After yesterday’s banzai run up the freeway, today was to be a more touristy day. Our first day on Route 66. We started with a nice breakfast in the Marriot and then a stop across the street at the sign monument.

Gas again took some time, but we all headed out to the Interstate. Well, almost. Here we lost Bill in his Audi. We radioed to him to make sure he took the right turn, but somehow he ended up on the wrong interstate and went 40 miles out of his way.

Our first stop was at Chain of Rocks Bridge, an original part of Route 66 across the very wide Mississippi River. The bridge is now closed to traffic but a nice place to walk across the river.

After our walk halfway across the river, we turned back and were joined by Bill. I felt really bad he could not walk on the bridge, but we did have an itinerary.

The bridge is amazingly long and we only got halfway across it. On the bridge is the state dividing line, some graffiti honoring some local girls... and an old fire truck heading west.

Next up was the Gateway Arch in St Louis, the symbol for western expansion in the US. We parked at the garage next door and enjoyed a nice walk through the park.





Pics really do not capture how huge this thing is.



The rest of the group went up to the top of the arch, I stayed below because I have done the arch before, and I get a little claustrophobic in the elevator capsules.

The views from up there are pretty stunning. At the base is a cool diorama museum and a wall relief that shows you how tall the arch is in relation to other things such as Mount Rushmore, Empire State Building, etc.

Then we all walked over the Irish Pub for fish and chips and various other foods.

Next up, we stopped at the famous Ted Drewes Frozen Custard stand on Route 66 (Chippewa Street). We were mostly still full from the Irish Pub, but we managed to sample the frozen custards. As would happen a few times on the trip, we were amused when the translations did not work perfectly for Michael and Anja who ordered an Espresso and a Coffee... and were both handed coffee flavored frozen custards.

The drive through the suburbs of St Louis gives one a good feel for what it must have been like traveling west on Route 66 back in the day, when going through the cities.

Next stop was Meramec Caverns.







I have been to a good number of caves, but expected this one to have more of a touristy perspective. I was not wrong. While I was inquiring about tickets, Jared and Dan took the opportunity to try on hats.



I have been to a good number of caves, but expected this one to have more of a touristy perspective. I was not wrong. While I was inquiring about tickets, Jared and Dan took the opportunity to try on hats.



We were lucky to just have hit the tail end of a tour that just started. If it had been 5 minutes later, we would have had to wait 90 minutes for a tour to start. The whole place seemed geared up for much larger crowds. A large gift shop, restaurant, large parking lot, bus spaces, etc. But there were only about 25 tourists total there.

The tour was indeed cheesy... at times rediculous. The flicking of light switches. A poster of Lassie the dog. Bad statues of Jessie James.





It all seemed a bit amateur... still, I like caves and I had a good time in this one

.

We drove the main highway with occasional detours along Route 66. Having done Route 66 before, I knew there were certain places that were kinda cool... and a lot of it that was really not worth doing, unless you wanted to do the whole thing. Since we were not doing the whole thing from Chicago to Santa Monica, and we were on a tight time itinerary, I selected various points to get us the flavor of Route 66 or take in the major tourist points. The first of these were in Cuba and Fanning Missouri, where we stopped at the World’s Largest Rocking Chair.





There is a really cute gift shop here.

