Chicago Public Radio producer Gianofer Fields interviews road warrior and author Tim Steil about Route 66 in an “Eight Forty-Eight” segment.

You can listen to an Mp3 of the segment here, or you can listen to a RealAudio stream here.

The new second installment of Russell A. Olsen’s “Route 66 Lost and Found” book (160 pages, $32) made me realize how far the renaissance of the Mother Road has come and how very far it still has to go.

For those who are unfamiliar with his books, Olsen finds vintage photographs of businesses along Route 66, then shoots a photo — often from the same angle — of that same business in the current day. A good example is shown above, of the Blue Dome Station in Tulsa in 1949 and the Blue Dome Station now. The text that accompanies the photos provides a concise and informative history of the property.

But “Route 66 Lost and Found” breaks hearts, too. Little is left of the once-thriving Indian Trails Trading Post near Lupton, Ariz., except for a rocky butte that overlooks it. The Arrow-Head Camp in Glorieta, N.M., is in ruins amid weeds and trees. The Spring River Inn in Riverton, Kan., is little more than a vacant lot. Little is left of the Rio Puerco Trading Post in New Mexico. Road Runner’s Retreat in Amboy, Calif., is abandoned and crumbling. In some ways, “Route 66 Lost and Found” is like a real-life companion to James Taylor’s somber “Our Town” song from the “Cars” movie.

But what also struck me was how much optimism I found in the book, just two years after Olsen’s last volume. Ambler’s Texaco gas station in Dwight, Ill., is set to be renovated and become a Route 66 interpretive center. Odell Station in Odell, Ill., Magnolia Station in Vega, Texas, and Soulsby’s Service Station in Mount Olive, Ill., have been lovingly restored. Palms Grill Cafe in Atlanta, Ill., is being renovated after years of neglect. The Blue Dome of Tulsa sits amid a rapidly improving business district. The Flying C Ranch in Palma, N.M., bears little resemblance to its old self but continues to thrive. De Anza Motor Lodge in Albuquerque is about to be reborn.

In Olsen’s Afterword, he updates readers on changes to properties featured in the first volume. The Wishing Well Motel in Countryside, Ill., is endangered after longtime owner Zora Vidas died. The Winona Trading Post has changed from a Texaco to a Shell but is otherwise the same. The Log Cabin Lodge in Gallup, N.M., continued to decline and was razed. Shady Rest Court in Tulsa was bulldozed after it deteriorated into an unsanitary flophouse.

The book ends on an optimistic note — the full restoration of the Cool Springs Camp near Kingman, Ariz., after some 40 years of neglect. As interest in Route 66 continues to grow, perhaps success stories like this one will become more common.

The Gillioz Theatre in Springfield, Mo., opened on Route 66 on Oct. 12, 1926 — one day after Route 66 was given its name.

The Gillioz, which is on the St. Louis Street alignment of Route 66, is set to reopen exactly 80 years after its opening night, after more than 16 years and $10 million worth of remodeling.

Here’s a bit of history on the Gillioz’s Web site:

With 1200 seats, an orchestra pit, a Wurlitzer theatre organ and the very latest in projection equipment, the Gillioz was the largest and finest theatre in Southwest Missouri. Originally designed for both stage shows and silent films, sound equipment was soon added to accommodate the new “talkies”. The Gillioz was operating only as a movie house at the time it was closed in 1979. It stood empty only a few years before the Springfield Landmarks Preservation Trust acquired it and began the effort to salvage and restore it to its former glory.

Today major renovations are underway at the Gillioz Theatre as a neighboring building with its 27,000 square feet of space is being incorporated into the original footprint.

This addition, called the Jim D. Morris Center for the Arts, will accommodate the theatres offices, modern rest room facilities, a restaurant, a bar, and a grand ballroom. These renovations will allow the Gillioz Theatre to once again become the community asset that it once was, bringing theatre, music, movies, entertainment and the arts back to Springfield’s downtown.

The vintage photographs of the theater came from the Web site, also.

Dr. Richard Aiken, who’s informed me about this, is on the board for the Springfield Opera, which will eventually use the restored theatre. He tells me that Nancy Reagan is on the theatre’s honorary board because her husband, Ronald Reagan, stopped at the theatre a couple times to promote his movies when he was an actor.

Aiken also has told me that singer Brenda Lee, who got a big boost in her career on the Ozark Jubilee television show in Springfield, will be making an appearance.

Here’s also a blog about the Gillioz Theatre’s history and its ongoing restoration.

The Coney I-Lander at 7462 E. Admiral Place, which is along an old Route 66 alignment in Tulsa, is featured today in Jane and Michael Stern’s Roadfood.com.

Coney I-Lander also has a location on 2838 E. 11th St., also on Route 66.

The Sterns explain how the Coney I-Lander chili is unique:

The chili is vividly spiced but not tongue-tingling hot, and it is nothing like the stuff you would spoon up from a bowl as a meal. It is more a spicy beef paste, eminently suited as a dressing for a snappy little weenie or as a topping for a plate of tamales. A Coney I-Lander Coney is a two or three bite affair. Three or four are a modest meal in the single-digit price range; big eaters think nothing of having a half-dozen for lunch.

Get ‘em covered with grated cheese. And the Frito pie is aces, too.