The Old Roads Tour stops along Route 66

On Saturday, May 16, the Old Roads Tour stopped in Atlanta, Illinois, for a signing event at the Atlanta Public Library. Author John Spencer, pictured with library staffers Darcy McKown (left) and Cindy New (right), brought copies of Last Ride On The Galena Coach Road and Other Tales, along with some of the Surge novels and other titles from Monroe St. Press.

 

 

 

We thank the staff and administration for hosting us at their historic Library, which is just one of several notable landmarks in this community of more than 1,600 residents.

 

 

The octagonal-shaped public library was constructed in 1908 and the clock tower was added to the grounds in the 1970s. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and has retained most of its original character. Two reading rooms, one of which includes a fireplace, provide inviting retreats for bibliophiles or anyone who would enjoy the ambiance of an Edwardian Era study.

Atlanta has taken full advantage of its location along the former U.S. Route 66, 11 miles northeast of Lincoln, Illinois and 21 miles southwest of Bloomington, to promote its businesses and other attractions. 

 

 

 

The American Giants Museum, housed in a former Texaco gas station, features towering fiberglass figures originally used to market automotive products. Some such as the Texaco Big Friend and Phillips 66 Cowboy (right) have retained their original appearance, while others such as the Hot Dog Muffler Man, the Carpet Viking (center) and the Snerd (left) were converted to other uses. There's also an original Bob's Big Boy statue and a display devoted to other creations of the International Fiberglass Company such as Uniroyal Gals, A & W Root Beer Families and Esso Tigers. 

 

 

Meanwhile, the J. H. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum consists of a fully restored 1904 grain elevator, engine shed, and scale house with a hand-operated rope pulley and 7 flights of twisting stairs from the ground floor to the top. It also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

 

Atlanta's downtown includes the Atlanta Museum, the Route 66 Memories Museum, the Route 66 Arcade Museum, vintage-style murals, and shops such as the Arch Street Artisans and Artful Market. For updates on local attractions and events, visit the City of Atlanta, IL website or the Logan County Tourism Bureau website. 

 

Whatever brings you to Atlanta, they'll be sure to welcome you with a smile!

 

 

 

Iron & Ashes: A Measure Set in Steel

Coming soon from Monroe St. Press and John Spencer, author of the Surge Series and Last Ride On The Galena Coach Road and Other Tales:

  Iron & Ashes, a literary cycle—part epic poem, part lyric narrative, part stage play, part novel—set in late 20th century Illinois, where progress presses against memory, and shortcuts threaten to erase what still holds. 

Some roads aren't remembered. They're measured. 

Along a worn stretch of U.S. 40 near Effingham, Illinois, in the late 1970s, a scrapyard sits just off the road—ordered with a precision that borders on reverence. Nothing there is accidental. Nothing is wasted. Every piece of metal, every tool, every remnant of industry is placed, accounted for. 

The man who keeps it that way is Silas Vance. He is not a dreamer. Not a man given to abstractions. 

He is a builder. An octogenarian engineer. 

A man who has seen the great works of the world—canals cut through continents, steel raised into skylines—and who has chosen, deliberately, to step away from wealth and status into something quieter... but no less exacting. 

And yet—he is not alone. There is a presence in that yard. A witness. 

Arthur. A son who never came home from the Second World War.    

In Iron & Ashes by John Spencer, the past does not fade. It watches. It measures.

As Effingham begins to grow—pushed by the same restless force that has always driven expansion along the old roads—pressure mounts. Land is wanted. Deals are made. Corners are cut. Lines are bent. 

But some men do not bend. 

And some places do not yield without being measured first. 

In Iron & Ashes, Spencer utilizes the plumb bob as a central metaphor, representing Silas Vance's unbending moral compass. It symbolizes the conflict between individual craftsmanship and the destructive fires of progress. A Scriptural image, used by Old Testament prophets to call attention to ancient Israel's departure from the straight and true. 

 As an engineer of the old school, Vance uses his literal and metaphorical plumb line to expose crooked shortcuts, legal loopholes, and ethical compromises, and forces the town to look at what they are losing in the name of progress. 

  However, this is not a story about resisting change. It is about judging it. About whether what is built stands true... or comes up crooked. 

 Setting Iron & Ashes along U.S. 40 is also significant. Originally, this was the National Road, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1806 as the first federally funded highway. It carved through the wilderness to open Illinois to pioneer settlement. Effingham grew out of the dirt along this original trail.

With the explosion of the automobile in the 20th century, it became U.S. Route 40, the "Main Street of America", lined with mom-and-pop gas stations, diners, and yards that served a traveling nation. 

 By the 1970s, however, it had been superseded by Interstate 70, which bypassed local businesses. Towns began to decline and developers stepped in to clear out the old landscape for corporate expansion, and this is the historical turning point that inspires the conflict in Iron & Ashes. 

