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Route 66, USA

September 2016
A 21-day adventure by Vee Read more
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  • Vee LRoute 66, USA

    Homeless again!

    September 3, 2016 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    It may be for a shorter period of time, and I may not have had to move (although it feels like I did), but I'm homeless again.

    I'm preparing for a month long road trip with my partner, Jack, where we hope to sleep in the car we're traveling with. That's a whole month of living out of a 50 cubic feet 2013 Hyundai Accent. The plan, which is always tentative, is to go to Detroit, then Chicago from where we will follow route 66 through IL, MO, OK, NM, AZ, and CA. We rented out our apartment for the month, which left me homeless until we leave on September 6th or 7th. That's right, I don't know when we're leaving, that's as much planning as you're going to get!

    I spent the last few weeks imagining how I wanted to set up my car, and the weekend attempting to execute. So far, so good, I've got a 3/4 inch plywood plank across the back of the trunk onto the folded seats, and a second piece of plywood in front of it, finishing the base of the bed for the 3.5 inch foam mattress to lay on, but also doubling as a table we can pull out from the side door. The mattress was cut down to size for a snug fit around the wheel covers. I have folding legs for the table to rest on the back of the car. Hopefully my plan will work to keep the BBQ smoke out!

    Trying to keep weight at it's bare minimum, I had to be selective on what to bring. Cooler for dry food - I won't be able to keep cold food considering I don't plan on buying ice along the way. The BBQ and whatever goes along with it - which means ridiculous over thinking from me including containers to do dishwashing, and the soap, and the sponge, and the utensils, and the pots, and OMG I can't sleep. I have 2 packing cubes of clothing, a couple sweaters, flip flops and sneakers. That is it, that is all.

    This trip will be quite the challenge for me - anxiety is usually at it's peak when I don't know where I'm driving to (or being driven to). My sister likes to bring up when she was driving back in high-school, my friend Candice in the passenger seat, and she drove onto the highway going the wrong direction. I flipped out. Flipped. Yelling for her to turn around. More recently, I was already in the parking lot of the mall I needed to be in, but didn't know where a certain store was inside this mall. I wanted to park closest to that door. I yelled at Jack for not googling fast enough to tell me where this store was because I was at a stop sign and didn't know whether to go left or right. My challenge to myself - keep my cool throughout. Or at least don't yell at Jack. It's ok to get lost. That's what I will keep telling myself. Especially when you live out of your car, you can survive anywhere.

    This will be my first road trip! I've over prepared the car, under researched the trip. Thankfully Jack covered the research for us from La Loche, SK. The quirkier the better! Along route 66, I'm excited about the giant astronaut holding a rocket, the bunny farm, the largest rocking chair, the largest fork, everything is so perfect! Once in L.A. we will make our way back via HWY1, up the pacific coast, dropping by Seattle and Portland, then cutting back across to home. Who knows if 1 month is enough to do this all, but doesn't really matter. We'll come back when we have to.

    So welcome back all! And welcome to the new readers! Let's start this new journey!    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    Day 4

    Ambassador Bridge

    September 7, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    What a confusing day... Detroit has shown me two extremes of glamorous upscale downtown and the boarded, abandoned structures that were once homes.

    We spent the evening yesterday with good friends, who welcomed us to their Toronto living room for the night, to break down the drive to Detroit. I must say, I've always found to drive to Toronto long, but it seemed short yesterday, and getting to Detroit was short too... Maybe my mind is already getting used to the long road ahead...

    The border guy was a big enough d*** to make us (wrongfully) think Detroit was not so friendly to it's visitors. Apparently, two girls, nurses, one who works in Saskatchewan, one in Ottawa, who both live in Ottawa, who plan to drive to California and back, was difficult to grasp. I was in the passenger seat and I decided to start answering the border guy's questions for Jack because she was getting short tempered. We all know how great I am with border agents... What's too much information? What's too little?

    That part done with, on we go! We went straight for the Detroit Institute of Arts, mostly because it was the only address I had for my GPS... Which was beautiful! We arrived almost directly at the museum, so hadn't seen much else at this point. The museum is ridiculously beautiful, and huge, and screams money. Oh the irony. A building that screams money in a city we all know isn't doing too well... The Public Library across the street was an old, what was once I'm sure a beautiful, building, under construction. It's a weekday and no one was there, I have a feeling there isn't much rebuilding going on...

    Art museums, more Jack's thing then mine, but honestly really well done! Their special exhibition for the month - photography of The American RoadTrip. How perfect! Their descriptions of certain paintings even made me happy I read them, and I hate reading.

    We then headed out more into suburbia. Suburbia to me means pretty row houses and greens lawns like Orléans. This was a different suburbia, a community where the Heidelberg Project colored houses with all kinds of hilarious and happy things, with "art" lining the sidewalks. I would say 75% of this community was abandoned and boarded houses. Quirky, odd, perfect. Off course there was a lady there to welcome you and explain what you're currently starring at, who just HAPPENED to have an uncle AND a cousin who died recently, and she had to go to the hospital today for dehydration, and she lost her house, all in the last few months! So she asked for money. She also spoke super fast with a think Detroit (said with swager) accent, so I only understood every few words. That aside, this was a surreal experience.

    Honestly though, at first I was thrown off by the "hey, how you doin'" from everyone we passed, but eventually you get used to it. They all ask, and they all wait for an answer. They seem really genuine when attempting to check in. The unfortunate part, and Jack actually agrees with this, is it's still difficult to find a sense of security around here. I want to. I want to trust the people of Detroit, to think they just have a bad reputation, and that's it. But when you see first hand the amount of abandoned houses, of people clearly struggling, of businesses closed down, of empty streets, you understand why some people can resort to violence or crime.

