Thursday 31at August 2000

Carthage - Chandler, Oklahoma

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO KEN & BEV, MARRIED 9 YRS TODAY

After congratulating Ken and Bev and deciding that Ken and Bev should do the daily diary together that day, we left the hotel at approx 9am and made our way to breakfast at the Gooseberry Diner, this was a typical small American 50’s style diner, silver in colour with a rounded roof. We were slightly concerned as the waitress’s were very busy cleaning everything in sight, only to realise a little later that the health inspector was visiting. No complaints, food was good and waitress’s very friendly and the coffee cup was never empty.

We then drove to the Carthage Drive-In movie theatre and another Route 66 souvenir shop very hot already. Carried along the route towards Joplin and then across the border to Kansas, we at last saw our first dead critter, could not make up our minds what it was, may have been a Possum. We did not stay overnight in Kansas as the Route only takes in a very small part of this State, but we did visit another Route 66 souvenir shop and Ken struck up a conversation with a guy about the Second World War.

We carried on driving the Mother road, across into another state, to our final destination of the day, The Lincoln Hotel, Chandler, Oklahoma. Another very hot day and this state is also having a heat wave. Most of the morning was spent driving the Freeway as not too many sites to see and as we had quite a long distance to travel today we thought it better. Turned off the Freeway to visit The Blue Whale at Catoosa, but after driving round the state for about half and hour we gave up as it was not quite where our nap said it was. We realised at this point that this state is very poorly signposted with reference to the route.

After stopping at ‘Subway’ in Tulsa for lunch and then we carried on through Tulsa and stopped at the Rock Café, another site to see along the Mother Road, had coffee and looked a more route memorabilia. Next stop was a look at a section of the original Route 66, still in sight, that runs next to the road now used. Bev and I had a walk along while Rob and Ken took picture and did some videoing. Passed a dead Armadillo and saw a live Possum running across the road.

Drove on through Davenport to Chandler, small, one horse town and arrived at our Hotel late afternoon, typical small town American Motel and on the wall outside each room was a fairy light and a small flag; Stars & Stripes of course. Rooms very small but neat, clean and a bit stuffy but we soon cranked up the air con. As we walked round we noticed that we were the only people walking, everyone else was driving, bit as the temperature was still about 30º, who were the mad ones.

We found Grannies Country Kitchen, ordered dinner and to our surprise could not even get a beer, what a way to celebrate your friends Anniversary, no alcohol. Rob had a roast beef dinner and Ken had liver and Bacon, they both said how good the food was and very traditional. Bev and I both had Chicken Salad. We did not linger too long after dinner as a local chap turned up and told us that the Lord had determined the weather conditions, but he would look after us, we did not make eye contact and made a hasty retreat, or we would have never got out of there. The time was then 8.30pm and the temperature was still a hot 93º.

We then cruised, the area looking for some action, not even a bar in the town, so decided to go back to the hotel have some drinks of our own and catch the weather forecast for the next few days.

After a few beers to celebrate we thought it a good idea to have an early night, bearing in mind that it was Ken & Bev’s Wedding Anniversary.

TRAVELLED TODAY 207 MILES

Wednesday 30th August 2000

St. Louis – Carthage, Missouri

We left the hotel and St Louis at approx 10am heading through St Louis to our next destination Carthage, Missouri and the Boots Motel. Another very hot day today, bright blue sky again and even hot in the van as the whole area is having a hear wave, there are even heat warnings every morning on the weather station.

We stopped at a place call Times beach, this was a 1920’s tourist area that was used for weekend and holiday retreats. In those days they used to spray oil onto the road surface to keep the dust down but it polluted the whole area as the oil contained Dioxins. They moved everyone out of the area and it was left deserted. In the early 1990’s they decided to burn off the oil and make the whole area into a nature reserve, which is what it is today and you follow a long winding road all around the park. It is mostly used for picnics and Bar-B-Q’s today especially in the summer.

We visited an excellent Route 66 museum, it had been open less than a year and so far the best we have seen, very hospitable ranger in the centre, she even have us a packet of chocolate cookies, we all bought some excellent route souvenirs. We carried along the route to a place called St. Clair: a quaint, typical American small town, we had lunch with the locals in a diner called Lewis Café. Just as we left the diner a train came through the centre of town, it must have been about 11/2 miles long and took 2 mins and 17 seconds to go past, yes, I even timed it as we had heard that the trains went on forever and boy this one did (well it seems like it when you are timing it).

