DETOURS TRAVEL
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October 25, 2022

Historic Red Rooster Inn Opens to Light of a New Day

The Historic Red Rooster as the Hillsboro Hotel in the early 1900s.

We are privileged to have our “Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers” book party become the first public event at the Historic Red Rooster Inn in  Hillsboro, Il. The town of Hillsboro (pop. 6,100) is a town of wonder and it is about an hour’s drive south of Springfield, Il.

The Red Rooster building turns 120  years old on Nov. 21. It opened as the Hillsboro Hotel and the initials were carved into the anchor post of the lobby staircase. They can still be seen today. The free event begins at 7 p.m. on Nov. [...]

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September 13, 2022

Grassroots Baseball on Route 66: The game goes on forever

A Tesuque Pueblo player during a pickup game on July 4, 2021 at the Pueblo in Santa Fe, NM. The Tesuques play in the All Indian League, an adult baseball league that includes pueblos across New Mexico. (Courtesy of Jean Fruth)

 

Grassroots baseball players have always been highway gypsies.

They travel from diamond to diamond with jewels of their trade: bats that are needles of a mystic compass, gloves that try to catch all that goes by, and cleats that are as down and dirty as road tires. And when the journey is realized, the gypsy is safe at home.

The new Jean Fruth book “Grassroots Baseball: Route [...]

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July 18, 2022

Revive 66 Campground: A Soft Place to Land

 

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.–Out on the west side of Springfield, Mo., there is a new campground called Revive 66. It is along a forsaken stretch of Route 66.  Some dreams died here. Others moved on. The campground is across the Chestnut Expressway from the Orchard Hills pharmacy and flower shop. The campground is adjacent to the Redwood Motel, a separately owned transient lodge where a sign suggests “Try Jesus.”

Revive 66 is a landing place for the homeless.

It is one of the most innovative projects to serve the homeless in America.

People sleep in one of 43 new solar-powered teardrop campers. It is the first solar-powered RV park in the United [...]

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April 6, 2022

The Camelot of Cassettes

National Audio Company projects (D. Hoekstra photo)

 

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Rewind.

The National Audio Company near downtown Springfield does more than backtrack the past as the largest manufacturer of cassette tapes in the world. Vintage maple desktops in the company’s first-floor office have classic pink “While You Were Out” notepads. Employees still come to offices and answer phones at National Audio,  just a country heartbeat from the birthplace of Route 66.

Company president Steve Stepp is a model train buff and sings the praises of songwriter Neil Young, a long-time Lionel train collector, [...]

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