    Blocks away from downtown Detroit, you have empty or abandoned buildings. It doesn't wait to hit the "bad" neighborhoods, it starts right smack downtown. Of course there's your usual fancier suburb, some with "neighborhood watch" signs (we won't be parking there for the night!), some with beautiful green lawns. But they are vastly outnumbered by the falling apart, sometimes still lived-in-can't-understand-how-its-still-standing houses.

    Detroit has been interesting for sure. A quick walk through the downtown core that showcased the incredibly rich architecture, topped off with a quick drive around Belle-Isle to admire the water front ended the day. We found our parking for the night through a pretty clever little app - RV Parky, and we're settled-in in front of the Michigan Welcome Center, where the view of the Ambassador Bridge is absolutely amazing.    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    1
    Day 6

    On our way to the starting point

    September 9, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    And we're off ! Destination - New Buffalo, so not exactly Chicago, but it was suggested to us by the lovely lady at the Michigan Welcome Center to spend the night . We met her yesterday after having spent the night in the parking lot across the street. She even gave us free entrance passes to The Henry Ford museum.

    Yesterday was our second and last day in Detroit. Started our day with a 1$ breakfast burrito suggested to us the night before by the group of cyclists that parked their cars next to ours. Side note - they came back from the bike ride to find Jack and I sitting on our red lawn chairs behind the car in a parking lot, looking at the bridge lights. They must of thought it was hilarious. They then proceeded having a conversation about where the safest place for us to park for the night was, and apparently we nailed it !

    We started our day and parked at the casino in Greektown - free parking, as suggested by our new friend at the visitors center. We hoped on the People Mover (yep, it was called People Mover, a suspended metro), which was basically a really cheap (75c) way of making our way around the downtown core with a birds eye view. We got off at the GM Renaissance Center for a free tour of the building, mostly because we wanted to see the view from their restaurant on the 72nd floor without paying ridiculous food prices. It even came with a bunch of Detroit, the motor city, history commentary.

    We then followed this self guided walking tour we picked up, yet again, at the visitors center. It included suggestions for which buildings to check out downtown, their lobbies and history. Some of the buildings are absolutely breathtaking. The downtown core was beautiful and upscale and about 3 blocks wide. Anything outside that 3 block radius was hit or miss, including abandoned and boarded skyscrapers. We checked out the theatre district, which apparently is the second biggest in North America, after Broadway. That shocked me. The Fox theatre had all the old charm and embellishments you would expect of such a cherished piece of Detroit history.

    We spent the rest of the day checking out street art and noted abandoned properties. This included a really cool parking garage downtown, where each floor was covered by murals of different well known graffiti artists. I say well known because Jack could name some of them! Our drive around neighboring streets was eye opening. Churches, warehouses, plants, even the Grand Central Station, abandoned, and yet have so much to tell. The Packard Plant was notable for its sheer size and extent of graffiti work. Obviously there were 2 security cars circulating around it, so we didn't get to explore inside. It still spoke an incredible story.

    Knowing we wanted to do the Henry Ford museum and/or Ford Rouge Factory tour in the morning, we decided sleeping would be safest in Dearborn, the suburb closest to the museum. Thank you Comfort Inn parking lot, another perfect, safe location for our night's sleep. The drapes I fixed up are perfect! We get to park under some light to feel like the car is safe, and yet have relative darkness with the drapes up. Perfect.

    Getting to the museum, we chatted with the welcoming guy Kevin. We wanted to do the Factory tour, where they currently build the F150, but our free pass was for the Museum or the Greenfield village. He suggested we get the museum ticket, then walk over to the second ticket counter, show them our ticket, and ask for the Factory tour also. This would make our tickets half off (buy one, get one half off, but since we weren't buying it, we couldn't buy it all together). We decided instead to ask the supervisor if we could just trade the free entrance tickets for the Factory tour since it was cheaper. Instead, she gave us free Rouge Factory tour tickets, and let us keep our museum entrance tickets... That meant both were free ! We're geniuses at this! Later on, Kevin saw us again, and decided to get us free popcorn. Haha, I don't know why all these people like us, but they do, and I like it!

    The Factory tour was so so cool. It started with this video basically filled with propaganda on how amazing Henry Ford was. Followed by a video about producing the F150 itself - there were so many lights and lasers, and robotics on a model truck, it was ridiculous! I felt like I was supposed to cheer in the end. Haha. Watching the factory line, and how every worker has a very specific job, and how they improve ergonomics with floating swivel chairs and the car itself that raises up or lowers depending on which station was doing what, was fantastic. So so cool. The Henry Ford Museum was just overwhelmingly huge. Henry Ford was apparently a collector and there was stuff everywhere, furniture, cars, memorabilia, historical pieces. More notable was the Lincoln red chair in which he was assassinated, the black limousine in which Kennedy was shot, and the Rosa Park bus. Pretty cool, even cooler because it was free!

    So now on the road we go, to New Buffalo, where we were suggested the casino parking lot for our overnight stay, mostly because of the access to washrooms 24/7, sounds good to us !    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    1
    Day 7

    How epic

    September 10, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    I saw it! The giant astronaut holding a rocket! I saw it!

    After a quick breakfast in New Buffalo, we heading right out on the road to Chicago! It's still raining, so our plan to enjoy the beach for the morning quickly changed into getting some road done! Because of the time change, we got to Chicago by 10am! Granted, we spent an hour figuring out parking and trying to go further from downtown to pay less but realized 10 mins of driving gave us 2$ off of 30$ parking and we'd have to take the subway... So we drove back downtown, parked right underneath the Millennium Park itself! 35$, apparently we were lucky enough to be there during a special event pricing day!

    First stop - Tourism office of course. They led us to a free walking tour on which Stu gave us a private one hour tour of the downtown architecture. The buildings are absolutely amazing! The history, the lobbies, fantastic. You could tell Stu was really excited about it all, which was great! There were quite a few large art pieces, and Jack kept impressing Stu by guessing the artist 3 out of 4 times! She's smart like that. I guess she owes her art knowing to her parents, merci!

    The tour finished at the famous large kidney bean in Millennium park. We took the obligatory selfie reflected in the bean, then sat down and had a sad realization. We liked Chicago, but there's just too much to do and see, and we have a long road ahead. We decided we would finish walking around the park, and head out for route 66 right away! No time to waste! We'll be back Chicago. Sorry dad.

    Stu explained to us that Millennium park was a "millennium project", so they aimed to finish by 2000. Instead, they went way over budget and finished in 2004, but it's now the biggest tourist attraction in Chicago, so money well spent. It was beautifully kept with statues around every bend.

    Now onto the good stuff : Route 66! We had to circle around downtown Chicago twice, got lost, used the GPS, but we were determined to start at the starting sign! No cheating! The photo was taken while we were on foot, but I did get a video of us driving by the sign for the skeptics who might have thought we cheated!

    Illinois has fantastic signage for route 66! Stu (who has done the route) said the signs basically disappear after Illinois, so we have that to look forward to. I got all the must take photos along the way including my awesome Gemini Giant, the Polk-a-Dot diner, and plenty more wonderfully funny signs. Since we hit most of the must-sees around 5pm and later, we didn't get into any tiny quirky museums, but I'm definitely looking forward to that along the way! It felt like we stepped into a time machine. Everything we're passing looks like it's from the 40s or 50s, with every business along the way including 66 in their names.

    Side note for the gay-curious - Jack and I have been very well welcomed so far... I've rarely been miss gendered, we've been referred to as "ladies", as in "anything else ladies" or "how you doing ladies", with full acknowledgment of our being a couple... It's been great! I remember going to Montreal a year ago and getting comments left right and center. I hated it. But not one so far. I'm assuming that will change further south we go, but I'm enjoying it for now!    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    1
    Day 8

    My Friend Abe

    September 11, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Alright, please forgive me. I will be working from memory, which is quite poor, considering my lack of updates... My attempt at defending myself is I've been fighting a cold (I can't figure out who to blame, Jack who came back with the back-end of a cold, or my sister Gen for having the same symptoms as me) and so everytime we pull over for the night, all I can think of is sleeping... On/off Tylenol for what I assume is a low grade fever, I haven't really felt like pushing back sleep to type. But! Feeling good tonight! Let's do this.

    We woke up in our car, completely alone in the truck parking lot, in Dwight, IL. The luxury life of sleeping in a car kicks in - bring out the wet wipes, brush your teeth with bottled water, spitting in the grass... hope your deodorant lasts for the day. My beautiful locks pulled back into my "man-bun" considering unwashed overnight curls are a horrific site to see (refer to my morning selfie on facebook).

    Jumped right back onto Route 66 where first stop was an old Amber-Becker Texaco Gas station, complete with a cool make-pretend set up inside the station with an old car, memorabilia from the 40-50s, and even a button to press with a voice-over head about the town and the station's history. This was the first, and far from the last old style gas stations along the route. Just down the block was the perfect spot for breakfast - Old Route 66 Family Restaurant, with a dizzying amount of Route 66 memorabilia filling the dinning room. It seems like half the fun of going down 66 is seeing just how proud people are of being on it... or just how much they want to use the promotion of being an "original Route 66 diner".

    Probably more for my enjoyment then yours, I'll continue by listing off everything we did and saw, starting with the town name, simply because I want to remember it all ! You can skip through whatever you want, and I'll elaborate where I feel the inspiration to do so.

    Odell
    Standard Oil Filling Station - this station is the image used for Illinois' Route 66. It is the "gem" of the IL portion, a perfectly restored station, again with a magical talking button. The restoration, like many along the route, was done by volunteers.
    Historic Subway Tunnel - You have to try and imagine a time, where in 1910, route 66 was the only road to take, it was the only option. Apparently the traffic on the route was bumper to bumper through many small towns, like Odell. They had to build (or dig) a tunnel underneath the route for people to safely cross the street and get to church and school (the only 2 buildings in town!). In the 15-20 minutes Jack and I spent parked in this "town center", we saw 3 cars, one of which also stopped to admire the station (fellow 66 tourist). The interstates literally transformed these towns from having non stop, bumper to bumper traffic, to having one car pass every 2 minutes. Mind blown.

    Pontiac
    Bob Waldmire's Land yacht - why not? The man had a bus. He had a boat. He combined the two for a ridiculous looking road boat thing. I'd live in something like that in a heart beat. Everything a girl needs.
    Murals were painted throughout town. They even give a map outlining a route to see them all. Great, huge walldogs (I learned a new word!).
    Route 66 Association of Illinois and Hall of Fame Museum - This is what I wanted !!! This is what I envisioned from 66. This tiny, jam-packed "Hall of Fame" museum had everything from old stop lights, to a VW van from a route 66 travel guide writer, to photographs, to plaques for "Joy Henderson, Archie's Standard Service Station Owner and Operator, The best friend your car ever had", and more! Completed of course by a wonderful little old lady asking you to sign her guest book. With pleasure!
    Pontiac Automobile Museum - Why does Pontiac have a museum on Pontiacs? For obvious reasons! It was perfect.

    Towanda
    Old Route 66 Walkway

    Bloomington
    Court House Square - Bloomington was our first experience with what we soon discovered is a common town set-up for IL. In all small towns, route 66 goes into the town and into the town square. And in every town square, there was a beautiful, usually government or museum type building, with a surrounding square of older styled brick store fronts. This town has a ridiculously beautiful State Courts building: why a town like this needs such a ornamental, large building for what is now a museum on Abe Lincoln, no one knows. But this was beginning of the Abe Lincoln obsession. Illinois had, what I think, is unhealthy obsession with American flags and Abe Lincoln. The flags never diminished, but the Abe references eventually did.

    Funk's Grove
    Sugar Creek Nature Reserve - I thought this road trip was about sitting in my car, doing nothing, having things to look at through the window. But Jack being Jack, we went for a walk in this nature reserve. The sun has been bright and beaming pretty much since we've left, and this was no exception. That being said, it wasn't until we started walking that I realized how nice it was to get a good breath of fresh air, away from the road side. This was a welcomed break from the streets and car sounds and smells.

    McLean
    Dixie Plaza (original truck stop)
    Arcadia - You have to understand the mind set here - there's a town square. And in this town square, there are about 10 total establishments. By that I mean there were a total of 4 building, but large ones with multiple business fronts... I would say about 3 of them were actually inhabited, the others bordered shut. 1 of those 3 inhabited central establishments - an arcade of course! Full of old classic games like Pinball and Pac-Man. Had myself a blast ! Although I won't lie, I died in all of 2 minutes in pacman...

    Atlanta
    Smileyface Water tower - photo op !
    Palm's Grill Cafe - It closed 5 mins before we arrived, at 5.05pm. The beginning of what seems like an ongoing run of bad luck for business hours. When one is on a road trip, one has no control over the time at which one is in such area. Having business hours of 1pm to 5pm isn't ideal. This cafe was meant to be our food stop, we've been trying to avoid big chains in favor of diners, especially those with a cash machine from the 20's! Ah well, too bad.
    Bunyon Giant - Town of 1600 people, tiny little rural town. What does it need? The second Bunyon giant, holding a hot-dog of course ! The hands seemed like he was once holding the axe he is known for, but apparently someone looked at him and said "A lumberjack with an axe? No, no, a hotdog, a hotdog is what he needs".

    Lincoln
    Telephone booth on City Hall - That's exactly what it is. A telephone booth, four glass walls and accordion doors and all, on the roof top of old City Hall. Why not? That seems to be my favorite response on this route, why not?
    Logan County Court House - We didn't go in, but this was where Abe Lincoln worked as a lawyer. And the obsession continues. There's portraits on a bunch of the business fronts, wall murals, the whole shabang.

    Williamsville
    Fairland Dinner - Ice cream !!!

    Springfield
    Illinois State Fair Grounds - Why have state fair grounds so huge when it only runs once a year? Why not! Why include a 30ft tall Abe Lincoln statue? Why not?
    Lincoln's Tomb - This place looked like a museum, massive marble building size of a tomb. I expect nothing less for mine.
    Illinois State Capitol - To be honest, it was very fancy and ornamental, but it's building style is the same as every other town's state Capitol, big rectangular building with a dome high in the middle. White house, state capitols, all the same.
    Original Service Station 66
    Lauderbach Giant - holding a flag of course. Still not an axe. Nor a tire despite being in front of a tire shop. No, an American flag. 'MERICA!

    Auburn
    Original Route 66 brick paved road - the town got together to try to find a way to insert themselves in the list of places to see along the route 66... So they restored a portion of the road to it's original red bricks. Pretty cool feeling.

    Virden
    Memorial to union workers
    Burial site of K-9 police dog - So unlike the other towns where their center squares revolve around a building, this one revolved around a park. In this park was the memorial, but more importantly, the burial site of a police K-9, complete with a beautifully engraved portrait of this brave police officer. His name was Mike.

    Girard
    Whirl-A-Whip Ice cream

    We slept on the side streets of Girard's main square. Probably about 5 cars around this square. With our drapes, we're pretty good at not being noticed, and we did just that, stayed unnoticed. *evil laugh*

    Wow this was long, I'll make the next one shorter...    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    Day 9

    St Louis

    September 12, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    Another night in the car, another morning of wipes and curbside tooth brushing. We slept in Girard so that we could visit Doc's Soda Fountain and Drugstore Museum in the morning. The Coca-Cola memorabilia that covered every wall and table, was mind-blowing. My mother would appreciate! And what better combination to a soda shop then an old pharmacy? Continuing the soda counter, it turned into an staged old style pharmacy, with powdered chemicals and old recipes. It was actually really cool to try and figure out what the ingredients were used for, how they mixed them all... Brings an appreciation for being able to access any medication that I want in a pretty plastic package prepared for me by a pharmacist. Moving on...

    Nilwood
    Turkey tracks in the pavement - This made my day. No, my week. You take a detour off the current route 66 to follow the old, winding 66. At the first turn, you are helped along with a themed turkey sign pointing you the right way. God forbid you would lose your way on 66 without seeing the turkey tracks ! In the original poured concrete of the route 66, there it was, well outlined by thick bright white lines, were about 3 feet long of turkey tracks. That's it. The advertisement though, impressive !

    Carlinville
    Million dollar Courthouse - Apparently this town has a very scandalous past, with a court house for which plans submitted suggested a total cost of 50,000$, with a final cost of 1.3million$. They later found out that one of the fancy, famous hotels in the town center (owned by the mayor, nonetheless) used some of the materials bought for the courthouse to build it's hotel. Why not?
    1869 County Jail - closed to visitors, which didn't stop us from attempting to shove our face against dirty windows to see nothing interesting.

    Staunton
    Henry's Ra66it Ranch and Route 66 Emporium - Absolutely amazing. No words can describe how perfectly hilarious this place was. Bunny things everywhere, bunnies in large cages outside, "Little Red" (the star bunny) hanging out on the counter inside. Rich, the man who now runs Henry's, told us the story of when one of his bunnies, Montana, told him she wanted to run for president. Naturally, he did t-shirts and buttons, and she was happy and doing all the photos required of her... but then her mood changed. She just wasn't interested anymore, so she pulled out of the presidential race. Poor Montana. I think Rich needs to interact with people more often, too many of his bunnies speak to him. I absolutely loved him.

