Sat. Sept.10

Well, today was our last day on Route 66 before heading to Branson for a week.  We stayed in Springfield, Missouri last night and decided to look at some of the interesting things it had to offer. Our first stop was at the Pythian Mansion.  I have never heard of the Pythians before but it turns out they are a secret society similar to the Masons.  Dennis---I wonder if they have a famous secret handshake that we both know that the Mason's have.

Anyways, the Pythians apparently were a secret society that believed in doing good for the community.  They built this amazing building in Springfield in 1917 and used it to look after  orphans, sick people and the elderly.  We had a great tour guide to ourselves named Mia who was raised in Springfield and was very knowledgeable about the history of the building. 

The Pythian's owned the building until 1941 and because of twindling useage for orphans and sick people, the U.S. army wanted to buy it and built hospitals nearby to look after wounded soldiers from the war.  The army made many changes to the interior of the building.

After the war the army no longer needed the building and it went through a succession of owners and started to deteriorate.  In 2003 a woman and her daughters who lived in California and had done renovations to large mansions there, decided that they wanted to renovate a castle-like building and this one was on the market.  They bought it and have spent a lot of money restoring it.  It has a theater room,  a ballroom, and is still a work in progress.  Many people in Springfield use it to hold their wedding reception.  A couple getting married this fall were coming in as we were leaving to sign their contract.  They offered to take our picture.

Our tour guide had many interesting stories she had learned from some of the orphans that had lived in the castle. 

Our next stop was just north of Springfield.  The Fantastic Caverns.  Yes,  you're right---we did another tour of some caverns.

This tour was done by a motorized jeep with a trailer attached.  This cavern was quite a bit different than the Meramac Caverns we had seen earlier.  It is amazing that these caverns are privately owned and operated.  There are hundreds of them throughout Missouri. 

These caverns are truly amazing.  This tour took about an hour.  There are parts that are so large that they were used for entertainment.  Buck Owens and other famous country singers use to entertain in them.

After these two sites we were running out of time and headed for Branson.  Southern Missouri is very pretty with rolling hills and lots of forests.  Branson itself is quite unusual.  Think of the Las Vegas strip only with a narrower main road and wall to wall entertainment places, mini golf , places to eat etc.etc.etc.

Our time share exchange is just off the main road in the middle of the entertainment area which is great.  We are very pleased with our accommodation and look forward to being in one place for a week after 2 weeks of being on the move every day.

We went out after checking in and bought some groceries.  We are relaxing this evening.  Vicky is having a glass of wine and I'm having a black russian.  Life is good.  We hope everyone back home is doing well.  Al Tishcer-we hope your recovery is getting better everyday. 

We have WiFi access at the Colonnade where we are staying so if you want to send us an email we would love to hear from you.

Heike and Dirk---we are looking forward to hearing how the rest of your Route 66 trip is going.  Also we will note the places you recommend when we continue our Route 66 adventure next year.

Fri. Sept. 9

We started our day in Lebanon, Missouri.  Our first destination was to go see Munger Motel where our German friends Heike and Dirk had stayed last night. 

We then went to the Route 66 Museum at the Lebanon Public Library.  It was wonderfully done and we spent about 45 minutes there.

This room represents a typical motel room in the 50's except for the telephone exchange on the left side of the picture.

This is a typical 50's diner.

Our original plan was to go as far as Springfield, Missouri on Route 66 before going to Branson, Missouri for a week and then on the way back to Calgary we were going to finish the rest of Route 66 in Missouri and the 13 miles in Kansas.  However , today we had enough time to finish all the way to Kansas so we won't have to complete this year's trip on our way home. 
We really enjoyed our adventures today, especially when we happened to find our new German friends Heike and Dirk at one of the more interesting attractions along Rte. 66.  We also discovered today that we have something else in commnon with them.  We are both travelling with a blue smurf.  Now, you have to admit,  what are the odds of that happening?????   Dennis----I'm sure you'll have a comment about that!!!

