Well, here we are again. Just returned from dinner at The Outback where Stella reared her head again! And much needed too, after an eventful day. When I say eventful that means mostly good!
It didnt start too well. After we left St Louis (50 miles into a successful negotiation of the complex road infracstructure of the city) it was announced by Pand that she'd left her f*** phone back in the hotel. She doesn't normally use expletives but this was a major incident! The net result was that we are soon to benefit from the services of the famous FedEx from whose equally famous good reputation we should benefit in two days time in Oklahoma when the f*** phone arrives there! Total additional cost to me = $40!
Anyway, not to worry, that little incident over off we travelled - and what a fantastic journey it was. The best way to describe today's road is that it was a road meant for driving and that was what today was all about - just driving. We drove 260 miles to Springfield MO, 90% of which was on the actual, original, Route 66, 2 lane concrete road. Whereas you can drive on roads that were once the 66 but now renewed or reconstructed today we drove on the old 66 as was - for miles upon miles upon miles she opened up in front of us and it seemed like a never ending pleasure! Its an interesting road too. A lot of it actually runs right alongside the Interstate itself as this photo shows:
Most of it though runs through its own countryside and through the oldest small towns. We drove through Gray Summitt in St Louis into St Clair, through Stanton, Sullivan, St Cloud, Bourbon and Cuba. Stanton houses the Meramec Caverns and these had been signposted almost since Chicago. We didn't visit them though. What we did visit was the Wagon Wheel Motel and the Missouri Hickory Bar BBQ in Cuba and then the US 66 Outpost in Fanning.
The one above is the Motel. Nice isn't it? Not like the stereo typical Route 66 motels although they are the ones with the real magical feel.
The two above were at the 66 Outpost. Look at the size of the rocking chair! I had to get some sort of giant in on this post. I promise there are no others and that we didn't photograph any other giants on this section of the trip - enough is enough.
Anyway, onwards from Fanning took us through Rosati, St James, Northwye and into Rolla. From there to Doolittle, through Hooker Cut and across the bridge into Devil's Elbow. This is a bridge that runs over the Big Piney River:
This was taken from that bridge. We stopped there because the bridge itself looked so typically American - just like in the films. The Devil's Elbow is so called after a bend in this river that caused log jams beneath the 200 foot tall tree-lined bluffs. Anyway never mind that - here's us on the bridge:
We stopped to buy petrol near here (I think it was in Buckhorn) but all the petrol pump handles were covered with plastic bags. I went in to enquire and was told "We aint sold no gas for over a year. The oil companies are makin' millions and we dont make nuthin' so the hell with it"! I thought "What??" and said thank you very much!
We drove on through Hazelgreen, over the Gasconade river bridge, through Lebanon, Phillipsburg, Conway, Marshfield and Strafford. The road along this whole stretch was just magnificent
It stretched out for miles through farmaland and all along were typical old American things - even down to the obligatory hay barn:
The road stretched ahead for miles and I wish I could do justice to its description here. I did in fact video a portion of it to post here but the bloody thing was not imported when I connected the iphone. Somehow it got deleted in the process. Not a good end to the day but I hope I can video a stretch tomorrow and above all I hope that the road tomorrow is as stunning to see as it was today.
Maybe I'm sounding almost religious in my fervour for all this but today has really done that. And maybe that's because along with all else I've described about this route today, through pure agriculture combined with 66 memorabila, there was also a theme more than tinged with religion. There were churches EVERYWHERE!! You cannot imagine there being enough people to warrant a baptist church here, an evangelist one there, a catholic one 100 yards on and a 2nd adventist opposite that! I jest not, religion is as common as air in Missouri! And as we left Strafford to enter Springfiled we took heed of the advice:
Whether or not we'll "Stop It" I don't know. But we dont want this journey to stop I do know that. Travelling 66 is just indescribable. As I sign off to get to bed at 9pm I cannot wait to get up again at 6am when we set off on our 300 mile trek to Oklahoma City. That is where we will be tomorrow night and the night after. More posts then.....
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