Starting at the Holiday Inn Express in Springfield Illinois...
Got up at 5.30, got ready for the day including copying yesterdays photos off the camera but no time to do anything on blog.
We had our complimentary breakfast buffet in the lobby at 7.00 - I tried what looked like, and what I thought was porrige but actually,m well I don't know what it was, imagine something that looks like porige but tastes like mushroom soup! - I left most of that. The peanut butter was really good though.
As was to become the norm, we loaded our luggage onto the van at 8.00 and spend the next half hour cleaning the windshield of bugs, the riders meeting, and making sure we had what we need with us for the day. We load our big holdalls (what was our checked in bags on the flight), and our main backpacks (what was our cabin baggage on the flight) onto the van each day, and then we're not supposed to touch them again until the unload at the end of the day. We also have a 'day bag' each which we carry in the bikes saddle bags, with what we need for the day - things like suntan cream, cameras, cap, water bottles, tester/insulin and so on - and of course, the wet weather gear (not that we've really needed it yet).
Our first stop on the sunny Sunday morning was at the 'City' of Carlinville (I suppose that in the UK it would only be a town, but cities in the US seem to have a different status compared to the UK). This place was on Route 66 between 1926-1930, before R66 was diverted away from the toen (city?).
On the edge of the square was this wonderfully painted planter (see above)
above; More photos of Carlingville - Historic Buildings, The Court House, side street (notice the 4 - way stop)
We make a gas stop before leaving Carlinville, and while we're tehre, see a procession of Custom/Classic American cars cruise by (which I thought was brilliant, especially with them all wavin')
Heading south towards St. Louis down the old road we came to the old Chain of Rocks bridge. This is a famous landmark on the route, and is noted for it's bend part way across the Mississippi river. It was part of the old 'Mother Road' but is now closed to all motor vehicles, which have to use the new chain of rocks bridge a little bit upstream. I was expecting to park up to go have a look at this iconic part of the route, but no, Gary led us right up onto the bridge and we all parked up on the bridge half way across! He explained that our tour had special permission to actually ride over the bridge. We stopped there a while and took photos and chatted to people and then moved on, only to find that, although the gates to the bridge had been unlocked to allow us through, somebody had locked the gate at the other side that covers the exit back onto the road - so we had to wait while Gary summoned somebody with the key to let us through - we could have squeezed the bikes through a gap - but not the truck and the two trikes.
Sunday lunch was at a restaurant called 'Cracker Barrel', part of a chain . I had Apple Pie and Ice Cream (both no added sugar) while Mrs. K has an Apple based desert as well (I can't remember now what it was called now)
After lunch we rode on to our next stop at the Route 66 State Park where there's a small R66 museum and gift shop (one of many gift shops we'll stop at, I suspect)
Our afternoon stop was at the Miramec Caves. This is a bit of a tourist attraction on the route and has been since the early days. We didn't take the guided tour of the caves, satisfied just with an ice cream (the 'small' ones were large and the 'large' were massive), and a viist it to the (inevitable) gift shop.That was our last stop of the day before reaching the hotel, although I could have done with another fuel stop as the low fuel light came on a while before the hotel, and then the engine started misfiring - but we made it, arriving at about 7.10 (and tired again!)
We noticed on the key card to the room, and ad for Dominos Pizza delivery, so decided to have some chill out time rather that got to the '$10 all you can eat' buffet restaurant up the road (which was very good by all accounts). Dominos was good too though, we ordered on line and the pizza man was there within 15-20 minutes. I couldn't pay on-line though because my credit card isn't linked to a US address with a zip code.
jump to: Day 5 Day 3
I remember the `Cracker Barrel' from years ago!. You are certainly putting the hours in, and seeing some interesting places. Hope the weather stays good for you - it's rubbish here.
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