of its most lovely sites in a quiet, rolling Midwestern way.