We then visited the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, very quiet and restful place, on the outside it was like a stone monument, it was extremely hot that day and stone seemed to give off so much heat. But when you went inside it was lovely and cool, this was the most historical place we have visited so far. The guide waited for a bit of a crowd and then gave some background on Abraham and explained why this tomb had been placed here in Missouri. You were then directed in a large square block with pictures and statues placed on all the walls, until we came to a large lead plaque on the wall and this is where Abraham Lincoln is buried, encased in a thick wall of lead. A fascinating place very sombre but also well worth a visit.

We eventually left town and continued on Route 66 to St. James winery, bought some excellent wine. We stopped off in a small town called Springfield at a McDonalds for some coffee and a rest. The young waitress asked where we were from and could not understand why we would want to visit her little town and drive along a long road!! She was telling us that because it was so hot they had been let out of school and would not be going back until next week at least and not then if the heat wave did not break.

After our coffee and rest we carried on along the route to Carthage and arrived at the Boots Motel, this was to be our stop for the night, it was very quaint, a bit Art Deco, very pleasant. It was rumoured that Clark Gable had stayed in room 6. We had room 14 and Ken & Bev had room 10. Very nice, not very big but all we needed for our 1 night stop, at least the rooms had air conditioning.

After we had rested we decided that we needed some exercise and would take a walk round the town before dinner, we had noticed when we drove into the town earlier that afternoon the famous Clock Tower that was the inspiration for the one in the film ‘Back to the Future’ and very pretty it was too, the lighting around it glowed a very soft purple. It was 8.00pm by then and the temperature was still about 85°

We made for the local Chinese, lovely and cool inside, but we did get a shock when we ordered 4 long cool beers, sorry the waitress said we do not sell alcohol. Food was not too bad, tested better, but the waitress was very friendly and chatted and she could not understand why we wanted to travel the route and stay at the Boots Motel. After dinner we decided to go shopping at the local Wal-Mart super centre, (this is the part of the trip Ken had been waiting for), we bought some goodies for the trip, a few more tee shirts and shorts for both Rob and I and some long awaited beers and wine coolers. (These are native to the USA and are like half bottles of wine but mixed with either lemonade or fruit juices, very refreshing when served straight out of the fridge).

It was about 11pm when we left the Wal-Mart and made our way back to the Motel to enjoy a long awaited beer, it was still very hot so after a nightcap and chat we all made our way to bed.

TRAVELLED TODAY: 328 MILES

Tuesday 29th August 2000

CHICAGO – ST LOUIS, MISSOURI

Well today is the day we have been waiting and planning for and Ken has worked so hard on for the past two years. Here we are just leaving Chicago on our trip along Route 66. We left the hotel about 9am and made our way to Interstate 55 heading towards St. Louis, Missouri, our 1st overnight stop. A perfect day bright and sunny, blue sky not a cloud to been seen for miles and as it got hotter we stayed cool in our air-conditioned people carrier, all packed up with our bags for our adventure.

When we got out of the van at our first sightseeing stop of the trip the heat hit us, it must have been about 90ºf and that was at 10.30am. We had arrived at Funks Grove the home where the original maple sirup was first made and is still being made to this day. We met Mrs Funk who served us our sirup and souvenirs. She gave us some history of Route 66 and sirup making and advised of a couple of good maps to buy, so with sirup, souvenirs and a few more stories of the ‘Mother Road’ off we went.

We continued along the road, staying on the original route as much as possible. We stopped at Dixie Truckers Home diner in MacLean for lunch and a look at the first of many Route 66 museums, not much to look at and we had to wait ages for our lunch.

After 320 miles on and off of the Mother Road, as it is not always visible anymore and some of the maps do not even show it, we came to the Best Western Hotel in Pontoon Beach near the border of Illinois and Missouri (our next state of the journey). We went for a quick swim in the hotel pool, not to bad but a bit small just enough room for 4 of us, we were glad as we had it to ourselves. We then drove into the centre of St. Louis to find the great arch called ‘Gateway Arch’ where we were to meet Bob and Kitty Harmon, another couple who are well travelled on Route 66 that Ken had again met on the internet and arranged a meeting.

The Arch, a rather large, silver coloured thick arch shaped building was erected in the late 30’s for a State exhibition. It had a viewing gallery at the very top and this was our destination for the start of this evening. I can tell you I was a little scared as we rode up inside the arch in a little egg shaped pod just big enough for 5 people and were carried up about 630ft to the centre of the top of the arch.

The view from the top was awesome: we could see the whole of St. Louis all lit up, nothing to be scared about at all.

We went to dinner with Bob & Kitty in the ‘Old Spaghetti House’ an old converted dockside warehouse. The meal was excellent very Italian as the name suggests and fantastic value, the company was excellent too, Bob and Kitty are a lovely couple and had travelled about 70 miles to join us that evening. Bob gave us some gifts of maps and Route 66 information and Ken gave him one of his small Union Jack pins that he had bought specially for such occasions.

