Episode 59: Bob Navarro
Rachel: Welcome to Redbird Buzz. I'm Rachel Kobus from University Marketing and Communications. After a short hiatus, we are back with new episodes of Redbird Buzz and ready to share more incredible stories from beyond the quad. So, let's start with Dr. Bob Navarro. Bob earned his bachelor's in social sciences, his master's in recreation, and his doctorates in educational administration from Illinois State University. He started his career in Illinois State's university housing before heading to DuPage Children's Museum, then to University Center in Chicago, and for the past 20 years has been working as the CEO of the Heritage Corridor Conventions and Visitors Bureau. When it comes to travel and experiences, Bob knows a thing or two about how to make the most of a trip as he works on attracting tourists from across the world to destinations in Illinois, including a special celebration that connects to our Red Bird community, the Route 66 centennial celebration.
Well, we love a good celebration. We love history, and we love knowing we have Bob Navarro here with us today to talk about both as it relates to Route 66 and more. So, Bob, what's the word, Redbird? Tell us a little bit about yourself,
Bob: A little bit about myself. Let's see, I'm a first-generation college student, did my bachelor's, master's, and PhD from Illinois State.
Rachel: Love it,
Bob: But your question about Redbird, and, you know, I think to me it just means pride, connection, and certainly memories. So, when I talk about Redbird, there's there there are folks that I share memories with when we were in school there, or people that I worked with, or just experiences and my time working there. So I think for for me it goes back to memories, connection to the university, and what's happening there. And then just pride. I'm excited when people talk about Illinois State or Redbirds. In fact, tonight I'm meeting some people I met my freshman year in West Campus. We're meeting up for dinner, and we haven't seen each other in about five years, so we're excited about that.
Rachel: Oh, well, my alumni heart loves hearing that too. So, and actually, you, you kicked me off really well with a question I had. So, and I really punny during this episode with saying the word you say Route 66 it's not Route 66 Route 66 right? Said how you…
Bob: Well, people say it both ways, and it depends on how you're using it, so either way is correct. It's, you know, it's a, it's, you know, both pronunciations are correct, but I guess it depends on what I'm doing when I say Route 66 or other times I say Route 66 so I do say it both ways.
Rachel: Yes, we're going to get into that with some of these questions, but for my first one, though, it's about everyone has a place to start on their route. So I want to start with yours. So your career began as an assistant director for Illinois State University's Housing University Housing Services, and then moved forward through a path to now being president of Heritage Corridor, so what were the different points in your career that made you go, I want to try housing, now I want to try this, now I want to do tourism, now I want. So how did you get to where you are, I guess?
Bob: Well, I guess I was one of those students that didn't quite know what I wanted to do, but I, but as an undergrad, I was a resident assistant, and being a resident assistant, we were exposed to a lot of training, a lot of programming, really connecting us to campus, and resident assistant paid the room and board, so that was very helpful to me, and so I spent a lot of time doing what I needed to do to be a good RA, I was an RA in Manchester Hall for six semesters, or what have you, but also in the summers I would work for the housing office, doing their summer conferencing programs, so we did housing and dining for the cheerleading groups, the sports camps, the educational camps, and conferences that go through preview, just a variety of summer camps and conferences, and so I really, you know, like I said before, I was first-generation student, so Mom and Dad weren't real helpful trying to figure out where I was going to go to school and what I was going to do, so I was really intrigued by students' prior exposure to campus, whether that was through a summer camp, you know, they came and did a cheerleading camp, or maybe they came to campus for a concert, or maybe they came to campus and did some research in our Miller Library, or something. So, I was really interested in students' prior exposure to campus and their decision to either go to school or decide to go to Illinois State, and so that was just kind of always in the back of my mind, but I took a semester off my junior year, and I went and worked at Walt Disney World. I did the college program at Walt Disney World, and that, I mean, I knew it was temporary, so we had a great time, every day was a great experience, and from my apartment I could see the fireworks at Pleasure Island. I know I've just dated myself, because Pleasure Island isn't there anymore, but we had a great time at Disney, and so that internship was through the recreation department. So when I finished my bachelor's, which was social sciences, history, political history, political science, economics, and sociology. So, when I finished my bachelor's, and I was still working for the school, for Illinois State, doing for the housing office as a grad assistant, I was their recycling coordinator, and I took classes under the recreation department, and kind of created worked with professors like Sandy Little and Doug Turco, and created a tourism emphasis, which I assume did not have.
