Kicks: Day Three - Angry Birds

Holy moley, what a long day. I’m about wiped, but Beth the Intrepid makes an entry about today! There is much to say, but I’ll just hit some highlights.

Our day began with a trip to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. It has been reopened to bikes and pedestrians for a little over a decade now, but when Shane and I came through in 2001, we got there when it was closed for the day. It was a pleasure to walk across it today and feel the breeze across the river—even at 9 am, it was hot and humid—and look out at the Mississippi. The bridge has a 22 degree angle, and I’m not sure how many bridges have such a thing. It’s a unique bridge, and I was very glad to get to walk the mile over to Missouri and then walk a mile back. (That was my exercise for the day!)

I’m afraid that some were not as happy as I was that I was walking across the bridge. Ken and I were accosted by two very pissed off ospreys. It’s obvious that they were nesting, because one of them (I’d guess the male) was hollering at us from up in the beams, and then started dive-bombing us. It was actually a little frightening! I thought of our friend Sheria, who really does not like birds, and about how awful that would be for her. Heck, I LOVE birds, and I was a little freaked out!

Speaking of bridges…Shane, we crossed over the Mississippi on the McKinley Bridge! They obviously put about a zillion dollars into that thing, because when Shane and I crossed over, it was one of the scariest bridge experiences I’ve ever had. There were outer metal lanes—rickety and rusty metal lanes—hanging off of the sides, and that is what we drove on. There were minimal guard rails, and I recall looking out over the side and thinking “Holy shit!” It’s much more structurally sound now, the dangling metal outer lanes are gone, as are the toll booths. I’m honestly amazed that they refurbished the bridge rather than tearing it down. It was super scary when we went across in 2001!


I was very impressed by the display at Route 66 State Park. They had some great stuff, including a nice little collection of Coral Court memorabilia. We had just driven by the site where the Coral Court stood, and got a couple of pictures by the original stone pillars that bordered the motel grounds. I got similar pictures in 2001, but was happy to see that those pillars are still there. As I think about it, isn’t it odd that there is a group of us who knows what those pillars are and why they are there? How many people in that neighborhood of St. Louis walk by them every day and don’t give them another thought? And here I am practically worshipping at them, asking Ken to take my picture by one. Seeking out stone pillars in St. Louis. Go figure.


One of our other goals was to visit Meramec Caverns. It’s one of those places that is engraved upon your mind if you did any traveling with your parents when you were a kid. You’d see signs everywhere, like Ruby Falls and Rock City in Tennessee. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is actually a pretty damn cool place to visit, and the caverns are amazing! I don’t think I’d been to a cave since I was a kid and we went to ones in southern Indiana. From what I’ve read, the whole Jesse James Hideout thing is a little dubious, but there is no denying that nature is always more impressive than outlaws. One formation is estimated to be 75 million years old. In your face, Jesse James!


And if we’re doing Route 66, a stop at John’s Modern Cabins is a necessity…if only because the place is really beginning to collapse. At least a couple of cabins are down since we first stopped there in (I think) 2005. I was very sad to see that a branch has bent over the arrow on the sign. Will anyone try to save this sign? Or is it destined to become an archaeological artifact?


Another highlight for me today was the Devil’s Elbow area of Route 66 in Missouri. Shane and I didn’t come this far, so this is new to me. It’s amazing to see this four lane stretch of 66 wend its way through the bluffs. I’ve seen this on postcards, and now I’m seeing it for real. Unfortunately, I badly underestimated our travel time and how much time we’d spend at the other things, so we didn’t get to the fabulous Munger Moss Motel until about 9 pm. Even then, we had to get off of Route 66 after Devil’s Elbow and hit the Interstate to make some time. Ken is kind and understanding enough to be okay with heading back the other way tomorrow to pick up where we left off. Our day is a light one tomorrow as we head about 50 miles into Springfield, so doubling back will work out okay. I really don’t want to miss this stretch of it, because I think it is some of the most gorgeous scenery I’ve seen along Route 66 so far. When you’re driving the image on a postcard, you know you’re doing something right!

Kicks: Day One

A beautiful, sunny day for a road trip!

We headed up Highway 2 to Chicago as far as was practical (trying to take the back roads as much as possible), and then took the freeways and Skyway up to Chicago. It’s always fun to drive down Lakeshore and see the Chicago Skyline...one of the more beautiful and recognizable in the country!

