Illinois Route 66 - Broadwell

BROADWELL, ILLINOIS. This early morning on Route 66 was a bit sad for me. All that was left on the site of Ernie Edward's Pig Hip Restaurant Museum, always a special stop on old 66, was a memorial stone and a tattered flag flying at half staff. The famous old restaurant sign was missing, and the grounds were a bit overgrown, even around Ernie's adjacent back porch. I knew that the restaurant had burned to the ground back in 2007, and the stone explained the particulars of that marvelous Route 66 attraction. But it was Ernie that I missed, and the lowered flag in his honor was a reminder that he had passed on just a few months before. I was thinking that it would have been nice to hear Ernie tell the story of how the Pig Hip got its name, just one more time.