Rachel: Yeah,
Bob: But it was in the recreation department, and I really like, I said, I was really interested in what people did when they, when they weren't at work, right, in their leisure time, their vacation, you know. What did people do? Our family was not a family that did annual vacations, and so it was, it was something unusual, but so I was really curious about that, and so my professors allowed me to kind of explore that a little bit, and during my master's program, and during that year, my master's thesis, when I was writing the thesis, I worked with the local Bloomington Normal Convention Visitors Bureau, and I took their names of people that requested information about Bloomington Normal. I took the names from, that they had in their database. I wrote those people a survey and asked them, did you come to Bloomington Normal, and if you did come to Bloomington Normal, what did you do when you, when you came to the community? And then I divided, then I was able to define three different market segments of what people did when they came to the area, and so I was just really interested in that. That was really fascinating, working with the Convention Visitors Bureau, and finding out, you know, that people came one just to spend time with family and friends to rest and relax, and really just kind of not do much of anything.
Rachel: Yeah, okay.
Bob: And I think that that's very common with when people travel, you know. I know when I travel, maybe I'll see friends or relatives, and we just kind of hang out. Or another segment was there, they had some sort of connection to the university, so they were doing some research, or they were there for they were there for a concert or a camp or something, so they wanted to know more about it. And then the other group was they wanted to experience as much of the local culture as possible, so they were interested in very local restaurants, locally owned shops, you know, what Milner Park Zoo had to offer, you know, what were some of the activities that, that locals, that locals did, and so, so I was just fascinated by that whole thing, as a, for my master's area. I guess back to get answer your question, when I left Illinois State, I worked with the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville. I was their first employee in their new building, and we were opening up a brand new three story building for children, and I was in charge of the facility, but also outside rentals, so I would work with the corporations that wanted to rent the facility out for like team building or events, so I did all the corporate rentals, I did some of the local facility rentals of the of the space, as well as getting the facility ready, like the landscaping, HVAC, the exhibits, the maintenance, all that kind of stuff. So I was there for a couple years, and one day took a day off and went with my parents to Chicago, and we got off the train, and I saw that they were building a new building, and I went, we just looked at the name of it, it said University Center, and I said, "I wonder what that is?” So I did some research, and University Center was a was a new housing building that was going to be opened by an entity to provide housing to Columbia, Roosevelt, and DePaul universities.
Rachel: Okay, yeah.
Bob: I said, "What a cool place to work, downtown Chicago. How fun would that be, right?” It was right on State Street. And so I applied to work at University Center, and I was their first paid employee in the building. Had to wear the hard hat to work every day, because I was still building the building. But I, so when I started working there, we had, like, an executive director of the whole property, and then we had three directors: we had a director of residence life, we had a director of facilities, and then we had a director of operations, and I was the director of operations, so I was liaison between each of the three schools, and in addition to that, I managed their conference facility that they had on their second floor.
Rachel: Alright.
Bob: I had a conference center on the second floor where we did onsite housing, dining, meeting rooms, that kind of stuff, and so I was still kind of connected to this whole conference, and there we hosted some sort of tourism event, and I met some folks from Joliet, and I said there was a job open with their Convention Visitors Bureau, and I said, “Joliet has a convention visitors bureau.? I had no idea!” So I applied, and it was several months later. Several months later, they offered me this position. So I'm actually celebrating my 20th year next month for 20 years with the CVB. So yeah, so I went from Illinois State to DuPage Children's Museum to University Center to here.
Rachel: And here you are. No big deal as a CEO, as a president, doing your thing. It's fine, and it's just funny, though. I mean, besides like conferences and tourism, the fact that you kind of, you stuck with housing for a lot of it too, and just that having that two passions of working here, starting Illinois State, led you down all these different paths, and it kind of just sounds like falling into, you know, like, oh, this is interesting, oh, this is interesting. The travel you did kind of like started you in all your different careers too. So.
