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 ‘Blues Brothers’ make pit stop on Route 66 road rally

By Paul Westermeyer

Posted Apr 14, 2018 at 1:26 PM

With 201 miles to St. Louis, a half-tank of gas, sans cigarettes in broad daylight, the duo of John Freedlund and Brian Meeks were close-but-no-cigar as Jake and Elwood, respectively. But to their credit, they were, in fact, wearing sunglasses and admitted hating Illinois Nazis, so the cosplay wasn’t a complete bust.

The “Blues Brothers” getups were themes the two chose for Freedlund’s Phlatlanders Route 66 Fire Road Rally Extravaganza — the first, he said Friday, of its kind.
“I heard a road rally story maybe five or six years ago, and I took that idea and found a network of like-minded individuals and followed some instructions to get this going,” he stated.

The rules, as described by Freedlund, a Lombard resident, compelled those taking part to take Friday off of work so that participants could spend the full three-day weekend traversing Route 66, starting in Joliet, rounding through St. Louis for a hotel pitstop, then stopping in Indianapolis before heading back to Peoria.
But the trip was to be anything but a pleasant cruise through cornfields, as Freedlund noted that participant motorists had to fulfill certain checklist items and become jalopy jockeys by buying a $500-and-under beater for the trip.
“When you got your crew together and met at the starting line in Joliet, you got a packet of information that you follow along the route and make stops at places that were predetermined, and you get a certain number of points,” he said. “You could take a picture with a random person, you get points if you dress up as a theme, and you can get more points if you can get random people to dress up as well.
“As far as the $500 cars, we wanted to have a bit of nostalgia back to a time when we were younger and this is the kind of thing we were driving. Part of the road rally is to go, but go prepared, and make sure your car isn’t going to breakdown in the middle of this thing. You’d hate to have to call (the American Automobile Association) in the middle of this thing.
Freedlund admitted some disappointment by the lower-than-expected turnout of participants, with only enough cars to count on one hand, but had high hopes for the second annual Fire Road Rally Extravaganza, which he dreamed of getting as many as 50 cars. However, for the first rally, he was

glad to have a weekend to share with his father, John Sr., and his friend.
“We’ve known each other for 18 years, we catch up maybe once a year, and this is a great reason to get together,” agreed Meeks.
While there would be prizes at the end for the points, Freedlund did add that the trip wasn’t just a fun adventure to have with family, friends and other interested participants — at the end, the cars and the money invested in them would be donated to charities, such as Kars4Kids and the Daughters of Naomi women’s shelter. And to what did “Jake” owe this beneficence?
“We’re on a mission from God.”