A glimpse of the hospitality from the past

(Mason) Yesterday and today we finished up Missouri, checked out Kansas, and started into Oklahoma. It was also the first time that we found some really friendly folks who were willing to share what they knew about the route.

After saying goodbye to the folks at the Munger Moss Motel ....



We stopped at the Route 66 museum in the Lebanon public library. There were some pretty cool things in there, like an old fashioned gas pump, a recreated diner (smaller version) which I thought was funny because on the price board, instead of milk they had "Cow moo".




Later in the day we stopped at an original Steak and Shake restaurant in Springfield, MO, for (what else) steak burgers.




The first significant instance of Route 66 hospitality was a man we met in a town about 20 miles west of Springfield Missouri. His name is Gary Turner and he owns a refurbished Sinclair gas station. He was a gold mine of information about the route and he gave us several copies of a newspaper about the route and he also gave us his autograph for future reference.

Around the next bend was the Drive-in movie theatre we intended to go to in Carthage, MO. Unfortunately, due to the size of the line we were unable to go...

To finish up the day we arrived at the KOA that we would be staying at for the night.. And after a quick dip in the pool and a fire we hit the hay for a rainy night's sleep..

Route 66 from Above and Below

(Sean) Today (7/9) We entered our second Route 66 state, Missouri. We had hoped to catch a glimpse of the famous "Chain of Rocks" bridge from its base at the Illinois side, but the road leading to it was blocked due to construction on a canal bridge prior to the Mississippi.

Instead, we settled for an earlier allignment of the Route across Old Man River, the McArthur bridge, renovated and newly reopened within the past year or so. This put us right in downtown St. Louis, and a short ride from our first stop, the Arch. Very impressive structure, and an awesome sight from right when we pulled around the bend to see it straight ahead. After some more waiting for road construction and a short line at the security checkpoint, we were on our way UP to the pinnacle, high above St. Louis and the river's edge.















Also at the base of the arch is a museum paying tribute to Thomas Jefferson and Western expansion of this country. (The name of the National Park where the Arch sits is the Jefferson National Expansion Monument). We spent a little time there and then decided to get on our way of putting some more miles behind us.

Our next stop was on the way out of St. Louis at Ted Drewe's frozen custard stand for a "concrete" (THICK milkshake), at this Route 66 landmark.


For hundreds of miles in either direction from Stanton, MO, on Route 66, barns are painted to advertise Merimac Caverns. Being in the "Cave State", we felt we owed it to the dedicated advertisers, as well as ourselves, to check out this purported hideout of the Jesse James gang. The interior was a wonderful 60 degrees (compared to 90's and humid outside), and the cave walls, ceilings, and geological features were dramatically lit up. A fairly impressive tour, and especially worth it to get out of the heat of the day.





After some dinner at a trackside restaurant in Cuba (MO), "Frisco's", we made our way to our hotel for the night, another 66 icon, the Munger-Moss motel in Lebanon.


Here are a few pictures of some other roadside Route 66 attractions we came across:

Funk"y" Sirup, Cozy Dogs and, oh yeah, Abe was here (Honest!)

(Mason) Today was our first full day on the Route and it was quite interesting..
We started off at Julie and Jeff's house, the night before we had stayed up until about eleven talking so i slept in pretty long and by that time both Julie and Jeff were gone.

After we left their house we stopped over at the WalMart for a quick stop for a phone charger, then we went over to Bob Evans for some biscuits and sausage gravy (mmmm....)

After that we stopped at the two cell jail in Gardner, although it didn't hold any really famous criminals it still was pretty interesting and the voice message that played the entire time we were there was very informative

After that we made a stop at The O'dell gas station for some Route 66 soda and some pictures.





















From there we went to the Illinois Route 66 museum in Pontiac for a browsing of their exhibits.

After the museum we finally made one of the first Route 66 attraction stops that we had been looking forward to the entire trip.. Funk's Grove maple sirup.(Yes, that is spelled correctly!) After a free sample of the sirup we bought some souvenir patches and a bottle of sirup.















From there we went to see the giant with the hot dog in Atlanta
(Illinois that is)

















After that we took a trip over to go see Abe Lincoln's tomb in Springfield (Wow that thing is TALL) and before we left Sean made sure to rub Lincoln's nose


















From the tomb we shot over to the Lincolns' house, we took some pictures of the house and the town surrounding it pointing out some of the items around the town that were like they would have been back in Lincoln's time (like roads, boardwalks, and for some reason air conditioners)





























After the neighborhood tour we started feeling pretty hungry so we headed down to the "Cozy Dog" Drive-in for some corndogs and some french fries

Chicago is our kind of town!

To say that we tried to squeeze as much out of our time in The Windy City before heading down the Great Diagonal Way would be an understatement. We had purchased 2-day sightseeing package cards, which allowed admission to a lot of the more popular attractions, for a combined savings, as well as getting to skip the ticket lines, so we wanted to fully take advantage of them.

On Monday, after getting cleaned up and moved in to our room, we took an Architectural boat tour on the Chicago River (very enjoyable and informative!),




headed to the Navy Pier (Chicago's #1 Tourist attraction) for some refreshment and a Ferris Wheel ride,





tried "Chicago-style Hot Dogs", then hopped the "EL" to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game vs. the Atlanta Braves.



..and look who was at the game!!!

(Cubbies won 4-2, Erik Estrada (of "CHiPs" fame) sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game at the seventh inning stretch). We stopped at the Billy Goat Tavern (of SNL fame) on the way back to the hotel room for some "Cheezeborgers" and "Chips, no Fries".






Tuesday was equally as busy, starting with a water taxi ride from Navy Pier to the Shedd Aquarium,




then walking back through Grant park along the Lakeside,




via the Art Institute & some impressionist works,



with a stop for some deep dish pizza at Pizano's,





then through Millenium park



and the bike/walk bridge/path. We finished off the day at the German U-Boat exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry,





before leaving downtown behind for dinner and a relaxing evening at Jeff and Julie (Abdallah) Hancock's, down Route 66 about an hour.

Our first Route 66 icon . . .

After a 2-hour delay Sunday night, and a less-than-restful night aboard the train (awake until 2AM, up at 6:30), once we got to Union Station, we stowed our things in public lockers and headed 2 blocks west to Lou Mitchell's restaurant.




Known as the "First stop on the Road", it was one of the first plans we had made, knowing it would be breakfast time when we got to town, and its proximity to the station.

Behind schedule before we even started . . .

(Sean) Well, our trip didn't get off to the greatest start. After a full 4th of July weekend schedule, we were supposed to board our train for Chicago at 9:40 PM Sunday. Arriving at the station in plenty of time to check in,



we immediately found out the train was 20 minutes delayed. The delay ended up being due to "mechanical problems", extended to 2 hours, and finally we boarded at about 11:30. Unlike an airplane, the train still needs to stop along the way, so there was no "making it up on the trip." We arrived in Chicago, after not a very restful night (hard to sleep in the train chairs), at about 10:45AM.

Grand Hall of Union Station(Slightly different than Syracuse RTC)



("The Untouchables", as well as other films, had scenes filmed here)

The delay meant we would not have a full first day to begin exploring this fabulous city, but at least it enabled us to check in to our hotel soon after 12:00 without having to pay for lockers for our stuff for more than the hour it took us to have breakfast.

View of the Chicago River from our hotel room: