Wed. Sept 7/11

Today was only a 163 mile drive that moved us from Illinois into Missouri.  We will miss the fantastic job that the Illinois Route 66 Society has done in marking the route through their state.  Missouri has a Route 66 Society as well but it was soon apparent that they have not taken the care to clearly mark the Mother Road.

At Edwardsville, Ill we stopped to tour the Madison County Historical Museum.  We had a lovely lady give us a tour of the house and explain all the displays.  The house belonged to a doctor who had it built before the Civil War.  She was a very gracious and lovely lady and she even allowed us to take her picture.

Before we left Illinois we took a side trip to the Chain of Rock Bridge that was opened in 1929.  The bridge was built to take Route 66 across the Mississippi River into Missouri and St. Louis. The bridge was open until the late 60's.  It was also used to shoot scenes for the movie "Escape from New York" with Kurt Russell.  He used it to escape from New York.   For some strange reason they had to build a bend into the bridge about half way across.  It was very narrow as well.

You can see the mighty Mississippi River as well as the bend in the bridge.   The bridge is closed to motorized traffic but you can walk or bike ride across it.  We walked about half way.

We crossed over to Missouri and tried to follow Rte. 66 through the city.  We got turned around a few times but managed to make our way through the city. We have now started our way south and west through Missouri.  We made a side trip at the town of Eureka (not the one in Montana) to the Black Madonna Shrine and Grottoes.  We could not find out where the name came from as there was no one at the location.  It was very isolated in a beautiful woodland setting about  5 or 6 miles outside the town.

The grottoes are very unusual.  They seem to be made from limestone that has lots of coral and minerals in it.  It is hard to tell if it is man made or natural.  There is a retreat nearby run by Franciscan monks.  None of them were at the grottoes so we had many unanswered questions. 

We are staying at a small town named Union, Missouri.  The countryside in Missouri so far is very beautiful.  The hills are rolling and very forested.  Tomorrow we are planning to make one of our stops the Meramac Caves.  They were always a big tourist attraction for Rte 66 travellers.  It is also said that Jesse James hid in them for a while.  Also, the owner of the caves used to advertise the caves on the side of barns along the road.  The laws have been changed to disallow that practice nowadays except for refurbishing the ones that had the original adds.

Hope our good weather holds.  I see that Calgary has been having nice weather.  Also don't forget to be cheering on those Stamps on Friday.