    Livingston
    Pink Antique Mall and Dinner - Oh boy. Pink, large things, statue of a beach boy looked 25 feet tall, pink and blue diner, antique store that was so full of stuff it was falling of the shelves... just perfect ! And to top it all off, the Harley Davidson Giant, the 4th and last of the giants, not holding anything this time. The store had a section of antique relics of their slave trading days, with some real thought provoking items. Original signs of "colored people swimming pool", "colored people washroom", and what stayed with me the most was a set of metal hand cuffs with the inscription on one cuff "Negro women or child only" and the other cuff "Property of Georgetown County Plantation police". Yeah, yikes.

    Collinsville
    Largest Catsup Bottle water tower - Catsup = Cheap Ketchup. Why not?
    Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site - Jack was super into the history behind these mounds. There were explanation boards showing what they look like under ground. They unearthed all of these, showing full rooms and corridors under these mounds. And yet, for some reason, someone decided "now that we can see all the beauty and work behind these, let's cover it all up with dirt and grass again". So that is what we starred at for about an hour. Different shapes, different sizes, of grass mounds. I don't get it.
    Jack who edits this needs to add..."Well, first, these are the largest pre-Columbian settlement in the Americas. Which is crazy. We're talking 600-1400 C.E! Anyway, so these mounds represent funeral rites and their hierarchy and a bunch of things we still don't fully understand. It was incredible to think that people settled here, had a huge city, then everything just got erased with time. Except these mounds. Alright, back to Vee..."
    Vee: yawn.

    St-Louis
    Gateway Arch - Obviously super tall. What I didn't know is you could ride a trolley to the top! I didn't do it, but you could ! It's unfortunate that the park all around was under construction, so we really didn't get to hang out or enjoy the space. Arch and nothing else.
    St Louis Zoo - Absolutely amazing and free! My favorite word, free ! They had Kali, a polar bear, who kept just swimming in circles and coming up at different kids for photo ops, its was hilarious. The zookeeper says that because he grew up with humans (his mother was hunted when he was a baby), that he loves the attention. I felt like I was part of the group of mothers who were waiting for their kids, standing at the window. Jack sat down in front of the window and refused to leave for about 10 minutes. She made a friend. She still talks about it.
    River boat cruise in the Mississippi River - In all honesty, complete waist of time and money... 20$ for a boat to go up the Mississippi river, describe what we're seeing along the way. Well, describing is a lose term: He would name the building materials, tell us how long it took to build, and how expensive it was. That's about it. He kept describing things that were on the other side of the boat, so we assumed we would get more of the descriptions on our side of the boat at our return. But no. So we saw nothing of his described things...
    Forest Park - Considering the size of it, and wanting to stay good on our timing, we drove around it. Walking would take us all day. Beautiful, huge park. Not much to add. Oh, and free!
    I must add - The City Museum was closed. I was so, so sad. It's closed Mondays and Tuesday, which were the 2 days of our visit. This placed looked so cool, with slides and climbing things, and ball pits for adults... So so sad. Timing sucks.

    In case you haven't kept count, we still haven't showered. I've been dying for a shower but for some reason they're harder to find then I had hoped. Route 66 isn't following a major highway so I haven't had access to truck stop showers. The towns are so small there's no chance of hitting a gym or something. Having arrived in St Louis around 5pm, everything of interest was closed, so we needed to spend the night near St. Louis. We decided to do the 30 minute drive to the "Dr Edward A Babler Memorial Park" a state park which cost us 13$ for the night. We still slept in the car of course, too lazy to set up the tent when we're this comfortable in the car. But we did shower ! Probably what was a 20 minute shower. It felt so good ! So back to St Louis we go to continue our exploration tomorrow morning (and the next blog!)    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    2
    Day 10

    Sullivan, United States

    September 13, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Back on the route, exiting St Louis around 3pm, we stopped at the route 66 famous Fresh Donuts shop and Ted Drewer's Custards. The latter serves frozen custard called "concretes" upside down to show its thickness. Is this where the Blizzard got his serving points? So so good. What I've loved the most about all these little shops along the route is they're locally owned, small shops that perfectly portray small town America.

    Eureka
    State 66 State Park visitors center - Got a great map ! Also did my dishes of our morning's cereal in their washroom sinks. Glamorous life on the road.

    Pacific
    Exposed mining tunnels

    Stanton
    Meramec Caverns - So many things to say. We were warned the Meramac caverns were very touristy, and not as "rock" oriented as the other caves in the area, but when on route 66, let's do it ! The tour starts off showing off its large disco dance floor complete with a disco ball coming down from the ceiling. Remember, we're in a cavern. So a disco ball coming down from the ceiling means a wire bolted into the cavern's rock top. It was put there because the cave was and is privately owned, and it was used as the social hall for dances and gatherings of the young. The cave is so big, cars would drive in and park inside the front portion of the cave. They tell the story of Jesse James who evaded the police by finding a different way out then the massive front entrance. The guide took about 5 minutes describing the details of a Lassy episode which was shot in the cave. In that 5 minute description, there was a 1 minute blurb about Lassy having to spend the night in the cave. There was a fake movie set still in place out on the rock formations. In the hour long tour, he spoke about the rocks and stalagmites for a total of maybe 15 minutes. And what cavern tour would be complete without a 5 minute movie clip playing against the stalagmites depicting different "American" (said with enthusiasm and an accent) things, with Céline Dion belting out the National anthem in the back ground?

