Day 15
We were minutes from I-55 which parallels or has replaced much of the northern section of Route 66. We had spent much of the previous day discussing our feelings for the rest of the trip. These ranged from just getting home via I-80, or finding another route home altogether. In the end we decided on a middle ground. I have a Route 66 app on my phone, and it contains each city along the route and what points of interest can be found there. It may have a description of the point of interest, but always has a pressing a button to navigate there. Our plan consisted of stopping at tourist attractions, but sticking to interstates for the actual traveling.
We started out by heading to Joliet and a stop at the Old Joliet Prison. Its fame include being the open scene of the movie, The Blues Brothers. We read the placards, took some selfies and pictures, and the found our way to a gas station off of 80 for gas and a bathroom.
We took the I-55 West turn and went about 35 miles south to Gardner, IL. That town contained a little park with a replica of a diner and a two cell jail. After a couple selfies we were back on the road. 
30 miles or so south was the town of Pontiac, IL. Here we visited the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum. We bought our Route 66 patches for our backpacks, learned a lot about the history of 66 in Illinois, and got some great pictures of a homemade road yacht. A building side mural made a great backdrop for some pictures with Alfie.
It was closing in on 1ish when we stopped in Atlanta, IL, to take a selfie with a giant Paul Bunyon. He is one of the many “giant” things along Route 66. Near it was one of the hit the level with a hammer games and see how high you can get the metal ring to go. I made it about one third of the way, better then the next two guys that came by to try. We then walked a crossed the street to a local cafe for lunch. They had a museum upstairs on local history, including a section about Lincoln. The former President was born nearby and practiced law in the town. Local legend indicated he was overheard getting ready for the famous Lincoln/Douglas debates. I found it interesting that these debates occurred in multiple cities all a crossed Illinois. We finished looking at the museum, and went back downstairs for our great lunch, a fried spam sandwich for me and a patty melt for Shar. Our next planned stop was Springfield, the final resting place of President Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln’s tomb and the surrounding cemetery, as one would guess, is an ornate and scenic area. We did a self guided tour of the nearby grounds, the monument, then entered the tomb. Its a short, circular passage, containing bronze statues of the various professions that led Lincoln to occupy the White House. Halfway around this circle is where the stone marker inscribed simply with “Lincoln” Back in 1876 a gang of robbers fell on hard times and made plans to use Lincoln’s body as ransom. They were unaware that a member of the gang was a undercover agent, and they were caught in the attempt. The state of Illinois, under the pressure from Lincoln’s last remaining son, moved his body to a spot ten feet below the visible marker. That marker’s chamber’s celling, at least 20 feet in diameter, is covered in a solid sheet of 24 caret gold. The chamber where you enter the memorial with similar dimensions, has a ceiling that is a solid sheet of palladium, making it the largest amount of the rare metal anywhere in the world.
We stopped outside of Raymond, IL, to see the Shrine to Our Lady of the Highways. Our last stop before leaving Illinois was to take a picture of the world’s largest catsup bottle, a bottle shaped water tower painted to match.
St. Louis was less than forty minuets away, so we were off to see the world famous Arch. We worked our way into the city, found a parking garage, and walked the mile or so back to the park. We had to wait about an hour for our trip up on the trams, so we explored the newly opened museum on every related topic imaginable. We learned about the history of the St. Louis area, the events leading up to the Louisiana Purchase, and the construction of the Arch itself. We were easily able to fill the hour we had to wait before getting into line for the trams. How taking the tram to the top of the arch works is that X number of tickets are issued each day. There are five seats in each podlike tram, and eight trams make up each of the North and South tram groups. Approximately 480 people go up to the top and back each hour. So when you buy your ticket it has a set time that tells you the earliest time it will allow you past a checkpoint and into a tram line. Its still good after that time, you can even buy them two hours ahead via the website, but park officials won’t let you in before that time. Its pretty quick, ten minutes or so, after you pass the person who scans your ticket, and they have various ways of distracting you while you wait. Reader boards give facts about the Arch, a short movie talks about some of the history, projectors above each tram entrance tell more facts. These pods are small, there is a replica in the main ticket area you can try. It may have five seats, but they didn’t spare any more room than that. They are really cylinders that slowly rotate as you move up the arch so that you stay level. The door is small, but has glass windows, so you can see the inside of the arch as you go up. My acrophobia was in the orange by the time we got to the top, a four minute ride. You then walk up a short flight of stairs and are in the observation room. Its lined with about 10 small rectangular windows on each side, but it was the swaying you can feel beneath your feet that pushed my phobia of heights into the red. Shar snapped a couple pictures, I just got back in line to get back on the trams. I’ll push myself again in a few weeks when Ally and I are back because it isn’t something I want her to miss. 
