Thurs. Sept. 8/11

We started our day in Union, Missouri.  At breakfast we met 4 fellows from Austria that are travelling Rte 66 on motorcycles.  They had flown to Chicago and rented  Harleys and are going all the way to Santa Monica.  Two of the young guys were twins about 19 years old and their dad and a friend of their dad.  They knew a lot about 66.  They did a close examination of our corvette and were on their way.

  Our first stop of the day was at the Meramac Caverns.  We had barely parked the car when an Italian family took a fancey to the Corvette especially the licence plate.  They took some pictures and told us they had flown to Chicago and rented an SUV and were driving Rte 66 to Santa Monica.

 We thought we had seen a lot of exciting things up till now but the caverns has to be the highlight of our trip so far.

This is a barn advertising the Caverns

At the entrance to the tour of the caverns they have an old moonshine shack that was moved there from the backwoods.  You go through the caves in a group with a tour guide and it is fabulous.  We have never seen anything as fabulous as these caverns.

This array in the picture above is estimated to have taken 75 million years to form. 

The pictures do not do justice to the spectacular arrays of stalactites and stalagnites.  The tour guide would turn coloured lights on in various caverns which made the arrays even more spectacular.  These limestone caverns are found throughout this area.  At the entrance they have an underground ballroom that can hold up to 3000 people.  The Meramac Caverns were supposedly  used by the Jesse James gang as a hideout. 

We stopped in the town of Cuba to look at the Wagon Wheel Motel.  It is the oldest motel on Rte 66 that has been in continuous service since the 1930's.  The present owner bought it in 2009 and has spent a lot of money making it a class motel again.  We met her in the shop and she told us what she has done to get it up to scratch.  A lot of work and she said it is finally starting to pay off.

At one time there was also a gas station at the front of the motel.  The owner at the time decided to build a pit beside the station to change oil.  The present owner has moved an old car over the pit.  Looks like an early 50's Chev.

The outside of the motel has been kept to the same look that he had when it was first built.

We also found an old gas station in Cuba that had once been a Pontiac dealership as well.  It is no longer functioning but the family that owns it has decided to make it look good.

Cuba also had many murals depicting the history of the town

The mural below was taken at the site of the World's largest rocking chair.

Now that's a large rocking chair.  I also found something at this location  that I think I will invest in when I return to Calgary.  It  would be a great way for Vicky to work off her excess energy.

At the gift shop we saw a young couple but didn't talk with them.  Later in the day we would meet up with them on a few occasions.  The first time was when I took a wrong road and they followed us.  Later we ended up at the Devil's Elbow and started to talk about how at times it is easy to make wrong turns on the Mother Road.  We went in to the bar at Devil's Elbow and chatted over drinks.  Heike and Dirk are from Hanover Germany and they had flown to Chicago through Amersterdam and had rented a car to travel on Rte 66 to Santa Monica.  They have 4 weeks holidays and will have plenty of time to stop along the way.  Tonight they are staying at Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Ill.  Heike's parents stayed at that motel when they did the trip 14 years ago. 

After leaving Devil's Elbow all four of us ended going in the wrong direction.  After many miles we realized our mistake and turned around and headed for Lebanon.  Somewhere along the way we lost sight of Heike and Dirk.  They must have taken a different route than we did.  Our intention was to stay in Springfield, Missouri this evening but with the long detour we took and by the time we got back on track we ended up staying in Lebanon.  The good part about getting lost is that we saw a lot of the countryside.  The roads we travelled were very windy and had lots of dips and twists and turns.  It was fun to drive those kind of roads and it gave the Corvette a good road workout.  It passed with flying colours.  It was such a beautiful day that we travelled most of the day with the top down and had a real authentic Route 66 experience