Route 66 starts in the Loop and heads southwest to Cicero and Berwyn. This is still a fairly urban area, but there are a few great signs (Henry’s has a big hot dog). I was very sad to see that the Wishing Well Motel in Countryside has been torn down. It’s so sad...you can see its footprint, and I remember it being among the trees, which are still there. But the motel is gone. ::sigh::

We had to stop at Dell Rhea Chicken Basket in Willowbrook for lunch. It’s been there since the ‘40s, and it’s still going strong. Plenty of people in for the lunch buffet, and we enjoyed our Route 66 Red Ale. They’re known for their chicken (obviously!), but I didn’t want to eat that much for lunch, so it was a Cobb salad for me and a shrimp basket for Ken. Great place!




We cruised through downtown Joliet, which is really a pretty little town. The Rialto Theater is a beauty!





The Launching Pad Drive-In in Wilmington is one of my favorites, because it has a giant guy, the Gemini Giant. I love the giant guys!




We stopped at one of the great restored gas stations in Illinois, the Texaco in Dwight. It’s wonderful to see so many of these restorations, and it seems that many of these places now have gift shops (I don’t recall them in these places when Shane and I came through in 2001...I think they were newly restored back then, and they have expanded their operations a little bit. Excellent!).




We went to the site of the Riviera Roadhouse near Gardner. It was so sad. It was still standing when Shane and I came through, although I think it had temporarily closed, and was under new management. It was one of the original places on Route 66, dating back to the ‘20s, and people like Gene Kelly, Tom Mix, and Al Capone frequented the Riviera. Sadly, it burned down two years ago, and there is nothing left. Just a gravel parking lot and a wooded area that is going to weed. A couple of trees had extensive burn marks, and I picked up a few things in the parking lot...a piece of tile, a screw, little things like that. It’s sobering and humbling to realize how soon nature takes over after a building is gone. If you didn’t know where it was, you wouldn’t give it another glance.





This is a dead-end portion of 66 where a bridge was demolished. We drove down to the end and then I took this picture looking back. As we were driving back, a cop was heading our way…maybe he thought we were up to no good!

Standard Oil Odell VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Another great restored gas station is the Standard Oil in Odell. This is a real beauty, with very rare tiled siding, and lovely blue trim (maybe I love it because it reminds me of the Colts!).





This is one of only two Meramec Caverns barns left in Illinois. We’re planning on visiting Meramec on Sunday!




We stopped at the Old Log Cabin Inn near Odell for a cool beverage. This place also dates back to the ‘20s, and is unique in that it originally faced the oldest part of Route 66, from 1926. A new four lane Route 66 was built just a few years later, and they picked up the whole restaurant and turned it to face the new alignment! If you walk behind it near the railroad tracks, you can see a little pile of pavement that was torn up from the original alignment. When Shane and I came through there, I recall it being BIG piles of debris, and I got a couple of pieces of the old road for my collection. There isn’t much left a decade later!




Outside of Odell, we went by a motel I totally did not remember from the first time through, the Palamar. I would guess that it dates from the ‘50s or ‘60s, based on the decorative walls. Much of it has been closed off, including what looked to be the original office, with a drive-through canopy at the entrance. Does anyone know anything about the Palamar?

We meandered through Normal/Bloomington, and there isn’t a whole lot left here from the Route 66 era. (The very first Steak ‘N Shake was here, but it turned into a pizza joint some time ago. Shane and I were pissed, because we were ready for a shake! It’s too bad they didn’t preserve the original restaurant.) We’re staying at a place off of I-55, and will head back to Route 66 tomorrow morning, heading towards St. Louis. Chain of Rocks Bridge! Luna Cafe! Some of my favorites!

Okay, I’m getting this posted so we can get some sleep and do a brief workout in the morning then get back on the road. This was probably our longest traveling day, since we had to head up to Chicago first, so tomorrow should be a little more laid back.

I’m touring the facility

...and picking up slack!

After my workout today, I took care of the Nutwood birds (seed, suet, cleaning the bird bath), and tried to get a little time in the sun on the deck. Unfortunately, by that time it was clouding up, so I gave up and started cleaning some of the old food out of the freezers. (Note to self: it’s all fine and good to freeze stuff when you can’t quite eat all of it, but you have to eat it soon. I’ve reclaimed at least half a dozen plastic containers.)

After I showered, I decided to work on the Route 66 trip a little bit more, and finalize some stops and plans. It’s not as easy as you’d think, because many of the stops are off of the Interstate, and many of the little towns don’t have places to stay nearby—at least once you get out to the Southwest (which is where I had to finish up the planning). We have side trips planned for Meramec Caverns (of course!), the Petrified Forest, and some cliff dwellings. We thought about the South rim of the Grand Canyon, too, but that’s going to be a little too far of a side trip, and it would also have been another side trip out of Flagstaff (the cliff dwellings are the side trip of choice out of Flagstaff). I’ve got us staying an extra day in Albuquerque, which will be not quite halfway, so we can get a chance to stay a couple of nights in one place! (And do some laundry.) It will also be a good chance to see all the Googie signs in the city, both during the day and lit up at night.

