3000+ miles in 3 weeks, Route 66 & all that. Episode 3

[Sue]

Tuesday 23rd March

Up at 6.30am and what a lovely view from our motel window:



This actually changed little for several days, let's say that southern Illinois, Missouri and much of Oklahome is flat, featureless and pretty boring to look at. Missouri, coming up next, is also one of the poorest states in the US and it shows.
J did some work, we then had some pastries and juice. This was where I made my usual discovery that coffee does not really exist in the US! It is generally warm or tepid water that has seen half a teaspoonful of instant coffee dipped in it. I eventually resorted to seeking out the enemy named Starbucks and asking for "triple shots", but it was still pretty dreadful.

Anyway, on the road for 8.45 we picked up the Mother Road and drove on through Illinois. I was navigating at this point but feeling pretty awful. We paused for photo stops at some places. Many places have one of these signs, telling you about the This is for the "Rabbit Ranch" at Staunton:



This is actually an old gas station and boneyard for old VW Rabbits (Polo in the UK), interesting for car buffs?:



(if you cannot read it, the red signs say "Wascally Wabbits, Get Their Kicks, Meeting Folks, On 66).

We read as we travelled along that the reason for so many gas stations and repair garages was due to the punishment that was caused to old cars by the old road. Must have been a lucrative business to own a garage then!
And here is another one:



The road was not busy at all, many times we were travelling parallel to the interstate and going at the same speed! Early afternoon we arrived at a town called Litchfield and headed for the famous (to 66'ers) cafe - the Ariston Cafe:





This place has not only been here since 1924, but owned and run by the same family. A really friendly lot and the food was pretty good to. Proper tablecloths and super service, not diner like at all. We all had a good feed - I tried the speciality "baked ravioli" - would not rave but you have to try these things don't you?
They asked us to sign their guest book and also another book which contained comments and signatures going back years, from people from almost any country you could name. They also offered to take our photograph:



I bought the t-shirt with their name on it as well

All loaded back up in Louis again, we pressed on with very few stops as there was not much to see tbh. We did have one incident though that Charli will never live down! I would love to post THE pic, but I don't have it (yet) - as soon as I can get it from Phil, I will put it on this thread. Basically, we had all had a 'comfort break' and Charli had not "been bothered" to get out of the back of the car. Not far down the road she decided that she HAD to go... J feeling that a lesson was in order, pulled up at a very old run-down looking bar and told her to go in and ask to use their facilities She did this and as she went in, we hid the car around the corner - her face was a picture (literally) when she came out. She said that she just put her head down and ran in, then left asap. Henceforth - this incident was named after the bar "Wheezy's" and Charli needed no further reminder to get out of the car at supermarkets etc

Amusing diversion over, we pressed on and over the border into Missouri:



Following the Route in Missouri proved difficult at times, it crosses and recrosses the interstate and unlike the very well signposted Illinois, Missouri had virtually no helpful road signs. It became clear after a while that when they did appear, it was always AFTER you had made a significant junction turn and could not be seen in advance. This became a running joke...

As we entered St Louis - the guide books scary advice was to not stop, get out of the car and/or ask for help! It certainly was bleak in parts and we got completely lost. Eventually, we had to resort to getting Gary Garmin out and asking it to just get us the heck out of St Louis by aiming for a town we knew existed on the Route ahead. This episode cost us nearly 2 hours in total. As we drove on, we passed through many really poor and scary looking places - there were many jokes in the car about not stopping in case we were eaten or forced to join a cult/take part in rituals. In-breeding and the movie Deliverance were mentioned on several occasions!

The day was ending fast and J getting tired, it was proving harder than we thought to find a decent looking motel for the night that had somewhere to eat nearby (that wasn't a McD's or Taco Bell). We eventually stopped in Rolla and agreed a price of $39.95 per room at an "America's Best Motel" - ha ha. This used to be a Super 8 according the Garmin, but they seemed to have given it up. It later appeared to be the worst place we stayed in - clean but discoloured bed sheets (ours also had a worn hole in it) and I was sure that I found a flea! Just the one - pets were allowed at this motel so maybe it belonged to one of those. I woke without lumps however! Wi-Fi and breakfast were included but in the morning, the breakfast was nowhere to be seen.
I discovered on this trip that I am a total bed and pillow snob - we never booked another room without checking them. This was no problem and in fact, most motel owners/staff appeared to think this was normal practice. I thereafter studied the bed, mattress and pillows every time! Sleeping on other people's night-time drool is not good

We walked to a local family diner called "My Place" that turned out to be very good. I had no appetite by this stage and the really nice server was happy to just supply me with a gorgeous home-made Italian sausage and tomato soup with refills if I wanted for $1.99!
He was so friendly and we chatted to him for ages - people in these small towns were so surprised to hear our voices and all wanted to chat. It was good fun. This was becoming the land of John Deere caps and men in denim dungarees - I kid you not.
Our server did inform us that minutes before we arrived in Rolla, the police had Tazered someone in the car park of our motel... nice

We all had another good feed, including steaks for J and Phil - no beer available in this and many other restaurants ahead, meant for cheaper bills. This one beat the lot $54 for all of us (this did include my whole $2 soup!) including tax, excluding tip.

I seem to have stopped taking pics at some point today, so here's another gas station to fill my quota of pics for today:



My voice had just about gone by bedtime, I was wondering if I needed antibiotics but was not going to inconvenience anyone by taking time to see a doctor, so stocked up on Ny-Quil and Day-Quil at Walgreens and resolved to drug myself better.

Night night

Mileage driven today = 290

Total so far = 472

Tomorrow - goodbye Missouri, wave at Kansas as we clip the corner of it and into Oklahoma

[Nicksgirl]

Loving it... more please asap... x

[ambersmom]

Me too, definatly something to think of for a future trip, Cant wait for next installment, keep em coming Sue,

[Maz]

Enjoying your reports Sue. Fancied doing this route sometime, but it does seem quite lonely there!

[purple myra]

Another fab installment... so glad I logged back in

I love the Wascally Wabbits signs

[Sue]

Originally Posted by Maz

Enjoying your reports Sue. Fancied doing this route sometime, but it does seem quite lonely there!

See more...

It gets better

Really the early states west bound are quite empty but we all fell in love with New Mexico and Arizona (I'm still undecided on California as we only saw a tiny bit and Los Angeles was not for me)

[Guest]

I have to agree with you on the bed and pillow situation, my OH calls me stuck up because of this.
Looking forward to reading more.

[Guest]

Fleas!



How cheap was all that food! I can see why some Americans moan about the high prices at Disney.

Hope the soup helped your poor throat Sue. It's horrid to be unwell on your hols.

I'm sure Nursie's stash of otc drugs will do the trick!

[ely3857]

Missouri certainly looks dull, shame 'cos sounds like some of the folks are nice.

More please!



Jodie

[Guest]

thanks for sharing