April 25-28

We made it to Missouri and have driven all of Route 66 in the state.  Passing through many small towns with highlighted murals and signage commemorating Route 66. 

Found the second largest rocking chair, how big is the largest?

Found Mator and Luigi

There are tons of the hotels and businesses that were once thriving, now abandoned or just closed their doors because of the decommission and new bypasses of Route 66.  We are sure we will continue to find more as we continue the route.

 

The Uranus Fudge Factory, what a hoot.  Their novelty shirts and souvenirs with funny sayings about the stores name that were hilarious.  I passed on a shirt, don’t think I had the courage to wear  one in public.  It is a must stop on anyone’s bucket list.  Their fudge was pretty darn good too.

 

Springfield, MO was putting the finishing touches on their centennial marker. 

The Springfield Bass Pro Shop was a unexpected surprise. It is their original store that has grown to 500,000 sq ft.  It features not only their regular departments/merchandise on a large scale but a massive Wonders of the Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium.  We spent 4 awesome hours there and worth every minute.  A must if anyone is in Springfield.  

 

As we were coming off our high from the Bass Pro Shop heading down the highway, it HAPPENED our first mishap.  The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) sounded the alarm.  In a controlled panic we found a place to pull over, jumped out of the truck to see what happened.  One of the trailer tires was completely flat.   We went into action, got the spare, jack and tools out and put them to good use.  Tada, an hour later we arrived at that nights rv park.  Relieved we were able to settle in before it got dark only to find out that there was a storm (rain and hail) and tornado watch in effect, that turned into a tornado warning with sirens and phones blaring with weather alerts.  Who knew that the time we spent on the sailboat with a ready ditch bag would have been training for the land yacht.  (A boaters ditch bag normally has a radio, batteries, fresh water, flashlight, first aid kit).  We packed a quick bag with cell phones, chargers, documents, meds, wallets, water and flashlights not knowing if the trailer would be there when the storm was over.  We headed for the storm shelter (laundry building) at the rv park.  Where we hung out with 30 of our new friends until the all clear was made.  All was good, the trailer was in perfect shape and we were in our beds by midnight. 

 

Next day we went back into Springfield for a little adventure, found a classic car museum, worlds largest fork, the garage where Bonnie and Clyde lived for 14 days and had a shot out with law enforcement. 

To top the day off we drove through two hail storms, we are ready to leave Missouri.

 

 

April 22-24

Wow, what a couple of days.   We drove through so many small towns these few days on Route 66  like: Joliet, Elwood, Braidwood, Godley, Garner, Dwight, Odell, Pontiac, Chenoa, Lexington, Towanda, Normal, Wilmington, Funks Grove, Shirley, McLean, Alanta, Lincoln, Broadwell, Elkhart, Williamsville, Lexington, Bloomington, Springfield, Virden, Girard, Gillespie, Litchfield, Mt Olive, Livingston, Staunton, Granite City and Collinsville (wow, my fingers are tired listing all these towns) all on the pavement the original Mother Road took.  Some roads were in better shape than others.  One road had been defaced by a turkey when the concrete was poured.

dead mans curve

turkey tracks

We took so many pictures of the roadside landmarks like the famous giants.  I guess you can say we had a thing for them

Other novelties:

Numerus signage:

Old gas stations:

Lincoln Library and Home:

Famous Cozy Dog drive in (home of the first corn dog) 

And so much more:

It has been pretty exciting to be able to be on this road but there was never a straight road and so many crazy turns.  Illinois is the first state of our travels on Route 66, sure hope the road gets a little straight as we work our way west.  The pictures are endless, but I will try to keep it to a minimum, not 😊.