We visited the very cool town of Pontiac, Illinois today on Route 66. The whole down town has been carefully redone to reflect the town’s pride in their history as a stop on Route 66. There is a walking path made with painted feet on the sidewalks leading you to the various historical sites and museums. In the space of two city blocks, we visited the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, The Pontiac Oakland Automobile Museum and the Livingston County War Museum. We only missed the Mural Museum, however we walked/drove around and saw many, many murals painted on buildings.
The Livingston County War museum was PACKED full of donated items of local military people representing every conflict/war. There were rows and rows of actual uniforms with the owner’s picture and news article or bio clipped to it. Made the experience very real.

The other museum was a tribute to the Pontiac car line and had representations from all eras starting with a Pontiac model horse drawn buggy. That museum was a boys dream also!


In walking around Pontiac, IL today, we learned about the most interesting artist. His name was Bob Waldmire. He quite the hippy vagabond and talented artist. He is famous for drawing the cartoon maps of Route 66. He lived in a school bus that was converted into a rolling cabin. He also had a micro mini bus for traveling around that was also a rolling home.

When he passed away in December 2009, he donated his art and two buses to the Rte 66 museum in Pontiac. The museum’s curator told us that Disney approached him when they were making the movie “Cars” and gave him a 3 million dollar check to own the rights to portray one of the characters as Bob’s minivan. They then told him that it would become a toy in McDonald’s Happy Meals. Bob was a strict vegetarian and tore the 3 million dollar check up in front of them. Disney went ahead with their idea but called the character “Fillmore” instead of “Waldmire”. Bob drew a funny cartoon of Waldmire meeting Fillmore. Imagine that all of your possessions were contained in a school bus that could pick up and go any time with your art supporting your minimalist existence. Did not need the 3 million dollars. His family, on the other hand, was a might disappointed.
You can see a ton of pictures of the inside of the school bus towards the end of Bob’s life: