Our first meal after leaving Crystal Lake for our Intermountain West vacation in June was the Happy Trails Roadside Diner.

This was the same place I found Illinois’ future.

It was a truck stop with a roomful of slot machines.

Any kid could walk into it.

It had 1950’s decorations like this girls bike with balloon tires.

And, these signs. Not an original among them, I’d bet.

Since “Happy Trails to You” was the theme song for Roy and Dale Rogers, I expected to see something relating to my favorite cowboy in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. Why it was one his first color movies that I took Barbara Newell to on my first date (17 cent entry fee, plus candy) in 4th or 5th grade. (She and I played Monopoly after school for weeks on end.)

When I asked, the waitress told me there was nothing about Roy Rogers in the restaurant.

Bummer.