Day Seven - Monday

Day seven - Monday

Turns out Cuba is the town of murals. The murals depict the business or an event or just busy work on the side of the building. In any case, pretty interesting and no graffiti!

Leaving town and finding Route 66 was a challenge but after a few U turns, we found it.  The places we found from the old road were in pretty bad shape and in some cases the sites we were to find in the travel book did not exist. We went a long way traveling the hi way.  A beautiful drive though. We finally found a 66 dinner for lunch and had a great meal, then back on the road. Around 4:30 we entered Joplin, Mo.  We found another Super 8 and settled in for the evening. 

 

Day 6...if you are ever in or going through Staunton, the Super 8 is a good place to stay.  We left Staunton to a cold morning.  We got lost a few times today, but eventually found ourselves driving by the Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston, the St Paul Luthern Church in Hamel and the Glen Carbon Covered Bridge in Glen Carbon.  A must see is the Brooks Catsup Bottle Water Tower, giant Catsup Bottle, in Collinsville and we were headed out of Illinois to St. Louis.  Today was very cold and Steve and I were really bundled up.  We got to St Louis and drove right to the Arch just like we knew what we were doing.  The Arch  is a sight to behold.  The Visitor Center was closed again due to our Govt. BS.  After the Arch we headed to Ted Dawes frozen custard shop.  The original was closed, but a guy stuck his head out of the window of a bus that was parked in front of the custard shop and told us that there was another one close by that would be open, so off we went.  We found the Donut Shop just down the street from the custard shop so had to stop and David and Gil splurged on a filled donut.  Steve and I saved our calories for the custard.  Wow was it good.  Our next stop was at the Museum of Transportation.  This museum had BIG Iron, train cars, that we're antique and very impressive.  Our last stop was at the Rt. 66 Information Center right out of St. Louis.  There we found a wonderful lady that gave us a map of Rt. 66 through Missouri and suggested stops along the way.  We ended up in Cuba at the renovated Wagon Wheel Hotel that was wonderful, dinner at Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q where the ribs were delicious.  Back to the hotel, a hot shower to thaw out from the very cold day and an early night.

Interesting funny thing.  The Cobra gets a lot of attention in town, on the road, and at gas stops as does the Cad. But when we were on the back roads in St Luis all of the attention was on the Cad. Wonder why:)

More Missouri tomorrow.

Giant catsup bottle

Day 5...after spending the night in Atlanta, we were up and ready to continue our adventure about 8:30 this morning.  Our Rt. 66 books told us not to miss downtown Atlanta, so off we went across the road and a couple of blocks down from the hotel to visit downtown.  Well, the first sight we encountered was a giant Bunyon, as in Paul, statue holding a hot dog.  Very impressive!!  We were too early for the museum and library, but we walked around and looked at the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator and Museum.  It was very interesting and we had a local man come over and give us some local history of the sight.  We left Atlanta and headed to Lincoln.  We were impressed with the Railsplitter Covered Wagon and of course Abe Lincoln as the driver.  This wagon is recognized by the Guiness Book Of Records as the World's Largest Covered Wagon.  Of course we had to take in the Heritage In Flight Museum, where Steve helped a couple of guys with a A6 on showing them how to access the hydraulics to move the flaps. Always an Aerospace Engineer!!  After dragging him away from the airfield we continued on our way.  We did the loop through Williamsville, very pretty little town.  The next stop was Springfield, the home of Abraham Lincoln.  In the middle of town we toured the Old State Capitol and the Lincoln Home Natinal Historic Site, which was closed due to the Government Close Down. Steve was very irate as most of you might guess with his current opinion of the gov. Efficiency. We were able to walk around and read the signs and do a self tour.  We hit Obed & Isaac's Microbrewery and Eatery for a fantastic lunch and the best micro beer he says he has had called white stout..   He wants this imported to Utah. Ha. We thenheaded to Girard to Doc's Soda Fountain, which we found closed, they close at 2 pm on Saturday.  When we got to Doc's another couple drove up and said they had been behind us in Springfield, but didn't know we were going to the same place.  They were doing Rt. 66 to St Louis.  They asked us about our trip and our final destination, took our picture and went on their way.  We have met some of the nicest people along the way.  Next our journey took us to Carlinville Historic Square, which is all brick, surrounded by buildings from the 1880's.  The last stop for the day was Henry's Ra66it Ranch.  This is a fun place and if you ever do the route it is a must.  We are settled in for the night outside of Staunton after a good Mexican food dinner.

