Coffee With Jim

Pink Elephants and Aliens, August 31, 2025

Take one high school built in 1929. Transform it into a 30,000 square foot antique shopping mall. Add the ambition and imagination of Tonia and Wayne Pickerill. The result is one of the quirkiest family fun stops on Route 66, The Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston Illinois. An ecclectic collection of historic fiberglass giants, the Mother Road Fudge Factory and Candy Shop and The Twistee Treats Diner provide a glimpse at what makes this a destination for kids of all ages.

And then there are the festivals that celebrate UFO's, Bigfoot, and Route 66. Curious? Today's conversation with Wayne Pickerill will surely inspire a road rip or two. Come along for the ride. After all, it's a shared adventure!

Next week on Coffee With Jim we will be visiting with Rhys Martin, President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and manager of the Preserve Route 66 Initiative at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Martin's infectious enthusiasm will have you looking at Route 66 and your community in a whole new way. Invite your friends! 

Code Talkers & Route 66, August 24, 2025

Navajo code talkers. Route 66 as the quintessential American road trip. Small town America and big cities. The international fascination with Route 66, that highways future, and the endangered small business.

Our conversation with Jonathan Bullington, a Chicago Tribune senior reporter, on this episode of Coffee With Jim, the weekly podcast from Jim Hinckley's America, provides a different perspective on the Route 66 experience. Bullington recently wrote the first articles in a series about his odyssey along Route 66, and the people met along the way.  

Jonathan Bullington is no stanger to the sharing of adventures, to finding people with fascinating stories, or to providing inspiration through the telling of a good story. He previously worked at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and at The Courier Journal in Louisville where he was part of a team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. Those experiences provided him with an ability to find stories often overlooked during his first Route 66 odyssey. 

Today's program is sponsored in part by supporters of Jim Hinckley's America through Patreon. It is also sponsored by the Cactus Inn Motel, McLean, Texas, RouteTrip USA, iconic Wagon Wheel Motel, Roadrunner Lodge Motel in Tucumcari, Gilligan's Route 66 Tours, Enchanted Trails Trading Post and RV Park in Albuquerque, Deana Nelson - State Farm Insurance Agent, and Two Lane America.