    Sullivan
    We had food, trying to waste time for sleep time. We planned on sleeping in the walmart parking lot, but opted for the truck across the street instead. Picture my mighty accent, in line with 18 wheelers. So cute.    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    Day 11

    Good Museum Guides make my day

    September 14, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Bourbon
    Water tower
    Circle Inn Malt Shop

    Cuba
    Wagon Wheel Motel
    Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q
    Shelley’s on Route 66 - Grabbed a quick coffee to go at this old school diner. They showed us that even coffees have abnormally large proportions in the states… Their pops here are like a litter big! Who drinks that much?
    Murals - We stopped in front of the old publishing office to take a look at our first mural of Cuba. As we admired the painting a lady came out of the building and handed us a guide to all the murals in town. Now keep in mind, the town consists of one main street, going down about 5 blocks, with very few places of interest coming off to the side of this main street. Non the less, this guide explained all the murals, corner by corner, all 12 of them! Pretty much one at every corner, both directions,
    Crawford County Historical Society Museum - We stumbled upon a tiny little museum during out mural walk, and like all things free, why not! A very passionate historian, also retired teacher, walked us through the museum. What we thought would be 5 minutes quickly turned into 1 hour. He chatted away about living in the 1800s, then early 1900s. A small little section on route 66 showed just how packed and busy town centers were back when route 66 was the only way to travel. Tunnels to cross the road safely were more common then you would think.

    Fanning
    Tallest rocking chair - What’s there not to like about a ridiculously large rocking chair? Why did they build it? Why not. You can't really climb it. So you can't really sit in it. There's a huge gift shop next to it that's actually closed down. It was attached to an Archery thing which I would have loved but that was also closed down. Maybe that's for the best with Jack's clumsiness, I’d rather keep both eyes.

    Somewhere on the highway - 4M Vine Yards - We stopped before noticing this was suggested by our guide book. It was advertised as a store to buy Concord grapes, and it turned into a small town experience! There was "antiques" for sell, which was pretty much the contents of a hoarder's garage with little trinkets of glass everywhere. There was a full wall of jellies, and to buy them you just address the 4 people sitting behind a wooden counter, chatting away. That's beyond the stuffed deer head above the counter of course.

    Rosati

    St James
    Vacuum cleaner museum - I'm in heaven ! I've been looking forward to this museum for ever! I wanted a small town eclectic and nonsensical museum, but I actually learned! All because the museum curator was passionate about his vacuums! I learned all about how the first "electric suction sweeper" would plug into your light bulbs outlet (wall plugs were invented 10 years after the vacuum). This first hoover weighed about 60lbs and cost 75$ back when a brand new Ford cost 300$. He explained how back then, you often only had the one light bulb with electricity, that's why they made sure the first electric sweepers had their own head lights! I got a video of the hand crank vacuums that came before the electric. I had a blast reading all the old advertisements, incredible what they got away with in the 30s and 40s (see my Facebook picture album on this exhibits for amazing examples). Tom, our amazing curator, seemed a little on the gay side... And I really had to resist asking what it was like in Missouri to spend all day talking about vacuums and being gay... lol. That being said, this wonderful man shared our views on feminisms, and pointed out all the best offenses. You know a museum is done well when you go in hoping to laugh, and you come out fascinated by vacuums !
    Mule Trading Post - The most eclectic gathering of souvenirs, random items and "antiques" that are pretty much whatever someone has in their garage out on a shelf.

    Rolla
    Totem Pole Trading Post - Another one of the same concept stores along 66, still mostly have the same stuff, "antiques" that fill shelves with dusty glass trinkets and route 66 memorabilia. Think same as Mule Trading Post, with the addition of fireworks in this one!
    A modeled Stonehenge at the School of Mines - It was a university's art piece of some kind... Jack wanted to stop because of her interest in the original Stonehenge, but quickly lost interest because "it doesn't have the spirituality".

    Devil's Elbow bridge - basically a really pretty bridge in nature. The best part, and probably one of my favorite and most uncomfortable moments yet, was the Elbow Inn Bar & BBQ pit. Grungy looking wooden bar in the middle of no where. You walk in, and you've suddenly entered a biker bar with what is clearly regulars drinking together at the bar. You don't know if you're going to get beat up or made fun of... Jack being Jack, walked right up to the regulars and said "hi yall" as I sat quietly at the first chair I saw away from the regulars. There's hundreds of bras hanging from the ceiling, stickers all over the walls, an impressive amount of RIP photos and info about what seemed to be all young bikers. It took all of 2 minutes within our arrival for who we found out was the owner of the place to ask to see Jack's beastises. Yep, 2 minutes and this tall, massive (in every direction), leather wearing dirty looking man asked Jack if he could have her bra or have her prove she doesn't have one. And my discomfort starts. This bar was an experience of it's own. The waitress later came around with our food (side note - absolutely amazing pulled pork sandwich that even the vegetarian devoured) and said "try not to worry about those idiots, they mean no harm". As we leave, one man points out I have yet to say a word, asked if I was scared, I responded "I just don't say much". Haha, terrified would have been my honest answer.
    Hooker's Cut - I enjoy the name. Basically, back in the building route 66 days, this was a super impressive place because of the amount of rock they had to cut through to build the route. I guess back then it was super impressive, today it was just pretty.

    St Robert's
    The only road side park in Missouri - Jack was driving, looked away for a second and missed it. I think it may have been 40 feet long along the road, with a single park bench. The other states have had plenty, so this was confusing.
    Old motels signs

    Uranus, MO - I have not clue if this is an actual town, or just what they called this shopping plaza, but it was a massive Plaza with burlesque, strippers, tattoos and a gun shop. The best part - across the street was a bulletin board saying "pornography pollutes body, soul, mind" by the Pulaski Christian Ministerial Alliance. Coincidence?