Bob: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I always felt that those students that were on campus tended to, to actually finish their degrees, return to campus, they had access to not just on-campus resources, but other students that were going through what they were going through, and so I really felt that the, the on-campus residential experience was really important to students and important to their student success, and having them graduate, so that was that. Yeah, I enjoyed that, and being able, being part of opening a brand new residence hall in downtown Chicago for three schools was. Now, it was private housing, it wasn't owned by the school, and it wasn't a public university, Columbia, Roosevelt, and Paul, but it was just a great experience. We had suites, and we had apartments, we did programming for them, and we were right downtown, in the heart of it all, right on State Street. From my office, I could look down State Street, and when it was snow in winter, you could kind of see the snow falling down on the trees, and on State Street, it was just a great place to work. I enjoyed
Rachel: Magical. Oh, I love it. So, you know, thinking more.. I kind of said this. Housing is also a perfect place to start when it comes to visitor experiences. So, looking back, how has managing different forms of living and student life helped with you creating visitor experiences across various counties and across the state.
Bob: Well, so much of what we did with student in the residence halls and even with summer conferences was around customer service and diversity training, and those things have really kind of been threaded into all the positions that I've done, you know, so much of trying to understand what's, you know, what's best for the traveler, what's best for the destination, is understanding, you know, what are their, what are their expectations, where they're trying to get out of this, and where can we, we meet them with the resources that we have, and so the, it's really the customer service training, the diversity training, you know, the mentors that I had at Illinois State in the housing office, Floyd Holting, Jude Boyer, Maureen Blair, Mindy Mancialarty, Pat Barr, Greg Alt. I mean, just great, great group of folks that really just kind of helped me grow there in my position at Illinois State, and then you know the customer service and diversity that we did there. Actually, when I came up this way after I left there, I actually taught both marketing and diversity for the local junior college as an adjunct faculty member for like two years.
Rachel: Okay, that's great.
Bob: Those courses. Ao yeah, so they kind of related and kind of was woven through in all three positions.
Rachel: Yeah, I love it. So, and then now you know we talked about visitor experiences, and this is what you've been doing, and I mean we can dive a little more into how what you do is just a piece of, you know, between the canal and Route 66 and whatnot, of making tourism for the state of Illinois, but there is a massive visitor experience that's underway with Route 66 Centennial happening this year, and it was great to have Bob come on here, because if you don't know, Route 66 also travels through Bloomington Normal, so it's a two for one, having Illinois State be in this community, having Route 66 go through this community, what better person to talk to than an alum that's experiencing it for us. So, can you share a little bit of how Heritage fits into the plan when it comes to the centennial of Route 66
Bob: Yeah, we've been, we've been planning for the centennial for several years, and so here in Illinois, we've been very fortunate. Four years ago, our state legislators allocated so many dollars to the CVBs along Route 66 for product development, and the first couple years for marketing and product development in our community. That money in our communities was so important, because we're talking about small towns along Route 66 that don't have access to these types of resources. You know, they don't have hotels, you know, they, they have a strip of a downtown and a main street area, and that's really about it, and so from this state grant we've been able to paint visitor centers add new windows, add new murals, add new photo opportunities. So much of what makes Route 66 popular are all those photo opportunities. So we added the shield, we added new signage, we've added a variety of things in a lot of our communities in preparation for this year, which is the Route 66 centennial. So I'm also on the State Route 66 commission, which is a governor-appointed commission to celebrate the route, and, as part of the commission, we're bringing, we're bringing festival and event money to our communities that they didn't have to help enhance either current events and festivals that they've had or events and festivals that are along the route that help promote the route beyond just this year, but there's a variety of things that are happening. Last week I was in Fort Lauderdale at IPW, which is US Travel Association's largest largest inbound trade show for booking international visitors into the United States, and so we met with international journalists, we met with international tourism offices, trade representative tour operators, and we're trying to book that business into the into the United States. Certainly, Route 66 goes through eight of our US states. It's about 2400 straight miles through, but there's about 3000 miles when you include all the different alignments. Starts in Chicago, ends in Santa Monica Pier, there's just a lot of connections for folks, and UK and Germany are the strongest inbound markets for Illinois, and they're also the strongest inbound markets for Route 66 So we spend a lot of our time cultivating that market, connecting with that market, hosting that market, whether they're, you know, fam tours in our area, or when we're there in country, we might be doing training for their, their travel agencies. You know, they still book travel a little bit differently than we do here. You know, they open up a catalog, they go into a storefront, they meet with a travel planner, they book their, their travel that way. And so we want to make sure that we get Illinois and Route 66 into those catalogs, and that those agents know what we have to offer. I also created a brand called the First 100 Miles, you see the little over there.
