Friday night we stayed in Rolla, MO at the Best Western. We had an excellent Filet at Zeno's (one of the better restaurants I've run across in the Route 66 Diners Guide) just down the road from the motel. We had just made it back to the room when the sky opened up and it started to pour, and there was lightening dancing around all over the place. Fortunately, there wasn't any hail or tornadic activing in our area, but it did rain quite a bit. The Black Bullitt got her second bath for the day.
This morning, Tom was up early and got his morning exercise in before I was even awake. Must be nice to be young. Once again we put off breakfast and hit the road with only a travel mug of generic coffee. We drove on to the South side of St. Louis before stopping to have brunch. Just down the street from the restaurant was a Starbucks, so we loaded up on Pike's Place before heading into St. Louis.
St. Louis has about 3 different routes for Route 66. Over the years, the layout of the route changed, apparently moving further out from the inner city, as the city expanded and got more congested. We decided to take the Southern most Route into the downtown corridor, which was the closest to the Arch. The Arch was spectacular and Tom got a few good pictures from the passenger side of the Bullitt. After the Arch, we followed the oldest route Northeast, not realizing that this orientation went right through the St. Louis projects. Needless to say, we were anxious to get further North along the old Route.
Once we crossed into Illinois, the Route and surrounding environment took on a new identity. I'm sure the transformation was more subtle than it seemed, but the green rolling hills of Missouri gave way to the flat farmlands of Southern Illinois, almost as soon as we crossed the Mississippi River. The Mother Road was now running North by Northeast toward Springfield and Bloomington beyond.
As we motored North by Northeast, we crisscrossed Highway 55 about about 8 times before we hit McLean. McLean is known as the birthplace of the Republican Party (1856), Lt. Colonel Henry Blake (MASH 4077), and the Dixie's Truck Stop which opened in 1948.
One of the highlights of Route 66 culture in Illinois is the Cozy Dog in Springfield. This place has been in business since the 1940's and it's claim-to-fame is that they perfected the corn-dog. The Cozy Dog has moved across the highway from its original building, but is still serving the best corn dog on the planet. Next we drove by the State Capital and the Lincoln Statue. Parking looked difficult, so we did a drive by shooting (see Tom's fuzzy photo of Abe). Bloomington Normal is noteworthy in the sense that it's the location of Illinois State University and Joyce's alma-mater.
The State of Illinois has done a pretty good job of marking the various routes of Rotue 66. I say various, because there were apparently 3 variations, like those in St. Louis. There was the oldest, old and current routes, all of which were indicated by different signs. This was a new twist for me, having a choice of which route to take, so we did some exploring and doubling back to another route during the day. It also meant that there were old alignments that are still very much intact, but not officially in use anymore. There are a couple of pictures posted that show an old alignment that is in pretty good shape, but closed off to traffic. These closed sections were in use until the 1960's when Highway 55 was completed, then decommissioned.
I allowed the navigator (Tom) to drive the Black Bullitt for the second time today. I neglected to mention in yesterday's blog that Tom drove a manual transmission for the first time in about 20 years. I guess it's like riding a bike, once you've mastered it, you never forget how to do it. At any rate, he did a good job and I wasn't too anxious riding shotgun.
For most of day, it was overcast and it looked like it was going to rain again, but it did not happen. It stayed dry, but also cool all day. For the first time in over a week, I wasn't wearing shorts. After spending the past 6 days in the warm/hotter than hell Southwest, moving into the Northern latitudes is having a chilling effect. I guess it's back to reality.
Tomorrow will be a short run up to LaGrange where we are going to pick up Joyce for the final run into Grant Park, downtown Chicago. The jouney is coming to a close and I have mixed emotions about that. It will be nice to be home, get Ally out of doggie jail and back into the normal swing of things. But also, I'll miss the freedom of the open road and carefree attitude you have when traveling the Mother Road on a loose time schedule in the Black Bullitt....
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