Making dreams come true in Adrian

BY NICK GERLICH

Dream Maker Station Route 66 Souvenir and Gift Shop opened last April in Adrian, adjacent to the celebrated midpoint of the Mother Road. Jason and Kelly Snyder moved from Ohio to open the shop, the culmination of a dream hatched after their 2018 trip down 66.

It wasn’t until 2021, though, that they discovered the former Sunflower Station was for sale. Frank Hauser, who had previously owned the Midpoint Cafe next door, had run a small gift shop there before deciding to retire. While the Snyders went west hoping to find a suitable commercial property in Arizona, opportunity knocked several hundred miles east, something that Kelly attributes to divine intervention.

“I am an avid prayer,” Kelly said. “I believe in God. If this is something we’re supposed to be doing, I know He will show us where it’s at.

“We pulled up to the Midpoint Cafe, saw the ‘For Sale’ sign next door, and I kept hearing, ‘Call that number’.”

She did, and they wound up buying the station. When asked how two Midwesterners ended up in Adrian, her answer is simple: “Our story was in Arizona. God’s story was right here.”

They had planned on a 2023 opening, but health issues caused them to delay that for a year.

The shop carries a wide line of Harley Davidson merchandise, as well as Route 66 souvenirs ranging from wearables to knick-knacks, signs, blankets, mugs, Christmas ornaments and more. The couple plans to grill burgers and hot dogs during summer evenings in 2025 on a donation basis, as well as build cabins behind the shop.

“We started out with $2,500 of merchandise on April 4 when we opened, and we have plowed every penny back into it,” she explained.

“Getting a business on Route 66, you have to really love the road to do what you do there. You have to love the people. For me, it’s the excitement on everybody’s face that comes in there,” she said. “It’s not about the money; it’s about the people, keeping the road alive.”

The station was built in 1934 at a time when the road through Adrian was little more than 20 years old, having begun as part of the Ozark Trail network of roads, and then added as part of Route 66 in 1926. West from here the road drops off the Caprock Escarpment, and towns become few and far between.

Jason and Kelly Snyder are excited to be in business on 66, and love meeting people from across the country and the world. They plan for Dream Maker Station to be their semi-retirement jobs.