    Waynesville
    Frog's rock - painted rock on top of a hill along the highway, couldn't stop.
    Square around Pulaski County museum in the old Court House - shops, cute store fronts, most memorable thing was a little sign in a store window stating "Warning Protected by (insect picture of a gun), We don't call 911", ˋMERICA.

    Lebanon
    Munger Moss Hotel - Cool sign in the front with towns and their distances, midpoint cafe (at the midpoint, duh) is 645 miles away. My first Gemini giant, now 406 miles behind us.
    Starlight lanes bowling alley
    Laclede County Museum and Route 66 museum - For some reason, every tourist info center have suggested this museum to us, it's housed in the county library. It was the size of a volleyball court I would say. The whole thing. With about 5 displays, and not the most interesting ones either... We've seen such better museums, this just confused us. Completed of course by an extensive salt and pepper shaker collection which would put my mother's to shame.

    Phillipsburg
    Redmon's Travel Center - Didn't stop, advertised "The World's Largest Gift Store". I don't know how proud I would be of that... It seems like every town has a "world's largest" or "world's best". Who regulates these?

    Marshfield

    Stratford
    Storefronts on both sides - Our guide book actually says this place made the Guinness Book of World Record for being the only town "with 2 main streets and no back alleys". It was said that they created an entrance on the back side of their stores when route 66 was built behind, as to attract the business from their locals and traveller's along 66. I was expecting super cute, long strip of shops. I got 3 buildings with maybe 2 of them still open with doors fronts on both streets. Disappointed isn't the right word, mostly sad how they advertise this town with such great emphasis on their two sides stores, but non exist anymore... Much of route 66 has been a game of imaging what once was...

    Springfield
    Steak and shake with curb side service - I thought this meant they would deliver to our car, but I was wrong, My lazy self was very excited at this possibility but it turns out they're only referring to their order window you can walk up to. Pfft, walking.
    Gellioz Theatre - Pretty, old, but closed.
    Shrine Mosque - Very ornamental, we'll painted, worth dropping by to stair at...
    The Rest Haven Court
    Route 66 Rail Haven
    We ended the evening having melted cheese and local beer at a great little bar, sitting on amazingly comfy couches.

    To catch up a bit of time, since we've been feeling like progress in distance has been a little slow, we drove out to Carthage after dark (which we try to avoid since you can't see anything along the way) to spend the night at a truck stop. Luxury!

    Side note - It's been getting easier to find truck stops or Walmart in which we can legally spend the night in our car thanks to my wonderful app RV Parky. Jack couldn't care less about parking legally, but she let's me do my thing because she knows I sleep that much better when I'm not worried about getting caught or woken up in the middle of the night by a flashlight hitting the car window.    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    Day 16

    Little Break from the Road

    September 19, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    I've been trying to catch up my blog for some time now, and decided to skip ahead to today, as to finally write in the moment. I'm currently sitting in the light of the moon in the mountains of the Bandeliere National Park, which we plan to visit tomorrow. To back track a little, Jack has been looking for an excuse to drive up to Santa Fe ever since Stu spoke highly of it in Chicago. As we arrived at the New Mexico visitors office yesterday, the lady told us the original Route 66 did the loop up to Santa Fe, which was later bypassed with the I-40 going straight to Albuquerque from Santa Rosa. This was Jack's excuse, given to her on a silver platter, route 66 did go to Santa Fe. In her defense, both Texas and now New Mexico have been very "drive" oriented, and by that I mean I think we stopped 4, maybe 5 times throughout Texas, and we haven't really stopped in New Mexico other then Tucumcari and Santa Rosa. So by the looks of it, we can afford the detour, time wise.

    Our two stops yesterday - Santa Rosa and Tucumcari. Tucumcari was the first actual town we saw in New Mexico, seeing as we passed about 3 ghost towns on our way in. These ghosts towns consisted of a few boarded buildings, a few foundations of what used to be buildings, and a house or two with people living in it. That's right, we passed a town of population ranging around 5 for the last 50 years. So, Tucumcari, demonstrated one heck of an effort in keeping the route 66 traditions alive. Tons of old signs along the main route, old motels including the famous Blue Swallow Motel.

    Much like my beloved SuperTAM was closed (cafe and superman museum in one), Jack's dinosaur museum was also closed. I thought she might cry, again much like I almost did. Small town dinosaur museum, how can you not want to stop by? Then Santa Rosa, large in area, small in population. We dropped by the Blue Whole, natural massive water pit that was 60ft wide and 80ft deep. Water was freezing so we went to their local lake (more like a pond) for a quick swim, it's brutally hot out during the day. And you know those curiosity showers at the beach side, usually used for sand removal? Well we showered in them. Like really showered. Shampoo and soap at the beach side. Why not?

    Seeing as, like the rest of New Mexico, there isn't much to see along the route to Santa Fe, it took us an hour and a half to get there from Santa Rosa. I was panicking because I didn't realise that for an entire hour of that drive, we wouldn't cross a single gas station along the highway. My gas light turned on by the time I saw that gas station, boy was I happy to see it!

    New Mexico, much like Texas, has been vast lands of nothing... Very dry soil of course, more green bushes then Texas, but still dry. We can see the beginning of mesas, giving beautiful texture to the land that was so, so flat in Texas.

    Santa Fe was very interesting. The old historic center was filled with white rich folks and fancy old vacationers. Expensive restaurants around the Plaza. Old churches to visit.

    Then you have the Rail Yard area of town. Not too far, along the rail road tracks, is a bunch of hipster, earthy folks with bars and cute shops. We happen to be there during the AHA Festival, which gave way to a band on stage and booths filled with art exhibits. I've suddenly entered the gay world! Who knew, the south had gays. Had our diner siting on a patio, enjoying the live band before walking around, and driving out to find a Days Inn to park our car and sleep for the night.

