Joliet, IL the end of the road and our journey home (Tues, & Wed. Aug. 4 & 5)

We are really glad we stayed in a hotel Tuesday night. We had some really good thunderstorms overnight and awoke to a pretty good rain. It would not have been fun taking the camper down in this!! So we headed off to breakfast nice and dry. We met a woman, Lulu, who is from the Route 66 e-mail group who had been following our trip and was really anxious to meet us. She was really nice and shared a lot of stories of her trips on Route 66. After eating she came along with us to the Route 66 museum in Joliet. It was a nice museum, a good way to wrap up our time on the road. We stayed there for about an hour and then drove around Joliet to get a few pictures and then headed east for home.

We made one final stop on the way home in Coldwater, MI which is right over the border of Indiana, not far from Route 90, to visit with a cousin of Tony’s who is also our godson. It was nice to see Andy as we had not seen him in several years. After a bunch of wings and fries we said goodbye and continued our journey home.

We decided we were tired of opening and closing the camper and made the decision to drive as far as we could and then either stay in a motel or just crash in the car at rest stops as needed. We ended up going to option 2 hoping it would get us home faster. If you are going to head home you might as well just get there. We managed to continue until about 1 a.m. and then took a two hour break. The boys continued to sleep while I tried to drive further but realized after a few hours I needed another break. So I got another 2 ½ hours of sleep before continuing on and getting home. The drive was tough because from Buffalo to Westfield we kept hitting rain. It was the kind of rain that is so heavy that you can barely see in front of you. It slowed us down quite a bit and definitely added a lot of time to our ride home.

Once home we found out quickly our journey was not quite over because when the boys went to open the camper to unload they realized that somehow the crank to open the camper up got left at the last stop. So we had to rehitch the camper to the car and drive an hour in rush hour traffic to Bristol, CT, the closest Star Craft dealer to find a crank that would work. Luckily they had one so back home again we went to empty out the camper.

Today was a day of mixed emotions for us. We are tired so we are glad to be headed home but we also are sad as we know there is so much we didn’t see and people we didn’t meet. It will all have to wait for another time. We really had a lot of fun, met a lot of great people, and saw many amazing things.

Thanks to all of you who followed our blog. It was fun sharing this with all of you!!!! We will be posting all of Colin's 3,000+ pictures on Flicker some time this week. We will post to the blog when it is done and give you information on how to find them if you are interested.

Spfld., IL to Joliet, IL (Tues. Aug. 3)

Today’s first line of business was breakfast at another “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” restaurant. We headed to Charlie Parkers well known for two things. One is a dish called “the shoe”. The recipe is toast topped with eggs anyway you want them topped with either bacon, sausage or ham, topped with either breakfast potatoes or American fries topped with gravy, cheese sauce or both. The other specialty is a 16 inch pancake. Pedro got the pancake, Colin and I decided to order a pancake and a shoe and split them. Conor opted to stick to his favorite French toast, fried eggs, bacon and toast. When the pancakes came we couldn’t believe how big 16 inches really is. They brought them on pizza trays!!! There was enough food to feed eight people let alone four of us. We made a valiant attempt at eating it all but there was no way. Half the food remained when we left.

Next stop, poor timing, was the Cozy Drive-In, a small restaurant well known for their “Cozy Dogs” which are corn dogs. I was told this was the place the corn dog was invented. Colin and I had sworn we were going to leave just enough room in our stomachs to at least buy one Cozy Dog and split it so we could say we had had one of the infamous 66 hot dogs. But by the time we got there we could barely stand taking pictures of the place let alone eat one. So a few quick pictures and then on to Shea’s Petroliana Museum. This museum is in a former Marathon station (Texaco station before that) which had been run at this site since the 40’s and a Mahan’s Filling Station that had been relocated to this spot. The museum is run by the Shea family and had all kinds of memorabilia from old gas stations including things like the uniforms and money changer belts worn back then and many old pumps. The owner’s son takes all visitors on personal tour of all the items in both stations. It was pretty interesting at first but the temperature and humidity levels were really high today and so by the time he was half way through what he wanted to show us we were all dying from the heat and just wanted to end it. Before leaving we got a picture of the owner (Bill,) his son, grandson and the three boys. We found that some of their family also came from County Kerry Ireland so we need to talk to my aunt and see if there is anyway this Shea family could be relatives of ours.