We then said our good byes and made our way back to the van, we went through part of the national park and as it was very humid we had to avoid the small midges that were all over the park. We returned to the hotel to ready ourselves for our next day on the road.


TRAVELLED TODAY 320 MILES

Monday 28th August 2000

Chicago

We had breakfast in the hotel complex again and today Ken taped some of the waitress’s patter as he is making a sound recording of the whole trip to go along with the video and pictures we are taking. Breakfast was excellent again, very good value, similar to full English but only costing approx £5.00 per head and that’s everything, juice, meal and as much coffee or tea as you can drink, Rob was in his element and a bit different to a sandwich, bar of chocolate and one cup of coffee for ten pounds back home.

After breakfast we walked to the John Hancock building, another famous landmark of the Chicago skyline, said to be a better view than from Sears Tower. The receptionist advised that as it was a bit misty we would not be able to see any further than about ½ mile, but if we came back about 7.30-8.00pm we would have a great view of day changing to night and get some excellent pictures.

We strolled thru a few shops, bought a couple of Chicago tee shirts and got 10 free postcards. After a leisurely walk around we made our way back to the hotel to await our meeting with Lulu, this is the Internet friend of Ken’s that I mentioned before. Ken had worked very hard researching this whole trip and met her when he logged on the Route 66 website. Lulu has done the Mother Road on many occasions and has so much information about it. Everyone was a bit nervous and as we waited for her to arrive we all felt a bit apprehensive, as she was a little late. At a little after 12.30 she arrived, we made our introductions and she asked us what we had seen and done and what we would like to do and see and if we had anywhere in particular we wanted to visit, we said we were in her hands. She decided that it would be good to explore in the car as it was getting hot and we could see more of the City. We started off by visiting Wrigley Field, this is the home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, an excellent looking Stadium, we were sorry that there was not a game on as we would like to have seen one. We then drove back into town for lunch.

We went to a diner called Billy Goat Tavern, this featured in the film ‘Blues Brothers’, they served ‘cheezboyger’, no fries, just chips, our equivalent to crisps. It was a brilliant atmosphere and their motto is ‘Butt in Anytime’. Rob and Ken visited the Billie’s while Bev and I visited the Nannies. After a superb boyger we left the Billy Goat tavern to continue our tour of down town Chicago. Our next adventure was to ride on The Loop. This is similar to our underground system but it is way up over our heads and goes in a big circle around the city centre. We all then went for a ride around the city in the car. First she took us to China Town (as every big City has) and then the Greek quarter. Then we went to Comisky Park, (now known as U.S Cellular Field) this is the home of the Chicago White Sox, the rival baseball team.

After a full afternoons sightseeing exploits we went for dinner at a place called ’Dicks Last Resort’ a restaurant that prides its self as being the rudest place in town to eat and boy were we insulted, we were thrown our cutlery, bellowed at to take our order and told the coleslaw would make us fart but as it was free we had to eat it. The food was served in a small, silver galvanised bucket and we had to plough our way thru half a chicken each. Bev and I were called wimps because we could only drink one bottle of Bud, but Rob had a 32oz bottle so the waiter was impressed with him. Ken had a glass of red wine which came with a small red straw in it, “what’s this for” asked Ken “to drink thru” came the answer, the waiter thought we were mighty strange folks. After dinner and some confusion over signing the credit card receipt for the excellent dinner we had just had, we made our way back to Navy Pier. Rob, Ken & Bev all went on the Ferris wheel (one of the biggest in the world) to get some pictures of the Chicago skyline by night, Lulu and I stayed at the bottom as it was a little too high for my liking.

Lulu then drove us to the Buckingham Fountain, (this was something Bev had spoken about seeing before we left the UK. We decided before the event that if anyone wanted to see anything particular on this trip they had to tell Ken so that he could write it up in the itinerary). The fountain was very impressive, we had seen it earlier in the day and it just looked like any other fountain, but at night it took on a whole new look, it changed colour and took on different shapes and the music and light show was magnificent. Lulu certainly knew her way around the city and how to drive the roadways, seeing she does not live in the centre, but somewhere 'quiet' outside of town, as she puts it.

We then went back to the top of the Hancock building to complete our sightseeing of Chicago. What a view, you could see for miles above all the other buildings and see all the roads in and out of the city all lit up. What a way to finish Chicago.

We had all had a brilliant day and Lulu drove us back to our Hotel. We said our Good Byes and she left and we all departed to bed as tomorrow was the day we actually started our trip on the ‘Mother Road’.

Sunday 27th August 2000

Chicago

We both woke very early and tossed and turned in the bed (which was enormous) for a while and then decided to get up, don’t know what time it was as the time difference really messes with your body clock and we were both a bit jet lagged.