    We returned to the Plaza in the morning to see what it was like during the day, and not much different. This was after I brought my friend Ferby (the car) into the garage! The little sucker decided to turn on the engine light yesterday, and seeing as we are doing quite a bit of mileage, I wanted to have it checked out. The wonderful, wonderful man Roudy at the shop plugged his little computer in - Code P0326. Apparently, I asked too much of my motor. Seems as though I may have put low quality gas, or more likely - I didn't turn off the "eco drive" when going up hills. So he cleared it, and said not to worry if it happens again, just to eventually have it checked again, make sure it's the same code, and to turn off eco drive when going up hills.

    Apparently, us catching up on time meant we needed to delay ourselves again. So we decided to make a further detour to Banderliere National Monument. At this point, I know very little about it, other then there's really pretty mountains along the way, and an old community used to live in the rocks. So I took my "eco drive" off as recommended. Sure enough, while going uphill, the check engine light came back on. I assume it might be the added weight in the car... Who knows. I'll have to have it checked again. Roudy said I needed to buy a stranger a cup of coffee in his name as his payment, so I guess I'll have to buy two!    Read more

  • Vee LRoute 66, USA
    Day 17

    Nature Calling

    September 20, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Starting with a side note - I'm almost certain I heard a bear last night. There was distant grunting noises moving across what seemed like the road. It went by twice. Almost sounded like a man's snore, but it was moving... Clearly I didn't get out of our tent to find out, I'm not crazy. Second early note - I was convinced they would be showers, seeing as its a state owned camp site, but there was not. I'd love a shower right now.

    We started our hike down towards the Bandelier monument at 7am to beat all the tours (gates open at 9am, that's for the shuttle to bring you to the door from the closest town, before 9am you can explore on your own, but the visitors center is closed). The hike down took around an hour, walking through dry landscapes with little green shrubs. You can see all kinds of rock formations from far.

    The closer we got, the more high flat cliffs would appear with larger and larger crevices, almost cave like. In the park itself, there were plenty of signs indicating against climbing up the rock face, but of course Jack ignored them all and went crazy on how many holes she could manage to fit inside. We crossed a park ranger along the path who explained these caves, along with the settlement in front of it. Between 1380-1490 (something like that), a community had built 4 to 5 storey high brick buildings along the facade of the cliffs, living in both those constructions and inside the cliff itself. It front, on an open space, was a circular construction of over 200 rooms, 3 storeys high, also lived in. Obviously the current state of what was once a big development is now about 3 bricks high off the ground, the rest was imagination working hard.

    We took the little shuttle (now being 9am, and the visitors center being open) back to our campsite to prepare for the day. Because of our avoidance of the visitors center, there was no where along the way for us to pay our park fee of 20$ per vehicle. Gosh darn, we just couldn't give our money to anyone. So we left, having only spent 12$ for the campsite.

    Jack took the drive through the mountains really easy considering the check engine light. We didn't want to stress Ferby out too much. In the afternoon, after we were back on flat land, I gas'd up with the fancy stuff - 91 octane, treated the little guy to some good juice. And sure enough, within a couple hours, the engine light turned off! All on its own! I was so proud of my little Freby, no need for a garage after all, apparently I must have put bad gas in at one point...

    Back to the 66 we go, we aimed for Alberquerque coming down from the mountains. The colors, mostly reds, from the rocks and mountains along the way were absolutely gorgeous. Once in Alberquerque, both Jack and I weren't really into it... It's not a pretty town, There's a court and government district which had "ok" buildings, their historical downtown was pretty boring. This is the first town along our route where people aren't saying hello... It seems ridiculous, but all along the way people have been really friendly and saying hi as we pass. Here, we're ignored. So with no time to lose, we left. On the road again along route 66.

    From this point, we waved in and out of small towns and reservations, checked out a church inside a reservation along the way. There have been many reservations along the route in New Mexico, and I must say, they are some of the poorest looking communities I have ever seen in North America. And we were in Detroit! The houses look like they should be abandoned, some windows even boarded, front lawns full of whatever someone would consider their riches, and yet people are still coming in and out of them. The pueblos weren't paved, some of the only non paved roads we have driven. Taking pictures seemed wrong, recording someone's hardships for our own gain, but sometimes I just couldn't resist. You have to wonder, is it lack of funding? Lack of initiative from the community? Funds going in the wrong hands? Is the trauma of relocation and missionary schools keeping this community from thriving? Much like our Canadian North, how do you help such a large group out of poverty and hardship when you have maintained them at such a level for generations?

    We passed ghost towns, some towns seemed half lived in, half abandoned. All the large road side businesses closed up, with tiny communities behind them. Finally arriving in Grants just before sunset, Jack was determined to grab a Green Chili burger, New Mexico classic. By the end of it, her face was red from the spiciness. I'm just glad I didn't have any. People have described the green chili to us as "not spicy, there's just a kick to them". I wonder what the red chili burger tastes like... After driving through the town, exploring some neon lights, driving through a picture set up of more neon lights, we made the decision to drive to Gallup in the dark, to save some time. As much as the landscape is beautiful, flat planes with colorful mesas at the horizon, it is redundant. Our goal was to see the neon lights in Gallup of all the old motels and shops, but for some reason we both forgot that goal when we saw the Flying J off the highway just before entering Gallup and decided to set up for the night. Considering the probable bear fiasco of last night, I hadn't slept well, so the bed was calling my name! We set everything up, and made it a movie night. I downloaded some movies onto my tablet before leaving, which made this night perfect. Movie cuddles in our little cocoon, laughing at Guardians of the Galaxy.    Read more

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