This was another day of seeing long sections of the original 66 that is no longer drivable running along the later alignment of 66 which we were riding on. Illinois has miles and miles of this. Several sections had turned the older section into walking and biking paths. It would have been neat if it was a cooler day to get out a run the path but in this heat no one was running. We also got to see two muffler men. One holding a hot dog and the most infamous one still on the route called the Gemini Giant who holds a rocket ship.

Our favorite stop during the day was Pontiac, IL where there is a Route 66 Museum and a War Museum in the same building. The boys really enjoyed the war museum. They could have spent hours in there if we had all the time we needed (and if the museum didn’t shut at 4). After the museum we drove around downtown Pontiac as they also are known for their wonderful wall murals. The murals were really pretty amazing.

Another fun stop was the Polk-a-Dot drive in where you could take your picture with the Balushi Brothers, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, or James Dean. We all got a kick out of their bathrooms too. In the men’s room they had pictures of Marilyn Monroe and in the ladies’ room it was Elvis. Every wall was just covered with the pictures with life size pictures on the back of the door. This place also has great hot fudge sundaes!! The fudge is awesome!!

We ended our day in Joliet, IL. We are just about at the end of our adventure. In the morning we are meeting someone from our Route 66 e-mail group for breakfast and then we leave the Route for good and head towards home. We are at a Comfort Inn instead of camping because there are no good campgrounds in the area. The boys are thrilled to have air conditioning tonight since it is still pretty warm and muggy outside.

St. Louis, Missouri to Springfield, Illinois (Mon. Aug. 2)

We headed back into St. Louis today. First stop Do-Nuts Drive in. We had heard they serve up the best donuts along Route 66 and we heard right. They were so good!!! Mrs. Murphy’s in Southwick (unbelievably good donuts if you have never had the pleasure) would have some competition from this place. After grabbing donuts we headed back to the Gateway Arch. Luckily for us the campground let us leave the camper there so we didn’t have to deal with taking it back into the city. The streets and parking lots along the river being flooded really posed a challenge with the camper yesterday. Today we could park in a parking garage right buy the arch. It took a long time to get to the top as one of the elevators were acting up so they had to take people from that side and bring them in front of us on our side. But we eventually got up top. Wow is it tight up there. The ceiling is really low and the width of the arch up top is really small. It is tough moving around all the people up there.

Before heading back to the campground we stopped and explored Chain of Rocks Bridge that connects Missouri and Illinois. This was an original bridge for travelers crossing the Mississippi on Route 66. It eventually was closed down and is now for walking or biking only. The bridge is over a mile long and has a 22 degree bend in it.

From the bridge it was back to grab the camper and then to lunch. We first tried the Luna Café known for being one of the oldest continuously operating businesses on 66. It has a bit of a history as a gangster hang out and brothel. There is a red cherry in the sign and rumors have it that if the girls were in the red cherry would be lit. Unfortunately there was no eating there as they really aren’t much of a restaurant anymore. More of a bar with chicken wings and the wings were not going to be ready for awhile. So it was off to the Hen House and old 66 chain family restaurant for a good lunch.

Driving the Route became a challenge today as in many areas there are two different stretches of the road. Usually one was up to the 40’s and then one the 40’s and beyond. We never knew which one to choose. Once we had to turn around and do the other stretch as we were not finding what we needed to find. It makes it much longer to get anywhere when you have to turn around and redo the distance.

One stop we made in the afternoon was to an Antiques Mall which was an old Coliseum Ballroom where well known people such as Guy Lombard, Chuck Berry and Tommy Dorsey played. We didn’t actually go into the building we stopped to look at all the stuff outside. There was a muffler man holding an ice cream cone, a huge tricycle that had to be at least 20 feet tall, a space ship and many other things. The best was the ice cream cone shaped ice cream shop which of course we helped support.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. We had hoped to visit at Henry’s Rabbit Ranch, a well known 66 spot but we arrived at 5:30 and they close at 4:00. Probably just as well. We hear the owner really likes to talk and can go on for hours. We were anxious to make it at least to Springfield, IL today and probably would not have if we had met up with him. So we took a few pictures and headed on to Springfield.

Springfield, Missouri to St. Louis, Misouri (Sun. Aug.1)

This morning's first stop was a bit unusual. Gary, from the Sinclair Station yesterday, told us to be sure to stop at a particular rest stop on the highway. It is a new stop in honor of Route 66. They have one going both ways. The rest stop is on the interstate, not on Route 66. Hopefully they will work in attracting more attention and more money to the Route to help save those businesses that are still operating. This was the coolest rest stop. They actually built shelters over each picnic table with each one designed like something you would see on 66.