At Paris Springs, Missouri we came across the Gay Parita Sinclair Station.  As we drove up we happened to recognize a car we had seen before.  Amazingly it was Heike and Dirk.  Again, what are the odds????  The present owner of this fabulous gas station is one of the most interesting "characters" we have met on our adventure.  His name is Gary Turner and his knowledge of Rte 66 knows no bounds and with his Missouri drawl he was an absolute pleasure to visit with.  He took quite a liking to Vicky because she thought all his jokes were hilarious and would laugh uncontrollably.  Gary thought she was absolutely delightful.

Gary put on his favorite Sinclair Oil hat for Vicky and let her make a phone call on his old crank phone.  He cranked it for a long time because he said that way Vicky could make a "long distance call".  Again Vicky laughed and Gary said "what a delightful gal".

Heike and Dirk talking with Gary. Gary is very intense in explaining different places on Rte. 66

While we were visiting here we made another amazing discovery.  A debate has been going on since Elvis died in August 1977 about whether he really died.  Well---the debate can now end.  As we were visiting with Gary a car pulled up and guess who got out and came to speak with Gary???  As the old saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words"--Look at the following picture and judge for yourself.

Gary asked us to move the corvette in front of the gas station and took some pictures of us and the car.  He want us to email the pictues to his son which we will do when we get back home.

We enjoyed our visit with Gary but finally said goodbye and chatted for a while with Heike and Dirk.  The next time we see our German friends we hope it will be in Calgary.  They are welcome to come and stay with us any time they can make it.  We suggest Stampede Week.

Along the way we came across Mater's cousin.  For those of you without grandchildren, Mater is the tow truck from the movie "Cars".  The following pictures are especially for our grandchildren, Isabella and Leif.  Soon after we took the picture below, we came across the real Mater in Galena, Kansas.

The story goes that some people from Disney had seen this old tow truck as they were conceiving the movie and based Mater on it.  You judge for yourself.

Vicky having a conversation with Mater about Isabella and Leif.

This tow truck has to be the real Mater because he has Lighning McQueen upholstery?????

We were ending our Kansas trip on the route at the Rainbow Arch Bridge when a giant came along and asked us if we wanted him to take our picture.  How can you argue with a giant????, so we agreed.  You can tell it was a giant by looking at his shadow in the picture.

We actually ended our journey in Baxter Springs, Kansas before we headed back to Springfield, Missouri for the night.  We made one last stop at a place that had been robbed by Jesse James in the 1800's.

Tomorrow we will tour some Rte 66 sites in Springfield before heading to Branson.

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

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.

Tues. Sept 6

Most of today was spent in Springfield, Ill  There is so much to see in this city.  Today it was back into the downtown core.  Our first stop was to the building where Lincoln had his law offices.

Could that really be Abraham himself????

We had a tour guide take us through the building where Lincoln had his law offices.  They were on the third floor and later he moved to the second floor.  The ground floor was a dry goods store and the upper floors were rented out as offices.

We then went across the street to the old State Building and toured through that building.  Vicky met a new friend.  He claimed his father was Canadian and that he was thinking of getting Canadian citizenship.  We tried to explain that he may have to change the way he dressed.

After the State Capital Building we went down the street to the Lincoln Museum.  This museum is extremely well done and like everything else in Springfield is all about Lincoln.  We spent over three hours in the museum. 

Vicky again found some more new friends.

This museum is another must see if you make it to this area.

Lincoln as a young man at the home he was raised in.

On our way out of Springfield we stopped at two Route 66 sites.  Shea's garage was not open so we weren't able to go in to see all the gas pumps that are suppose to be inside.  The second site was one that was high on my list of places to see.  The Cozy Dog.  This is were the corn dog was invented and the business is still owned by the same family.  Of course we had a corn dog even though we weren't really hungry.

After our gourmet meal at the Cozy Dog we headed south of Springfield.  Along the way we found a stretch of Route 66 that has been left in its original state--bricks.  Thankfully it only lasts for about a mile.  Not a great way to build a highway.

We ended our journey today in the town of Litchfield.  It still has an operating drive-in theatre on Rte 66.  Tomorrow we will finish our Illinois portion of Route 66.  One state down, 7 more to go.