(idyllic music) - Hi there, welcome to Pontiac.

This is the Route 66 Museum Hall for the state of Illinois.

We have an exhibit starting in C and as you're moving around the it's like you're traveling towards St.

Louis.

(idyllic music continues) - Hi, I'm Rose, the boss lady, but they call me a docent.

Here's your passport.

I've already stamped it.

You are at the Route 66 Museum in Pontiac, Illinois.

The Route 66 Museum is a history of Route 66, and ours is just in Illinois, and it goes from Chicago to St.

- It's a place for travelers, people to come and reflect and remember Route 66.

And particularly they're remembering that era from post-World War II to the decommissioning.

(idyllic music continues) We have memorabilia from the Ria which is in our Hall of Fame, Rialto Theater in Joliet.

And when we come in, there's a d We've got a lot of things from the movie "Cars."

It's there for a purpose.

If you bring young kids in, they look around, it's not going to grab their interest right away.

But if they see the things from and they remember the movie "Car they're attracted to that.

Then you tell them this van was the concept for Fillmore and you Then they start looking around for other cool stuff.

This is Bob Waldmire's van.

He traveled in it all over Route 66 for many years.

People come from all over to see It's an interesting, interesting place to look at.

You can't imagine anyon actually want to live in there, but he did.

Bob Waldmire was from Springfiel His folks ran the Cozy Dog.

He decided early on that he wanted to do artwork, and he didn't want to be confined to one place.

He wanted to be on the road.

So he started out going really to college towns selling all sorts of artwork, but he was really good at drawing bird's eye view of towns like Normal and Macomb and Charleston.

And people bought them.

Businesses bought them to promote their business, and eventually he decided h was going to do more than that.

He went west, and he was there for a while, but he found that he didn't have time to do his artwork.

So he packed up and moved to the southeast corner of Arizo in the Chiricahua Mountains.

First vehicle was a Squareback V It got too small to carry all th So he bought this and drove that around everywhere.

He saw the bus in Grants, New Me and had an idea that he would convert it into his home.

So he did.

He bought it in Grants, took it back to Springfield towing the van, and they converted it into a bus with a whole second floor on it, and then he took it back.

And when he'd go back and forth between Illinois and Arizona, he would take that.

- It's probably one of the biggest museums in Illinois.

I've had as many as 1 different countries in one day, and I've had as many as 777 people in one day.

We're just so lucky to have it here, you know, but to bring all these people here and it's just amazing.

- You got to have some connection to the past, some appreciation of the past to understand the present and look forward to the future.

Come out and see it.

Great exper