Travel Tourettes from our Road Trips
The sky was still gloomy when we left The Wagon Wheel but the worlds biggest rocking chair in Fanning Missouri was waiting and we weren’t going to let a few grey clouds spoil that !
The rocking Chair is 42 feet and 4 inches tall and dominates the skyline as you approach the Fanning trading post. Its slightly odd but a bit of a modern Route 66 classic (being built in 2008) so after a few cheesy photos we headed in to the trading post.
Getting out of St Louis was slightly easier than getting in. We still managed to make several wrong turns before finding route 66 towards Cuba and heading for our first stop of the day, the famous Ted Drewes Frozen Custard shop.
Unfortunately the shop was closed leaving a very disappointed Oz. This is something we have found a few times over the last couple of days. famous route 66 shops and businesses closing early or opening too late. Its a real shame to not see these institutions and be able to support them.
After a heavy night on the beer with an American couple last night and a short walk to see Abraham Lincoln’s childhood house and other period houses we finally left the strange town of Springfield Illinois to head to St Louis..
Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time last night, the hotel was spot on and there were some impressive buildings such as the Illinois State Capital Hall, but despite the fact there was big country festival with live music and bbq etc on the place was dead.
Our first day on the route 66 in Illinois was an eventful one. Firstly the taxi driver taking us back to O’Hare airport to pick up the hire car spoke very little English and didn’t have much of a clue where he was going.
After finally finding the Alamo offices and settling into our huge top of the range Ford Explorer we got completely lost on the airport roads, ended up on Toll roads that only excepted coins ( with no coins in our pockets) and generally drove around Illinois neighborhood’s like headless chickens
just a quick outline of what we did in Chicago and where we visited on Thursday as we need to make tracks and head to St Louis today.
The day started with a traditional American breakfast at at the unofficial start to Route 66 in Chicago, Lou Mitchell’s. It’s exactly the kind of place a Brit would imagine if they were told to describe an all American diner. Booth seating, scarily cheery waitresses, coffee refills till the cows come home and piles upon piles of pancakes, crispy bacon and maple syrup. Absolutely perfect !
Yesterday was a long 24 hours !
Our car arrived to take us to Heathrow at 4am. The two hour drive down passed without problem and the check in process went so smoothly that we found ourselves with 3 plus hours to waste away in Terminal 3. That was mainly spent eating a nice, but expensive breakfast in a french “restaurant” that had a French accented waiter who seemed to slip into an Essex drawl when he lowered his guard and browsing Gucci and other assorted expensive shops
It’s now less than two weeks till the big off and whilst my wife is organising and double checking holiday insurance, passports, tickets and ESTA’s I’m panicking about the more important matters such as
What if the radio in the hire car is broken and I’ve got to drive nearly 3000 miles listening to country and western music !
I have a romantic vision of pulling into Vegas with Elvis knocking out Viva Las Vegas over the car speakers or turning onto Santa Monica boulevard with Sheryl Crow singing “as the sun comes down on the Santa Monica Boulevard”.
On the 5th August 2015 we fly out of Heathrow Airport to start our Route 66 road trip.
The following is a list of the towns and cities we are visiting along with the hotels and motels we are staying in. Each location will receive its own page as we travel along the route on our adventure but this will give you an idea to start with. Ive included links to all of the places we are staying so you can take a look and maybe get some ideas for your own trip.