We then continued down the road seeing many of the typical things we have come to expect on Route 66. If we are unsure if we are still on the right road we can usually figure it out pretty quickly by a couple of things. The roads basically come two ways. Either it is running right along the interstate with usually a similar road running on the other side. Or it is so far out there all by itself that you see nothing else. No matter which road you have it is very normal to have train tracks running along the side or very close to it.
Next you can pick out the road by watching for old, shut down hotels, restaurants, gas stations. . . , narrow bridges and really nice murals. If you are really lucky you are in a town that is excited about being part of Route 66 because then you will get more frequent Route 66 signs either official metal signs or banners on the phone poles. All the signs you are headed in the right direction.

Luckily for Route 66 the growing interest is starting to help. One business just recently reopened. Back to Cars again, if you watch that movie there is an old abandoned motel up the hill overlooking the interstate and at the end of the movie Lightning McQueen opens it back up. That hotel is based on a real motel called the Wagon Wheel. Well a few weeks ago the Wagon Wheel reopened and it is beautiful. We only looked from the outside but people on our e-mail group says it is really nice. The boys wanted to stay there but we really needed to get much further down the road.

By the end of the day we made it to St. Louis. (though we actually are camping across the river in Illinois.) First stop in the city was to Ted Drewes for ice cream. Everyone know Ted Drewes, on Route 66 for 75 years. We had been forewarned that we should not let the lines scare us away because there would be plenty of workers to keep the lines moving. It was a good thing they warned us because I think we would have driven away when we saw the crowd. But as we had been told there were more than enough workers and they actually got to us before we decided what we wanted.

From Ted Drewes it was off to the river to take a look at the famous arch in St. Louis. I had read about some flooding in the area but had not really given it much thought. We were surprised when we got close to the river and couldn't go down one street. The flood was receding but it was still bad enough that all parking along the river (the place those of us with campers need to park) was all under water. The water was up and over the sidewalks in most places and there were streets blocked off. Everyone was parking in illegal places along the road because there was no where to go. We joined them in one of those illegal spots so we could go see about getting up in the arch. But when we got to the arch there were no more tickets for the day. So we bought some for the morning and left. Just as well as the area right outside the arch is a bit rough looking and we were a little nervous about leaving the car and camper where we did. We were glad to move it before it got too dark. Tomorrow we will leave the camper at the campground until we have finished in the city and then we can collect it and move on. Without a camper we can get into a parking garage that is not flooded.

Tulsa, OK to Springfield, MI (Sat. July 31)

We had a great day today!! We started out at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and in spite of the fact the thing the boys wanted to do the most was out of order (wind tunnel) the still had a blast with the other exhibits. They met a great volunteer who spent a lot of time with them talking about the fighter jet. From there we took off to Afton Station an old gas station turned into a gift shop and car museum (there are a ton of these on the road) to meet Laurel (the owner) and Ron (a.k.a. Tattoo Man as he has about 80 tattoos
and all but one is based on Route 66. Too bad you can't see the tattoos in the picture but we have a book that shows many of them.) I knew of Laurel and Ron from a Route 66 e-mail group I joined and Ron contacted me to see if we could meet up. Ron kept the boys really entertained because every time they mentioned somewhere we had been he pulled up a sleeve or a pant leg and showed them the tattoo of the place we had been. . We had the added pleasure of meeting Dean "Crazy Legs" Walker while we were there. Dean was the inspiration for Mater from Cars from what we understand. For those of you who have seen the movie you will remember Mater loves to drive backwards. Well that came from the fact that Dean can turn both of his legs backwards. You might be able to see his left leg is backwards in the picture.

We took off from Afton (not paying attention so heading the wrong way, luckily we figured it out quickly!) to Kansas. There are only 13 miles of Route 66 in Kansas so it sure doesn’t take long. We stopped first in Baxter Springs the “Cafe on the Route” for lunch. Colin is a big Dinners, Drive-ins & Dives fan so it was twice as much fun to find a restaurant from the show that was also on 66. What great food!! I could not believe how much we got. The four of us could have probably split two meals and have had more than enough. They even offered to fill to go cups with soda for the boys if they wanted more soda! (after having already had about 4 refills each.) The meal Colin has here is a BBQ burger with "tobacco onions" on top (the whole pile on the plate on your left was on the burger. Then it came with that big pile of fries plus the soup or salad before it all for about $6!!