It was 8:00ish by the time we were walking down the streets again. We had talked to the nice ladies at the information booth about a good rib place before heading to the museum. They not only recommended one, but showed us where it was on the map. By 8:30 we were walking into Sugarfire and smelling great bbq. 
Wow! Best smoked meat ever! Sauces for all tastes, and everything is served on big silver trays. The sides, green beans, potato salad, thick soup of green bean and chunks turkey, and Cole slaw were awesome. I thought we would have left overs, but it wasn’t even close. We practically rolled ourselves out the door, but were happily in a bbq comatose state.
Our camp spot at the Meramac Caverns was an hour and a half away, but the caverns were an attraction we wanted to see the next day, so it would shorten the trip in the morning. We were one of maybe three people in the camp, and the helpful security guard even drove his truck over to let us use his headlights to set up the tent. Isn’t it nice when good things happen to nice people. We set an alarm for 7:30 and tried to sleep in the sultry heat.
Miles Travelled: 334
Roads Driven: I-55, Route 66
Temperature at 10:00am: 72
Day 16:
About the only deviation from the normal morning routine was to lay the tent on its side so that the bottom could dry off before we rolled it up. Breakfast consisted of restocked apples and instant oatmeal, before packing up and driving over to the showers. We were fresh and clean as we drove the hundred yards further to the Cavern entrance. It’s an expensive tour, $21.50 each, but being in 60 degree cool is priceless. There was only two guys from Chicago in our group, so it was probably quicker than it would have been with a larger group. Sam did an excellent job adding to the script that I’m sure they have memorized. I found it interested how he turned the lights on ahead of us, then off as we left the area. While it was expensive I found the tour worth the price with the variety of subterranean features and the interesting history surrounding the cave. We rolled out of the parking lot around 11:00am and were heading back down 55 fifteen minutes later.
It wasn’t until Waynesville, MI, that we found another point of interest worth getting off of the freeway to visit. This time is was a rock that was frog shaped halfway up a steep bank, and had been painted to match. We took quick drive by photo before getting back on the freeway.
We had started seeing the pattern of what Route 66 has to offer, and Missouri just didn’t have much in the way of “unique enough to stop” category. We made good time at 70 to 75 MPH allowed speed limits, and the miles driven piled up. Shar found an Army Corp of Engineer campsite, and we rolled into Sheppard’s Point around 7:30pm with a couple cold beverages and plans for a little relaxing instead of “Set up camp and go to bed.”.
Shar’s Access pass saved us another $7 on the primitive site fee and we were again one of three or so groups in the whole campground. We ate our dinner of instant mashed potatoes topped with Dinty Moore stew, creamy loaded potato salad, and a small lunch green salad topped with feta cheese, currents, and raspberry vinaigrette. It was a delicious dinner that took next to no time to make. We finished up the dishes then slipped into our swim suits. A great place to swim was a short and quarter mile away, and marked to prevent boaters from hitting you.
It was like walking into a giant bathtub. The water was at least 85 degrees, and after you were waist deep you would finally start to feel a bit of coolness on your feet. The bottom was smooth and had a couple inches of soft mud. We paddled around for 30 minutes or so, then got out to shower off. The evening was completed after Shar completely demolished me at cribbage, we took another shower to wash the bug spray off. An alarm was set for 7:00am and we lay in the 1000% humidity wishing for a breeze of any kind.
Miles Travelled: 371
Roads Driven: Route 66, I-55
Temperature at 10:00am: 60 (in the Caverns)
Comments
Post a Comment