Rachel: Oh, I love it, I love it. Amazing, everybody looks amazing.
Bob: First 100 miles is from Chicago through Joliet, Dwight, well Wilmington, and ends in Pontiac, and so those communities do a variety of celebrations, festivals. First weekend in May every year is what they call Red Carpet Corridor, and this year was banner year, where visitors could go to different communities. They picked up a little sticker. We provided water bottles to them, to the first 1,000 people, and a lot of the communities had bands, entertainment, face painting, just a variety of things support their event, but yeah, so we've got a lot of stuff going on with Route 66 this year.
Rachel: (Sacastically) I don't know why. I mean, 100 years of traveling the road all the way across the country.
Bob: So the big celebration was in April in Springfield, Missouri, and the different states along the way could apply to be a satellite city to support that event, and a satellite city that was chosen for Illinois was Joliet. So that's right here in our area. And what we did was we recreated the ball field at the old Joliet prison, and the Joliet Slammers played the Gateway Grizzlies, which is the St. Louis team, and they did an exhibition game in the afternoon. We had 6,000 people there at the old Joliet prison, and to be able to recreate the ball field, have so much positive energy, and people around there, you know, on the grounds of the Old Joliet Prison. The Old Joliet Prison is where they filmed Blues Brothers, and also the entire first season of Prison Break. So it's a very popular ticketed attraction in our region for these international folks. They want to see these buildings that their TV show was filmed, and they want to, you know, they want to see the different locations and sites. So that happened in April, and that just. And started us off on a high note, and we're just getting higher and higher and higher. There's other things that are happening in our area. We've got a series of 6.6k runs, and as a runner, you know that's only four miles.
Rachel: I know, yeah, I could do it.
Bob: When you first say 6.6 people are like, “What? That's so far!” But it's only four miles. You could walk four miles. And we're doing one in Joliet, then one in Wilmington on june 6, and then another one in Dwight in August, and the medals for this race are really cool. Each race has its own medal, and but then all the medals will form together if you do the series, and it forms a picture. So we're excited about that too. So, yeah, lots of festivals, events. Our Rialto Square Theater in Joliet is also turning 100 this year, so they had a big gala festival last weekend, and to celebrate their 100th year, and we helped them with two new murals, exterior murals on their building as part of that Route 66 grant. Yeah, we also did a bunch of EV stations in our different communities to help electrify the route, so so visitors could do the route with their electric vehicles, they could stop, pull over, charge, and then see some of the different attractions that the areas had to offer. So I could talk for an hour and a half.
Rachel: I know I love it, because it's 100 years, so just think all the stuff that's come from 100 years that you're not, I mean, not to be morbid, but you're not going to be able to do it in 100 years.
Bob: Yeah, this is once a lifetime. I will not be around for the next one, that's for sure. And so we are definitely excited about it. You know, the last two years we worked with Samantha Brown, she did a half hour show here in Illinois. We also had travels with Darlie here, she did a half hour show, and we just brought Darlie back a couple weeks ago, she's celebrating her 100th episode, and her 100th episode is all around 6600 here in Illinois, so we're excited about that, so that's not going to air until end of this year, end of this calendar year, but she did do all of her filming about two weeks ago, and then we've got another show that's going to air on PBS, John Pageant's Main Street of America. And before he goes live on PBS, he's going to do some showings here in Illinois, so one in Chicago, one in Joliet, one in Pontiac, Bloomington, yeah, Springfield, and he filmed The Route 30 years ago, 25, 30 years ago, and then he came back last year and filmed it again. So it's about how the routes change. What are the communities? Who are the stories? Who are the people? And his show is Main Main Street of America, and that'll be airing on PBS. But we're going to do some preview screenings here. Also, Art in America is another PBS show you can find on the streaming channels. Art in America is, they did a half hour episode on Route 66. Well, their whole season is Route 66 but they did an episode just on Joliet, and a lot of the public art, the mural, the different locations that are within the city, and who those artists were, and how what their connection was to the city, and so that is airing. I think that's on streaming now, in May.
