Route 66 baby ~ FROM THE CROTCH OF A GIANT TO LINCOLN’S STAIRWAY” (A blog series of our two week adventure!)

Monday, 5/6/13

It was our first day on the road and night was falling.   We’d run a little long on our dinner stop at Steak-n-Shake, but the great burgers and rich milkshakes were worth it!   Just as I began to worry whether we’d make our first official kitschy route 66 stop, we rounded a corner and there it was.  The Gemini Giant.  And within minutes, we’d documented our visit - standing under the crotch of a giant.  What an auspicious beginning!  Sadly, the Launching Pad Drive-In restaurant that hosts the Giant is closed (as in permanently) with overgrown weeds surrounding the building.  Locals must be used to the sight of tourists stopping for a photo op, because for all the cars that passed by while we were running back and forth setting up the camera on the hood of the car and taking our picture not one person even so much as honked! 

A ways after the Giant, around Dwight, IL., we passed the first of many huge windmill farms to come on the trip.  They became a fascination for us as we traveled West through land so well suited to the air currents these require.  We know there are pros and cons to be argued for both sides, but we really did find them to be a beautiful site as the sun set behind these giant behemoths, stoic and steady sentinels across the plains.  Steve pegged it… “elegant.”

Pulled into our lodging for the night late, however the neon sign that greeted us from the Route 66 Hotel & Conference Center was a welcoming site! 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

I thought it was kismet that the restaurant we found next door in the morning was “Abe’s Southside Café & Pub” until Steve pointed out we were in the “land of Lincoln”, in Springfield, IL., and LOTS of places would have the name Abe in them,  for the 16^th President of the United States and NOT our son!

Driving is Springfield was unique.  For quite a stretch of road, we were on a four lane, one way highway that passed straight through the middle of a neighborhood (like out street, only wider).  Made me wonder how the town of Springfield developed as it dealt with the notoriety and tourism of its most famous resident.

Our first stop after breakfast was to visit the Lincoln Home, Part of the National Park Service, where the staff was friendly and helpful.  Timed perfectly, we waited on benches drenched in shade by beautiful Maple trees for about five minutes across the street from the Lincoln Homestead.  You have to have a ticket, but the tour is free and the park ranger was knowledgeable and chatty as he took our group of ten or so on a walkabout through the house, filled with original pieces.  The rooms were roped off, but he did point out the original stairway railing as we traveled upstairs.  I felt a chill as I imagined Abe walking up those stairs; hand lightly brushing the same railing. A short drive took us to Lincoln’s Tomb, much larger and more impressive than I expected.  Martha Lincoln and three of their four sons are buried there as well.  The entrance has a little sign on the door that read “Welcome. Please come in.”  Fitting that his entrance would have such a gentlemanly invite. 

Back on the road, I took the wheel for a short time and was surprised at the oil wells in the front and back yards of houses we passed.  Water wells I expected, but the oil wells took me off guard.  Our timing was right for an afternoon sweet pit stop as we hit the Ariston Café, believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest restaurant on Route 66. It was a diner, yes, but with more of an upscale décor with linen napkins and tablecloths.  Steve had the bread pudding and I enjoyed a cream cheese/chocolate layered cake.  All was delish (except the coffee – help McDonald’s!). 

Not having an agenda to follow, we were able to make an impromptu stop just off Route 66 in Staunton, IL., at Country Classic Cars.  For a few hours we wandered through about half the buildings on site and looked at a couple hundred cars.  Steve got to educate me on some car history, makes and models, and tell a few good family stories.  We walked and chatted until they started to close the doors on the buildings around us and we got the hint it was time to close up shop!

Purely by chance we stumbled across Henry’s Rabbit Ranch in Staunton.   Henry's Rabbit Ranch Station and Visitor's Center looks like a real old classic filling station once found all along Route 66 and they pay a nice homage to the Cadillac Ranch as well!

Not all parts of the route are passable by cars anymore and the Chain of Rocks Bridge is one of those places.  For more than three decades, the bridge was a significant landmark for travelers driving Route 66. Due to the 22 degree turn midway across the mile-long bridge that caused so many accidents, the bridge was closed to vehicle traffic in 1968. The middle of the bridge posts the Illinois/Missouri state line.  It was an enjoyable walk across and at a little over 60 feet above the Mississippi; it gave us our first glimpse of the extent of the flooding, still a good quarter to half a mile inland. 

We stopped for the night just over the border in St. Louis, MO and Steve found Sam’s Steakhouse.  Its old world charm and great service were a nice compliment to the succulent steak and prime rib we had with a kick-ass bottle of wine.  It was one of our more expensive meals, but well worth it in good food, service and conversation. 