We have one day that is mostly free at the very end of the Road, in Santa Monica. We’ll take that time to just enjoy the Santa Monica Pier and the end of our epic road trip, and we’re hoping to meet up with our friend Marty of Heard at Starbucks. A visit to 7th and Montana is definitely in order! After Santa Monica, we’ll be busy with family, Andy’s graduation, and then a weekend in L.A. with Kim and Steve and our nieces (with visits to the Huntington Library and the Getty Museum). I wish we could get together with our other friends in L.A., but I’m afraid there are only so many hours in the day.

Anyway, it’s good to have the foundation of the itinerary in place. I’m going to add a few things in there, but not too much—that’s what my reference books are for! I’ll get it printed out (with some extra space for if I want to write in anything later on), and we’ll be good to go except for the packing part. Whew! I’m trying not to overplan or micromanage...I’m no Clark Griswold, sticking to a set schedule with no flexibility. If our rental car is a pea green station wagon, I’m going to be pissed! But having a general idea of where we’ll be at the end of each day is a good thing, and there are only about three weeks before we leave! Oh boy!

After all that, I gave my brain a rest and went out on the deck to shuck some corn for tonight’s barbecue. It’s not locally grown corn—that won’t be on for a couple more months—but I bet it will taste good all the same. Plus steak and a wedge salad with blue cheese dressing. (No pineapple...hahahaha...private joke!) Add a nice glass of red wine, and it will be a much-needed relaxing evening.
I hope you all have enjoyed your weekend, whether you were relaxing or having fun!

Head out to the highway

At long last, the time approaches for our Route 66 trip!

We’ve been talking about it for many years now, pretty much since we met! Shortly after Ken and I met, Cousin Shane and I went on a trip we’d been planning for a while, where we went from Chicago to a little past St. Louis on Route 66. I’ve also been on the Road in a few other spots in Missouri, but it’s always been a goal to do the whole thing. (If I actually had a bucket list, this trip would be on it.) We had tentatively planned it a couple of times, but for various reasons, it didn’t work out...but THIS is the year!

Our good friend Andy will be graduating from Cal Tech with his Ph.D. (him smart) in June, he asked us to be there for his graduation, and we are honored to be invited. That will work out perfectly, and we timed our trip so that we could drive out on Route 66 and be in Pasadena for his graduation (we’ll rent a car—a convertible, of course!—then fly back). Our friends Kim and Steve are planning a trip to Hawaii at that time, and we’re hoping that they’ll be able to fly out of LA so that we can spend the weekend with them. We also hope to hook up with other family members, although our time will be limited. Paths are converging! Planets are aligning! Dogs and cats are living together!

Today I started some early planning. The goal is to average 150 miles per day (there’s a lot to see along the road...Shane and I took a week to go from Chicago to St. Louis and back...normally about a five hour trip), and Ken suggested breaking it down into about four blocks, and then breaking it down further from there. That worked well, and I have a general idea of where we want to get to each night. That could change, and I still need to do lots more research for the stops and side trips. Meramec Caverns is a must, the Petrified Forest will warrant much of a day, and there will be a stop our friend Laurel’s Afton Station and hopefully dinner with her that evening...and there are so many more stops to make and things to see! We also hope to stay at the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, the Blue Swallow in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. (A teepee motel is a must for this trip.) Laurel has been a wonderful resource, and she recommended Jerry McClanahan’s EZ 66 Guide, which I’ll be studying over the next few weeks. I have several other guidebooks, as well as a ‘50s-era road atlas from when Route 66 was still a commissioned highway.

Can you tell I’m getting excited? This blog will probably turn into a travelogue during that time, and I hope to update almost every evening. We really won’t be doing much night driving, because that would kind of defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? I’m looking forward to all of it, but I’m especially looking forward to driving through the Southwest. I’ve traveled quite a bit, but I’ve spent very little time there, and it has a unique beauty. I know Shane loves it there, and I can see why. There are also quite a few towns along the Road that, if not exactly ghost towns, are somewhat desolate and a little spooky. Shane tells me that Glenrio, which straddles the Texas/New Mexico border, is such a town. You know how I love abandoned places!

Anyway, it’s going to be a fun trip. We’ve got a couple more months to nail down our plans, and then we’ll hit the road! I hope you’ll enjoy my tales of the things we see and the people we meet. I think it’s really going to be one of those “trip of a lifetime” kind of deals. Every trip is fun, but this one is going to be something special!