Illinois, centennial year
The 2026 run
down the Mother Road.
Route 66 turns one hundred this November, and the Illinois stretch is throwing the party it deserves. I get to be there with my camera for four of those celebrations, and I do not take that lightly. My family spent eight years running the Skyview Drive-In right on the old road, so this stretch feels a lot like home. I know it by its side streets and its regulars, and it means the world to help tell its story in the year it all comes full circle.
The schedule
Where I will be standing.
Each entry links out to the organizer and, where the images are ready, straight to the gallery. Galleries for the events still to come go up within days of the last car leaving.
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July 31 and
August 12026Already shotPowerlight Abe Lincoln Car Show Spectacular
Cherry Hills Church, Springfield, Illinois. Two days of hoods up and chrome in the sun. Shot again this year, and the frames from it share a gallery with the Mother Road Festival.
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September
25 to 272026Already shotInternational Route 66 Mother Road Festival
Downtown Springfield, Illinois. The big one. Downtown closed, the streets filled with cars, and the centennial year made it the biggest one yet. Fifth straight year covering it.
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November 112026Next up
Illinois Route 66 Statewide Conference and Centennial Celebration
Motorhead's Bar and Grill, Springfield, Illinois. One hundred years to the day from the road being certified. The people who keep the Illinois stretch alive, in one room.
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November
20 to 222026On the scheduleInternational Route 66 Film Festival
Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 S. Sixth St., Springfield, Illinois. Three days at the Hoogland. Friday night from 7:00 to 10:30 PM, a full day of screenings on Saturday, and Sunday morning from 10:00 AM to noon. Filmmakers answering for their choices in front of a live room, and awards at the end of it.
Full event galleries live on ShootProof, where you can search for your own car, download what you find and order prints.
We have lived and worked along this road.
For eight years my family owned the Skyview Drive-In in Litchfield. Opened in 1950, on the original alignment, the last of the Route 66 drive-ins in Illinois still running, and an Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame inductee since 1998.
Running it took the whole family, a crew that worked every weekend of the season, and a community that kept supporting us by showing up. My part was the schedule, the marketing and helping build the events, carnivals and all. In 2020, when the schools had nowhere to hold a commencement, we put graduations on the lot, ran senior parades through it, screened movies of the graduating classes, and showed the school plays that could not be performed live that year on the big screen. In October 2022 Mobil 1 brought its Keep Route 66 Kickin' campaign to Litchfield for a Guinness World Records attempt, and together we set the record for the most dogs attending a film screening, 199 of them watching A Dog's Way Home against a previous mark of 120. That record was later broken in Los Angeles. It was set here first.
That is what I bring to every centennial event. You are hiring somebody who was part of the team that ran the gate, sold the tickets, moved the cars and got to watch what a Route 66 crowd does with a Saturday night.
For organizers and sponsors
Coverage that sells next year.
A photographer who only documents the day leaves you with an archive. What an organizer needs by Monday is the shot that fills the sponsor deck, enough frames to post through the winter, and one image good enough to make somebody in Missouri decide to drive out next year.
That is the difference the strategy side makes. Before the event I want to know who you have to impress afterward, which sponsors need to see their name in frame, and what the promotional calendar looks like for next spring. Then I shoot to that list.
I have sat in the organizer chair as well. Eight years of scheduling and promoting a Route 66 landmark, including carnivals, graduations on the lot, and a Guinness World Records night with Mobil 1 that put a town of seven thousand people in the national press. I know which images an organizer needs in hand on Monday morning.
Centennial year coverage is being booked now, and multi day and season long partnerships get quoted by proposal.
Where the work shows up first
Come along for the ride.
The Facebook page is now all things that give us energy: nature, travel and event photos from the last 15 years. Expect images from the Litchfield Skyview Drive-In days, lots of cars (maybe yours), nature, travel, and stories of and from the people we meet along the way. YouTube is where the reels and behind the scenes footage live.
Live from Facebook
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