Day 4...David, Gil, Steve and Renie left Davenport, Iowa a about 10 am.  We made a stop at Antique Archelogy (American Pickers) to take a look around.  Pretty amazing stuff.  Left Le Claire for Joliet, Illinois to find Rt. 66.  Finding the route was challenging, but with a couple of GPS we found our way.  We started the adventure at the Route 66 Raceway, and of course Chicagoland raceway is right across the street so we took the opportunity to take a look.  Steve fought the urge to drive a cup car and we continued on our way.  In Wilmington we cruised by the Launching Pad Drive-In and the Gemini Giant.  The drive-in is closed but the giant is still there.  We stopped in Braidwood for lunch at the Polk-A-Dot Drive-In for lunch.  As we cruised through Godley we spotted a couple of Burma Shave Signs.  Our next stops was in Dwight at the Ambler/Becker Texaco Station, a 1933 historic filling station.  It is the longest running station on Rt. 66 .  It dispensed fuel for 66 continuous years.  In Dwight we also drove past the First National Bank of Dwight, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1905.  This was a highlight for David!!  Our next stop was Pontiac-Oakland Automobile Museum, of course located in Pontiac.  At the museum were very cool vehicles, but we were disappointed that they didn't have our Smokey and the Bandit 1979 Black Trans Am.  We took in the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, got back in our cars and headed toward Bloomington.  We continued on to Atlanta where we checked into the Atlanta Rt. 66 Landmark Hotel for the night.  We had dinner at a local diner and discovered it was the local car clubs meeting night so we had lots of people admiring our rides and a fish fry for dinner.  It was a good day and we were ready to call it a night.

Day three:  left the hotel and started for Le Claire to visit the Garners. Arrived just in time for lunch with his whole family. While the Cobra and Cad were snuggled away out of the whether Mike loaded us all up a truck,combine, and tractor to start the harvest of corn. The combine is huge and it was not long before Steve was behind the wheel.  Man what a ball.  The equipment is very efficient and soon the bin was brimming with corn kernels. The husks and chaff was spewing out the back Shute. Loved we very minute of it. We picked up Gil at the airport and headed back to the farm for more visiting, drinks, and some terrific steaks. But not before Mike got behind the wheel of the Cobra. It might take a few days for the smile to fade from his face.  As the song says "he let them horses sing".

Day 2...today was our day for exploring Chicago. We took the Architecture River tour.  This is a great way to see the different architecture styles of the buildings and a very relaxing way to see Chicago highlights.  We then hopped on a water taxi and went to the Sears Tower for a tour.  We went to the 103rd floor.  Wow what a spectular view.  After spending the day in down town Chicago we are tired and excited about starting our Rt. 66 trip tomorrow morning.

Dinner tonight was a bucket of KFC and a couple of glasses of wine. Not as fancy as last night but exactly what we wanted.

Got a call from David and he is in Chicago and will be meeting up with us in the morning to start the drive to Mike's in Iowa.

More to come.....

Day 1 of the Great Adventure....out of bed at 4 am. Our friend and neighbor Rick Johnson appeared on our door step at 5 am to take us to the shuttle for the Las Vegas airport.  We arrived at the airport and checked in and were asked if we wanted to take an earlier flight, so instead of a 10 am flight we were on an 8:30 am flight.  Arrived in Chicago at 2 pm.  Steve has told me for years about a great Italian restaurant, La Scarola, in  downtown that he went to while traveling for Parker.  Well, we found it and had a great dinner.  A perfect end to our first day.

Trying to insert the pictures but have not got it figured out yet.  I will post them to Facebook for now until I get some help.