Rachel: Good to know, yeah. Great. I love, you know, Bob, just this is one segment of Route 66 right? And you said it's, it's 2,400 miles, it's basically 3,000 miles, but how, how then do you work with the rest of Route 66. All this how do the directors that oversee certain bits or certain parts of the tourism on Route 66, how do you work together for something like a centennial celebration then?
Bob: So here in Illinois, I work pretty closely with my counterparts in Bloomington, Springfield, and down in the Rivers and Routes area. So, the four of us are usually three of us. We're the ones that are doing the sales missions together, we're doing the trade shows together, we co-op on different advertising and different publications. So, when we're trying to reach that international market, or even a larger national domestic market, we’re working together to do that. It's me, Springfield, and Rivers and Routes that have kind of worked together the longest. The and we were the, the three just at the trade show last week, and Bloomington was there as well. We're getting ready to go to New York on a sales mission to meet operators, and it'll be the four of us again meeting with meeting with folks when we go to New York, and then, but as far as nationally, we have, there's also a state scenic byway, Illinois has seven scenic byways, I have three that go through my area, Route 66 Lincoln Highway, and the Illinois River. The most famous is Route 66 but we, the byway, as part of a national organization, and so we work through the national organization through the byway. There's also a National Centennial Commission, and we, Illinois, has quite a bit of representation on that commission as well, and we've had them into our byway for updates. We've had them present to our commission on our Illinois commission, so I know some of the other directors in the other states. I guess the one that I know the best is California, as far as what they're doing out there. If you finish the route, you're going to end at Santa Monica Pier. And on Santa Monica Pier, there's a whole wall about Bob Waldmeyer. He was a hippie artist that traveled the route in the 1960s but he has a strong connection to Illinois because Bob Waldmeyer traveled in a Volkswagen van, and then he also had a school bus that he called a land yacht that he had created a kitchen, a bathroom, a shower, a bedroom, and he would travel around with in the school bus. We have his school bus and his van in Pontiac, Illinois, at the museum, so you can see that, you can see that, and touch it, feel it, take pictures with it. Another reason why that's significant is because you've seen the Disney Pixar movie Cars, right?
Rachel: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Bob: Well, this is the 20th anniversary of Cars this year.
Rachel: Oh, wow!
Bob: I know, right, we're feeling old, but the 20th anniversary of Cars, but all those characters are modeled after real people that the artist met on on the route, and the Fillmore character is Bob Waldmeyer and his van, so Waldmeyer is the Fillmore character. I know, mind blown, right?
Rachel: I know!
Bob: Well, and there's another connection. So the Bob Waldmeyer family also invented the corn dog. I'm sure you've had a corn dog, right? So they invented the corn dog, but it was they called it the cozy dog, and you can still get the cozy dog in Springfield at the cozy dog drive-in, and that's the Waldmeyer family still runs that cozy dog drive-in, and so that's a great story to tell, great food history here in Illinois, and I'm going to probably say this wrong, but Darren, my counterpart in Springfield, always talks about how every cozy dog is a corn dog, but not every corn dog is a cozy dog. Yes, I think I said that right, because what makes the cozy dog unique is that they don't actually dip it in the batter or fry it until you order it, so it's made fresh based on ordering it, and it's not mass produced like other corn dogs are, and I think you can really taste it when you're eating that corn dog. So, with corn dog, I know you've got a tough question for me at the end, but my tough question for you is, on a corn dog, ketchup or mustard?
Rache: Both.
Bob: Both?!
Rachel: Oh yeah, I mix them. Yeah, I like both on there. If I had to choose one, it would be ketchup, but I like putting both on there.
Bob: I'm a ketchup guy.
Rachel Yeah, but I do like the mixture of ketchup and mustard. So, there you go, yeah. So is Cozy Dog on Route 66 then?
Bob: It is!
Rachel: Just want to make sure. That’s a dumb question. Okay, on Route 66 Just an FYI for those traveling on Route 66 So, there you go. I like it. So, then I had to ask, I know Bloomington Normal isn't part of your section of Route 66, but obviously there's celebrations going to be happening in the heart of Bloomington-Normal, so even though it's not directly under Heritage, could you share from your travel and experience perspective what makes McLean County stretch of the Mother Road unique to compare, you know, like to other sections that are closer to you or closer to St. Louis or different areas? So, what have you seen in Bloomington-Normal and McLean County, that people should know about if they're traveling Route 66 or being a part of the celebration?