This story, like John Spencer's other stories, demands that the reader stop and look vertically, by the steady weight of the plumb line. From the perilous freedom trails of the antebellum Surge Series, to walking the restless paths of the Galena Coach Road, or standing with Silas Vance amidst the iron and ancestral ashes of an Effingham scrapyard, the lesson remains the same. 

The road runs through it all. 

And it keeps its own account. 

Iron & Ashes—Coming Summer 2026.

 

Inside Last Ride On The Galena Coach Road and Other Tales — Full Story Guide

Some roads you travel. Some roads take hold of you.

 

We have had a few people ask what’s inside Last Ride On The Galena Coach Road and Other Tales, so here it is—clean and straight on through.

Twenty stories. One long road.

A journey that will take the reader down dusty forgotten paths... to the very edge of tomorrow.

These are road stories—set across Illinois, the Midwest, wartime Europe, and a near-future grid—but each one turns on something deeper: memory, burden, choice, and the long pull of the road itself.

Complete Table of Contents with Story Highlights:

1. Notes From The Earth – A Woodland boy plays a "held note" to gain the land's permission long before the grid of settlers reshapes the world.

2. Last Ride on the Galena Coach Road – A young Vietnam vet caught between a muscle car's momentum and a fading stagecoach trace, meets his destiny where past and pavement collide.

3. The Boy Who Took the Reins – A coming-of-age tale about a young boy carrying the responsibility for a stagecoach team, learning the weight of the road in both his hands and heart.

4. Night Freight – A truck driver carrying a load through a raging dust storm on Route 66 outruns his nemesis only to find he must choose between revenge or restoration.

5. The LeMans – A high-stakes night drive in a Pontiac LeMans, where urgency, mechanical trust, and raw fear define the road ahead.

6. The Last Mile Out of Davenport – A late-night drive leads a young man onto a haunted stretch of blacktop where his brother's fatal crash still echoes.

7. The Long Road Home – A man travels a long Midwestern road where the past walks beside him, and home waits only if he can endure the journey.

8. For Your Safety – A near-future convoy story where surveillance systems and automated control turn safety into confinement.

9. Filling Station, Dusk – A quiet roadside vignette capturing human connection at a rural gas station at sunset.

10. Whiteside and The Comet – A historical fiction piece set in the winter of 1858, blending a celestial omen, the arrival of iron rails and the Underground Railroad.

11. Kickapoo Drift – In the summer of 1972, fourteen-year-old June floats the Kickapoo Creek, discovering memory has its own current, apart from the road.

12. Twilight Hollow – A mythic Midwestern tale where the land itself holds memory, resistance, and hidden bargains.

13. Out of Road – A psychological and symbolic story about reaching the literal and emotional end of the path.

14. The Store at the Fork in The Fog – A time-slip story featuring a Desert Storm veteran encountering a 1950s general store outside normal time.

15. The Road to La Ricamarie – A World War II-era story set in rural France, where a road becomes a refuge for a child.

16. Trigger Road – A historical Underground Railroad story where land, instinct, and vigilance create a hidden sanctuary.

17. Grid-Drone – A dystopian future story about resistance, mechanical freedom, and a last run in a controlled system.

18. The Reckoning at the Edge of The World – A mythic road canon combining poetry and prose, where Miller the surveyor returns to settle his final account.

19. Where The Dust Would Not Settle – A reflective story about patience, stewardship, and restoring a stretch of road through time.

20. The Road Ascendant – A final, philosophical story where a road breaks beyond the horizontal world and points upward.

From stagecoach traces to blacktop highways... from river drift to digital grid... these stories follow the marks we leave—and the ones that refuse to fade.

Slow down. Watch the verge. The reckoning is earned.

 

 

 

A Long Awaited Return: John Spencer's Last Ride On The Galena Coach Road and Other Tales

After a lengthy hiatus, John Spencer has released a new book. 

For readers who discovered him through the Surge series, this may come as a surprise. Last Ride On The Galena Coach Road and Other Tales is not a continuation of that world. It is something different —quieter, more reflective, and deeply rooted in place and character. 

Last Ride on the Galena Coach Road and Other Tales is a collection of stories shaped by landscape, memory, and the choices that define ordinary lives. Some are historical in tone, some intimate and contemporary, but all carry Spencer's signature attention to human tension — the moment where a decision matters. 

The title story evokes a vanished era of stage routes and rough roads, where travel was uncertain and endings were rarely tidy. Other tales explore equally precarious crossings — between past and present, loyalty and regret, safety and risk. 

Why the gap in Spencer's work? Writing takes time. Living takes time. And sometimes the stories worth telling require both. 

This collection reflects growth — not only in craft, but in perspective. Readers will find the pacing more deliberate, the emotional stakes more internal, and the storytelling confident enough to let silence do some of the work. 

At Monroe St Press, we are proud to publish work that values substance over speed. Last Ride On The Galena Coach Road and Other Tales represents that commitment: carefully written, thoughtfully assembled, and grounded in storytelling that respects its readers.