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 tow
n 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
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 tow
n 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
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