Bob: Well, we're working with Melissa Chrisman there in the group, and part of my role with the commission is we're bringing a drone show to the community. So, I think the drone show, that it's all going to be themed Route 66 I believe the drone show is going to be happening at Hancock Stadium in Normal on october 3, so calendars for that. Yeah, yep. And so, in addition to the drone show, I know that there's a big festival on June 6th and 7thhappening in the downtown area, so we were part of that announcement and excited to bring some of that state grant dollars to the community for that event and festival. They're going to be doing projections on the building, which is really great.
Rachel: I did see that. Yes, that'll be fantastic.
Bob: That's going to be happening downtown. And then Melissa's done, or Visit Beyond Group has done a great job with trying to, not just Bloomington, Normal, but the communities around you. You have the, like, the letters that say, like, Normal, Tawanda, Bloomington. Okay, so all that was part of the Route 66 grant,
Rachel: Got it.
Bob: And that's similar to some of the projects that we did, did up this way. So, again, giving those visitors those photo opportunities, those times to stop. Take the picture, post it on their socials, and that helps, that helps let people know what, and they're in the right place, that they, they're on the route, kind of thing, but also, that, you know, when you see pictures, people want to be in that same spot, they want to do that same thing, and so it's great for our communities. But the big, big festival that's happening is June 6th and 7th, and in Bloomington, downtown Bloomington, and I think they've really tried to embrace the Route 66 connection, especially with Lincoln and Illinois' connection to Lincoln. You know, Springfield does a lot of programming around Lincoln, and it's nice to have that connection there in Bloomington. So, yeah, there's a variety of things that are that are happening in Bloomington.
Rachel: Yeah! Well, so you're going to be here for it, or do you get to come to that? Are you going traveling other else along the route, or you know, or your other duties as assigned?
I will be there, I think, for the drone show. Actually, the commission we're doing a series of four drone shows, so there's one in Joliet, one in Springfield, one in Bloomington, and then one in Normal. So, there's four drone shows that are all themed Route 66 that the commission's bringing to the communities, no charge as part of the brand. I think I am going to try to do the June 6th, June 7th event there. Well, it's also the day of the 6.6k run in Wilmington. But that's in the morning, and that's only four four miles.
Rachel: I know, gosh, you just..
Bob: I'm going to send you the link, you're going to sign up, right, Rachel?
Rachel: Well, okay, so I'm not here that weekend, but I can do one in August. So, side note, because my husband likes to do triathlons. Remember, he's the other endurance person in my family, so we are not here for the June one, but I do, if you have one in August, I want to do one of them. They sound fun. It's four miles.
Bob: Yeah, it's only four miles. I'll send you the link and the dates. Yes, because I think it might be July.
Rachel: That's fine. Okay, I like it. See I'm getting, I'm getting more endurance out of all these, that's great, more stuff for me to do too out of these interviews, awesome. Okay, but you know, just the fact that we're talking about this, Bob, I have to remember, this isn't just the only thing you do as CEO and President of Heritage[1] , you have other things outside of this celebration that I wanted to touch on too, that you're you and your team share the stories, you ignite visitors to travel to Starved Rock along the Illinois-Michigan canal. Just so many different programs and so many different attractions. But what's been your favorite? So, whether that's an attraction, a program your team has done, a story you've heard from a guest that sticks with you, what's. what's that like?
Bob: Oh, you're going to get me in trouble. You're going to get me in trouble. I don't have a favorite. Let's see. Heritage Corridor Destinations is a six county regional destination marketing organization. So the product that we promote is the first hundred miles of Route 66, the Illinois-Michigan canal towns between Chicago Portage to LaSalle-Peru, and then the Starved Rock country area, which we also include Princeton, Spring Valley, Lad, Mendota Street, or that kind
Rachel: Know them all really well.