We headed from Afton to Gelina. We wanted to stop at Four Woman on the Route. (An old gas station turned into a small burger place and souvenir shop). It was already in our plans to stop there and was the plan confirmed as a good place to stop by Ron, Laurel and Dean. But unfortunately when we got there it was closed. I thought we were okay on time when we got there at 4:30 as their website said they were open until 6:00 but no one was there when we arrived. We were disappointed and even debated staying in Joplin (a town very close to Gelina) for the night so we could visit in the a.m. but they are not open on Sunday so we couldn’t see them anyway. Oh well, next trip. We did get some good pictures. Most important picture?? A rusted out tow truck. When the guys writing Cars saw this tow truck it gave them the idea to have a tow truck in the movie. So in one day we saw the truck that gave them the idea and met the guy that gave them the personality now if we just could have met Larry the Cable Guy (the voice in the cartoon!!)

We headed on into Missouri. We drove through all the old towns seeing an old Drive in theater and a wonderful old gas station in Spencer that is being refurbished along with a great bridge old bridge. We stopped at an old Sinclair Station in Paris Springs (another suggestion we got in Afton) and met Gary the owner of the station. We had a wonderful visit! We must have been there at least an hour and a half. He gave us all kinds of great suggestions about traveling on the Route. I wish we had spoken to him (and Ron & Lauren) before we started the trip. We would have seen some things we missed. Guess it gives us reason to try to get back for another trip soon.

We stopped for the night at a campground just outside of Springfield on the West side. Tomorrow we head further east in Missouri hopefully making it to St. Louis. Oh and for those of you thinking we are roughing it in campgrounds. We just want to let you know we have been staying in some real classy places. In fact look what they provided in the ladies' room in tonight's campground . . .

Oklahoma City to Tulsa, OK (Fri. July 30)

We are quickly finding that it is impossible to do justice to this great road in such little time. It would be great to be here without any restraints on our time. But we are doing the best we can to squeeze in as much as we can in the time we have. We have learned you need to check addresses and directions (though not something easy to do when you don't have much time on the internet and cell phones don't always work) as we couldn't find a few places we wanted to see the past few days and found others only by going to the wrong place and then wasting time trying to find the right address. When you are on such short time you hate to waste time getting lost or looking for a place no longer opened. We are using addresses from two different books and I figured I could trust them but I realize over time things change causing the information in the books to not always be correct.

We first stopped today at the Round Barn a well known Route 66 spot and then headed east stopping next at the Seba Station, a restored garage now a motorcycle museum that just opened up a few weeks ago. The boys were not impressed with the round barn but as we walked into the station Conor made some comment about this being more like it. We met one of the owners, Jerry. He was a really nice guy and spent some time with us talking about his station and the Route. He told us to be sure to check around back of the station before leaving as there was an old free standing bathroom the boys would probably like. They did!!

Next was lunch was at the Rock Cafe. The Rock Café is made of rocks taken from the roadway when Route 66 was built. What a nice looking place. The real draw to this place is that the owner (Dawn) is the personality they used when they designed Sally from Cars. We think we saw her but didn’t want to bug her by asking. Later on we were told they are used to it and are happy if you ask for them. Wish we hadn’t been so shy about it. But even if we didn’t see her, man does she and her staff know how to cook!! Another great meal was had.

We continued along the Route through Tulsa. The kids wanted to see the Air and Space Museum but by the time we got to Tulsa and found the museum (first address we had was wrong) there was less than 1/2 hour until it closed. So we ended up finding a hotel near the airport for the night (there is no camping around here) and will see the museum first thing this morning. We drove out 66 a bit further before settling in for the night and saw the Blue Whale (another infamous Route 66 spot that used to be a great swimming spot. If you look at the whale in the picture you can see a slide coming out of the side of the whale). We spent a bit of time talking to Blane (not sure on spelling) the man that owns it. He is the son of the original owners. He was telling us how he is trying to get the town to eventually take it on as a park so it will be preserved after he can no longer care for it. He also said the reason the water is so dirty (and it was disgusting!) is that the liability is too high to let people swim there anymore so he leaves it like that on purpose. It is really too bad there is not a way to get it back operating the way it used to.