You should make a point to visit the Eisler Brothers Old Riverton store during your short tour of Kansas 66, even if it's just for some chips and a bottle of Route 66 Root Beer. There's a nice old-fashioned feel to the place, the kind of Mom and Pop business you used to ride your bike to back in your home town. (Usually following your mother's orders to pick up a bottle of milk.) There was a mix of people in the store on the day of my visit, with me and a couple of 66'ers from Spain browsing the old road memorabilia, several busy landscapers stopping in for some quick refreshments, and a local woman ordering over the deli counter. (John Wayne and James Dean were also in the store, near life size.) This mix of customers has been necessary since the early 1960's, when Kansas 66 was bypassed by Interstate 44. And the state was bypassed indeed, as I-44 connects Missouri to Oklahoma without any detour at all into Kansas.
The store was first opened in 1925 by Leo Williams and his wife Lora, who ran a general store inside and had gas pumps outside to draw in the early Route 66 traffic. Joe and Isabell Eisler of Allen, Texas, purchased and renamed the store in 1973, and operated the business for many years as a local convenience store and 66 attraction. (They even kept the original tin roof that I didn't know about. Never looked up even once.) The Eislers passed on in the late 2000's, and I found a nephew of the former Texans, Scott Nelson, behind the counter during my 2008 visit. In 2011, Mr. Nelson, who is also president of the Kansas Route 66 association, purchased the business from the Eisler's estate. We wish him every success with his small business, and with his overseeing of the famous 13.2 miles of Kansas 66. Log Book: 610 miles motored on old 66.
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