Bob: Yeah, all those towns along that line of Michigan Canal and Starved Rock. Well, gosh, I think for outdoor adventure, we've got the Forge Outdoor Adventure Park in Lamont. It's built into one of our quarries, or one of the old quarries in the area, and they have a huge climbing tower in the center. They have zip lining and kayaking, and they do a variety of programs like yoga and different things like that too out there, but it's in Lemont, which is only like 15 minutes from downtown Chicago. Yeah, and it's a great outdoor adventure park, but on the flip side of that, on the other end is Starbuck State Park, with miles and miles of hiking trails. You can't bike there, so don't expect to take your bike out on these trails, it's only hiking. And the seasonal waterfalls are just beautiful. The waterfalls are just gorgeous, and it's, it's always nice and relaxing to spend some time out in nature, right? So, in that area, even though Starbuck State Park isn't the biggest of the state parks, it has the most visitors of any of the state parks in Illinois, but there's other state parks around there too, right? We have Illini and Buffalo and Matheson, which all have beautiful aspects to them as well. You know, later on this summer, in August, they'll have a big, huge sunflower field, and people will literally come from several states to see the sunflowers. So that's a favorite activity, I guess.
Rachel: I agree with that. I love Starved Rock.
Bob: The best is spending time with, you know, with family, or, you know, taking my mom to Mother's Day brunch at Starbuck Lodge, or you know, meeting up for chicken at Rips and Lad, something like that, or going to one of the corn festival parades, you know that kind of stuff. So,
Rachel: Yeah, man, you just hit my heart, because again, I'm from around that area, so now I want some Rips chicken.
Bob: Where are you from?
Rachel: I'm from Dixon, Illinois, so yeah, so going to Lad was, see, that's one of my core memories as a kid, standing in line and getting some Rips chicken, and that was, you stood in line. Because it wasn't about the chicken, actually, it's about the experience of getting to stay in line for that amazing chicken.
Bob: Right, because if you're not there right at the beginning, and they only have chicken, it's not like they have a full menu or anything. Did you go to the Mendota Sweet Corn Festival?
Rachel: Once in a while, yes.
Bob: So my mom's originally from Mendota, so we would go to the Sweet Corn Festival there and get that Del Monte sweet corn, that's great little festival. But now Dixon is on the Lincoln Highway.
Rachel: It is.
Bob: So we also promote the Lincoln Highway from state border to state border. So it’s one of the other state scenic byways, and we have a website for that, lincolnhighwayillinois.com. We may have to pause. Hold on, let me look that up.
Rachel: (Laughs) You just look it up. We don't have to pause for a bit. Yes, we want to make sure it's right, but yeah, because you do so many scenic byways, you know, can't remember every single website, so many different things.
Bob: Yeah, so it's lincolnhighwayillinois.com.
Rachel: Okay, see, yeah, you just doubted yourself. Don't doubt. I love it.
Bob: And so right now, the site's pretty heavy on that history and what are some of those historic structures that are still standing. What were the communities that were along the Lincoln Highway, how they contributed to, because that was the first route that went from ocean to ocean, you know, across the continent, and so there's a little bit about planning your your trip itinerary, but yeah, Dixon's one of our communities on the Lincoln Highway.
Rachel: I know. Yeah, go visit Dixon again. Great, small… it’s one of those… Again, that's the nice part. I think you know what your, you know what the Heritage Corridor does, and what your team does is people don't have to think just Chicago, St. Louis, big, big cities. It's what's outside of those big cities, and all the attractions, and all the travel, and all these small towns that have all this history and programs and entertainment, like it's just amazing to see. And I mean, Dixon has that, like I've seen that kind of, you know, and, and just these small Mendota, and just going to all these different places, and all the experiences you can have. You don't have to be in a big city to do it, too. You can travel on any of these highways, any of these roads, and get amazing memories from those too. Like, it's amazing.
Bob: It's so hyper local, you know. Having these locally-owned shops and restaurants is what makes our canal towns unique. Sure, those towns might have some of the chain stores, but not in their downtown core. And so they're going to shops and restaurants that are, you know, where the owner is working in the shop, and they can talk about their passion, and how it's three generations of antique dealers, or whatever, and so our canal towns really contribute to that, and so if people are wanting to experience local Illinois culture, this is a great area to do it, because you're not far from the city, you could start your journey in the city, come out to, to the, to the region, but it's, it's the, it's the, it's the people that you meet along, along the way, and that's what people often talk about with the Route 66 travels, is, oh, they met the person at the diner, or the pie shop lady, or the antique dealer, or the gas station owner, or whatever, and so we have a little microcosm of that here in our Heritage Corridor region along Starved Rock, in our canal towns, and then of course on Route 66. So, yeah. My dad actually did Route 66 when he was in high school, but I still am convinced he didn't know it was Route 66 I think he just went out to California, but he keeps saying he did it.
