were Mr. C's Route Post, home of the Route 66 "Route" Beer, and Katie's favorite, the Worlds Largest Gift Store. At Mr. C's we talked with the owner a bit who again brought up the weather as a topic and told us another storm was coming tonight. Luckily for us the roads weren't horrible. The storm the night before had very strong winds and apparently had kept the roads relatively clear. Still there was ice that lingered and it made the driving slower than we would have hoped. Starting at the eastern end of Oklahoma and continuing through all of Missouri Route 66 leaves the flatlands of the Great Plains and rises into the Ozarks. Beautiful, yes, and a welcome change from the flat tundra, but not so good for fast driving. In the bitter cold I also discovered an
unfortunate side effect of our run in with the deer. Having dented the car right before the door hinge, the deer created a virtual wind tunnel, which now funnels cold air, through the speakers, directly at my feet. Normally I would just blast the heat to counter the cold air coming in but conveniently the heat does not work very well on my side. Oh well, I like the cold anyway. We drove all day and reached St. Louis just about 5 p.m. Had weather been better, and time allowed, we would have spent more time in the city, but as it was we had another storm to beat. Almost exactly a year to the day, Katie and I had driven Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis. This was actually the inspiration for us to take Route 66 back this time, seeing as we had so much fun on this stretch the first time. However, now it was dark and the snow was beginning to fall, we decided to bypass the Route from St. Louis to Springfield hoping to get ahead of the storm. Even with our bypass, we weren't quick enough. We hit the storm head on and were forced to drive 35 mph the whole way, white knuckled and tense. We made it safely to Katie's relative where we were greeted with open arms, a hot meal, and a warm bed. In the morning we
explored Springfield for a while before getting back on Route 66 and making our way to Chicago. We visited Lincoln's home in then made a stop at the Cozy Drive In for lunch. The Cozy Drive In is not only the birthplace of the corn dog, aptly named the Cozy Dog in these parts, but it is also owned and operated by the Waldmire family. Bob Waldmire is a Route 66 legend and we have been following his name and footsteps
during our entire Route 66 adventure. He was a traveling artist who lived out of his van and spent the last 20 years of his life driving up and down the road talking with local business owners and making a living selling his art. The Cozy Dogs were great and we spent a long time looking through all of the paintings and memorabilia that litters the walls. The rest of the day was spent driving Route 66. We didn't make
any stops because we had already done everything before. There were a few places we would have liked to spend more time at had the weather been nicer, but as it was we were all about driving.
We pulled into Chicago just after dark and were welcomed home by the beautiful skyline and shining lights of the city. Over the next week we spent our time in the city visiting old friends and staying with Katie's family. After spending the holidays running around between families and New Years apart, Katie came back to Michigan where we have stayed for a few weeks now helping Russ with things around the house, rifling though all of mom's stuff, and going out to dinner with all of the friends and family we haven't seen in 6 months. With the first part of our trip complete and the holidays over the lure of leaving again grows ever stronger. The road is calling us home and we hear there is no snow in Florida. It seems like its time for us to get back to someplace that we ain't never been.
No comments:
Post a Comment