Route 66 baby ~ THE OVERVIEW (A blog series of our two week adventure!)

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

It winds from chicago to la,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.  (Nat King Cole, Route 66, YouTube)

That was us!  We planned to motor west; we were looking for some kicks, so we decided on Route 66. 

We got to Chicago on May 6^th, grabbed our Tahoe rental and headed out.  Our only time commitment stretched 13 days away, at 7 am May 18^th when our flight for home left LAX.  Such freedom!

A few months of prep work got us a three ring binder that held The Route 66 Map Series, a list of Route 66 attractions as well as a few “off-route” ones, and of course an enticing list of “foodie” stops.  It was great fun when we stumbled across Billy Connolly's Route 66, a British documentary television series, consisting of four episodes, shot between April and June 2011.  His unique take on the route and British accent made the episodes (found on YouTube) an entertaining preview of the trip to come.

Other than following the route, we had no agenda and no reservations.  Lucky for us, the past thirty years together have held many road trips, so the prospect of spending the better part of two weeks in a car together didn’t scare us.  We quickly settled into a routine of changing hotels each night and a balance of road time, attraction time and down time. 

It took a bit, but we deciphered the flow and instructions of the maps which were a little quirky and with basically no mileage markers, or lengths of travel but more landmarks and route turns.  It was a mix of constant vigilance and a willingness to miss a turn or two and just keep on going.  We would make a rough plan of the next leg of the journey either the night before in the hotel room or over a leisurely breakfast. 

Somewhere around mid-afternoon we’d decide on our stopping point for the night and call ahead to make a reservation.  Traveling in the off-season made this possible and we didn’t run into any issues until our very last reservation, but we were in LA by then, truly back to civilization and it made for an interesting twist!

So what was the REALITY of spending two weeks together, rolling over two thousand miles in 13 days?  Well, it WAS a lot of time ~ and when all was said and done, on the last night over dinner, I asked Steve if he was ready to go home.  He replied, “I could keep going…” And I could have too.  So, maybe the trip will hold more than memories for us.  It could be an initiation into more cross country trips like it or it could be a glimpse into our retirement lifestyle.  Then again, it may just be another fond memory of the vacation we took for our thirtieth anniversary.  

In any form, it was great and the blog series is where I plan to write and share some of the highlights of the sites and places we visited, meals that ranged from awesome steaks to dashboard reheats, a roadway that seemed to come as go as it pleased (even into a dry riverbed) and a little friend we picked up along the way.  

Join me, won’t you?

JOURNEYS (A-Z April Blog Challenge)

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back….

As a little girl I used to daydream about the journeys I would take as a grown up.  We never traveled as a family and I dreamed of far off places where I was a different person.  I didn’t have anywhere specific in mind…just to be someone else, somewhere else.

Those dreams have fueled my writing a lot.  Many of my pieces have the characters either uprooted from their familiar surroundings or on a trip headed somewhere.  Often times it’s not a physical journey, but an emotional one, searching for something they’ve lost or yearn to discover.   

Throughout our marriage, we’ve taken mostly car trips.  We’ve been to Boston, Alabama, up the coast of California, Arizona, Mexico, down the East coast, Canada and around and about New York State.  I’ve gotten pages and pages of writing.  I’ve written a couple of completed pieces and there’s any number of snippets of scenery, weather conditions, landscapes and character sketches. 

Sometimes I would just tag along with Steve when he went to a conference for work.  Sitting in the lobby, I was able to people watch and imagine to my heart’s content. 

This A-Z challenge has been more of a journey than I expected.  I thought the theme of some childhood memories and how they relate to my “adult” life was going to be a fairly straight forward one.  What I’ve found instead is it’s not been as simple a road as I remembered. And like most journeys, there’s a lot going on that isn’t seen, but has a great deal of impact on the overall experience. 

There have been some really wonderful memories. And there should be – overall I had a very happy childhood with a family that loves me very much.  However, there are some not so pleasant ones that I’ve purposefully chosen not to write about.  Not writing unpleasant things goes back a long way in my writing journey and that goes for both my fiction and non-fiction pieces.  It’s been terribly difficult to remove the “happy editor” from my shoulder. You know, the one who is worried about what other people will think if you write something dark, or unpleasant.  The one who worries about hurting someone’s feelings or that makes them think “Where did THAT come from?” when they read what you’ve written.

I have to trust my travels have led me to this point for a reason.  I’d like to embark on a writing journey that is true to what I want to write.   Possibly I can dig deep and find a little Robert Frost in me, and choose the path that is “grass and wanted wear” and for myself, make the difference. 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.