Rachel: Okay, we’ll let him have that. So, before I ask my final question, my second last question is, I have to mention, you know, your expertise has also been used as a board of trustee for Illinois State University. For those that don't know, you've served for several years as a board of trustee. How do you think your background in tourism and economic impact? How does that influence the way you look at Illinois State's future and its role in Central Illinois?
Bob: Well, I think it's important. I think we're doing great work there in Central Illinois, and to be a residential campus, you know, our enrollment is strong, our traditions are strong, our educational programming is strong, and so we, we have a unique opportunity to provide education not just for first generation students but for other families as well. And so, you know, my work that I do is dependent on, like I said before, working with our state legislators on these grants and things like that, and so relationships with legislators also helps with our connection to ISU. We have a Redbird caucus, which is connecting our Redbird graduates that are, you know, state senators and representatives, you know, connecting them to what we're doing on campus and sharing with them what, you know, what the new programs are, and you know what campus is doing for the community and the educational system as a whole. So I think, you know, my connection to working, you know, with legislators, but also just the six county region, I think our future with Illinois State is strong. I mean, we need to stay focused, though. We are faced with some challenges, both with enrollment and financial, and even with what the perception of higher education is giving students these days, you know, the perception isn't quite there. Like, we're just challenged, so we need to make sure that we continue to tell that story, to talk about the benefits, to talk about, you know, the importance of education and the degree that we're offering, because, you know, so many of this current generation just feel like, well, they don't have to go to school, they can go and do this job, and they can do this, this, and this, and, you know, they can make money quickly, and that kind of thing, but there's a whole nother aspect of of the education, and that's with, you know, being on campus, learning to live on your own, learning to navigate social relationships, and things like that. And so, yeah, I think we just need to stay focused.
Rachel: It's the experience, just what you give to everybody in your role. It's the experience that people need, and I think again, that's where your expertise comes into play too, and it's great to have you, as you know, I think we're privileged to have you as a board of trustee, because you have that background, and, like you said, customer service, experiences, trying new things, being adventurous, getting outside your comfort zone, that's what college is all about, too, so why not, you know, have someone like yourself know that kind of background and the importance of that,. And Bloomington-Normal is one of the top college towns to live in, one of our, you know, we pride ourselves in the fact that we have this strong community and that “town and gown” experience. So, I just had to mention that you are on there and you have strong expertise and those strong skill sets, Bob.
Bob: Thank you, I appreciate that.
Rachel: Yeah, so my last and hardest question: What's your go-to road trip fuel of choice? What kind of snack or beverage has to keep you going?
Bob: Popcorn, I love popcorn.
Rachel: Okay.
Bob: I love buttered popcorn, salty popcorn, little bit of cheese in there is fine, but I just love popcorn, so I love the white popcorn. I like the crunchy popcorn. I'm all about the popcorn, so
Rachel: I like it.
Bob: Like, if I'm not bringing my own popcorn with me, I might be stopping at Wally's for some of their popcorn.
Rachel: So good.
Bob: But yeah, I love popcorn. That was an easy question. You said it was gonna be a hard one.
Rachel: I know, know you're fine. I knew it wouldn't be that hard. All right. Well, Bob, thank you again for your time and sharing. You know, it's just so great to hear the enthusiasm you have for the visitors we have in Illinois throughout Route 66, a celebration you get to do. It's genuine, and I truly appreciate our time together and hearing the stories, and I know I'll be seeing you around, so, and I will tell anybody that's an alum, that's a listener, that Bob is at a lot of our events, he's on campus a lot, he's obviously out on Route 66 celebrating, so be sure to say hi to him too.
Bob: Thank you very much, appreciate your time. Thank you.
Rachel: And that was three-time Redbird alum and tourism extraordinaire Dr. Bob Navarro. Thanks for listening to Rubber Buzz, and tune in next time for more stories from Beyond the Quad.