We hit the road

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Geo: 39.801, -89.6436

On waking this morning it is raining heavily with storms expected in the afternoon, not good weather to start our drive. On arriving at Midway Airport Thrifty Car Rentals teased me by saying that they have a Mustang in the lot. Given I was chasing a Camaro, a Mustang or a Charger this was my second choice. On calling the lot it seems the Mustang was hired 10 minutes before we arrived, damn!!! It doesn't end there......Thrifty then told me they had no Dodge Chargers and the best they could do was a Chevy Malibu which I reluctantly accepted over a gas guzzling 4 wheel drive.

Drove out of the Airport like a pro and hit the I55 South at about 8.00am. Not long after it pelted down rain and didn't stop for 3 hours. This ruined any chances of doing Route 66 except for a couple of small sections when we arrived in Springfield. On checking into the Route 66 Hotel we were pleasantly surprised. We headed to the Cozy Dog for lunch then into downtown Springfield the home of Lincon and saw some pretty good stuff. We then walked down to the Capital Building and the weather got really hot so we had to stop for a beer. We then went to Union Station and back to our hotel for dinner.

On arriving, reception told us that Springfield was on Tornado watch and that they were expecting severe storms within the hour. While some Tornado's passed near by we only got some heavy rain, strong winds and lots of thunder and lightning.......much like a bad Brisbane storm. The Hotel got some minor flooding and then the storm passed. We went to dinner and had the specialty of the house a Horse Shoe which is a slice of toast topped with meat, chips and cheese sauce, I can feel a coronary coming on.

Hopefully we will get better food and weather tomorrow.

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