Met Ken and Bev for breakfast at arranged time of 9.00am and visited the breakfast room on the hotel complex. Breakfast was excellent and the service was first class. We discussed what and where to visit during our short stay bearing in mind that we would need to save some time to meet up with Lulu, (this was a lady that Ken had meet over the internet while researching our trip and they had arranged to meet up so that Lulu could show us the sites). Lulu is an expert on the Route so we could also pick her brains.

We took a short walk to downtown Chicago and visited the Information Centre as all good tourists should which was housed in the famous Water Tower. We started our day with a short Trolley bus tour around Chicago with our driver named Elvis, lovely character.

We passed many sights and buildings such as the Wrigley Building and then Sears Tower, all of them seem to have a story to tell and Elvis told us a few. When we arrived at Navy Pier we decided to stop for lunch in the Beer Garden and the weather got hotter and hotter, we were on holiday at last. Navy Pier is an old pier that has been turned into a tourist attraction with all kinds of entertainments, sideshows, shops and kiosks. There are many bars and restaurants and even a cruise liner moored their today.

After lunch we jumped back on the Trolley bus and after more sightseeing and stores we arrived at the Chicago River where we took a Boat trip along the river, just as Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney did in the film ’My Best Friends Wedding’. We cruised down the river for a while and went through a rather large lock and out into Lake Michigan, it is so big (307 x 118 miles across) that it is more like being on the sea than a lake you can’t even see the other side. An hour and a half later we were back where we started. We took a stroll around a few shops and then headed back to the Hotel for a rest, wash and brush up before heading out to dinner.

We had planned earlier in the day to eat at Famous Dave’s for dinner, it looked a great place and we were not disappointed, excellent dinner and blues venue. The Ribs weren’t as good as we thought they would be, but the music more than made up for it, even Ken enjoyed it, not that he would ever admit it, but Robert enjoyed it the most, it was his sort of place for entertainment. He had such a good time that when we left the restaurant he kissed Ken on the head by way of a Thank You.

We walk back to the hotel about a ten minute walk away and were asleep before our heads hit the pillow, feet aching from all the walking, but a great start to our Trip of a lifetime, our Millennium project now in reality, along Route 66 ‘The mother Road’.

Saturday 26th August 2000

SWINDON - CHICAGO

Woke up approx 5.30 am to a very wet, damp English day as too excited to sleep any longer. Ken and Bev our travelling companions for the next 3 weeks arrived at approx 9.45 and we set off for Gatwick airport. Weather very muggy and still pouring with rain, we made excellent time to the airport despite the heavy traffic on the M23/25. Robert did wonder as we approached the M25 turnoff for the M23 what we were in for with Ken’s driving, seeing this was a road trip across the old Route 66. Ken had driven us to the airport and as we sailed down the M25 at about 95mph in the outside lane (it was Saturday, so not busy), Rob suddenly mentioned that we were approaching our turnoff. As it happened we were just about to pass our turning, so Ken veered across two lanes at impossible speed and shot up the slip road with us clutching our seats. Within 5 minutes we were at the airport.

We had a light lunch in the Airport, sandwiches; chocolate bars and a cup of tea each, total cost £9.64 for two.

The aircraft took off at approx 3.45 due to a delay: this was down to waiting for other aircraft to land before we could take off. We were flying at approx 35,000 feet above the clouds in the bright sunshine. We were given a meal of typical aircraft food and the entertainment for the trip consisted of comedy programmes and the film was the new Madonna movie “The Next Best thing” not very memorable.

The plane touched down approx 6.30pm local time in Detroit after 8½ hours flying time and then had to wait for the connecting flight to Chicago. We chose to take a flight that was not direct due to, one, the cost and the fact that we were not returning to Chicago but flying out of the airport in L.A at the end of our trip. The flight to Chicago was delayed for about an hour due to the very inclement weather that rolled in while waiting for our connection: thunder and lightening surrounded the airport. We sat on the plane for what seemed an eternity watching the storm all around us. We then after taxiing to the runway then had to wait for the other aircraft in front of us to take off. A very bumpy take off indeed and it was very turbulent for the first 10 minutes and the plane was bumping, pitching and rolling and seemed to struggle to get into the air. Very scary for a while until we seem to get over the top of it and the plane levelled out and it was fine, I wouldn’t have minded but this flight was going to take less than an hour.

We finally landed at O’Hare airport, Chicago, Illinois at approx 9.45pm local time, 3.45am BST. The weather was quite cool and fresh. We made our way to downtown Chicago in our rental people carrier that was to be our transport for the rest of the time spent here. Robert was driving this time and we drove to the Hojo (Howard Johnson) hotel for our first 3 nights stop over.