Day 3 Route 66 - Springfield to Saint Louis 142.2 miles

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After checking out of the State Capitol Inn, we left the car in their car park and walked over to the Old State Capitol to discover that they had a Civil War Medical Encampment set up in the grounds this weekend. Talking with the volunteers it seems that there is some Civil War re-enactment somewhere in the United States just about every week of the year!!

We thought that we would just have a quick wander around the grounds and take a couple of photos of the volunteers in period costumes and the Old State Capitol from the outside. Just as we were about to leave, the guy on the gate asked if we had been into the Capitol building. When we said that we hadn't he encouraged us to go in before leaving.

So we turned around and went in ... and found ourselves being included in a tour of the building. All very interesting, but the time flies by so quickly! Of course with Springfield being Abraham Lincoln's home at the time he was nominated to run for President, the Old State Capitol was the venue for some important moments in the history of the United States.

After spending longer than expected at the Capitol building we walked to Lincoln's Home. The National Parks Service administers a fantastic site here that has preserved not only Lincoln's Springfield home, but much of the street that existed in Lincoln's time. We took a tour of the house which rounded out what we had already learnt about Lincoln earlier. We walked back to the car and programmed the SatNav to take us to Lincoln's Tomb.

Bernie was keen to see Bill Shea's Historic Route 66 Museum on Peoria Road, but we couldn't programme in the road number that the guide book gave. With various maps that we had with us we managed to find our way there the old fashioned way!!

This actually put us back on the part of Route 66 that we skipped over yesterday afternoon so that was fortuitous. We were now able to head towards the Cozy Dog Drive-In (the home of the corn dog on a stick) and another iconic site along the route. We just had one slight hiccup when the Historic Route 66 signs didn't agree with the map that I had and I insisted that we should go the way the map said BUT the map didn't show the one way streets so I directed Bernie to turn into a one way street going the wrong way. Fortunately Bernie realised before he actually made the turn.

After that near mishap we did make it to Cozy Dog, but the atmosphere was tense!! There was some agitated discussion about how we would find our way from Cozy Dog to the pre-1930 Route 66 alignment between Springfield and Staunton. The pre- and post-1930 alignments are a long way apart for this section and a decision had to be made as to which one would be taken.

Rather than continuing to squabble in the car we decided to go in to Cozy Dog and discuss our options over a corn dog on a stick each. How can you keep arguing when you are eating something as ridiculous as a deep fried hot dog on an icy pole stick???! As we enjoyed (?) our cozy dogs with fries we calmed down and agreed on how we would proceed after our lunch. Just like yesterday lunchtime has found us still in the town where we spent the night! We need to pick up the pace a bit.

After a bit of doubling back we found our way to the Lauderbach Giant as we drove out of Springfield and started heading for Chatham where we (eventually) found the Sugar Creek Covered Bridge to the southeast. Thinking that we had missed the old brick segment of road (which was the main reason we chose this alignment over the 1930-era alignment) we doubled back to Chatham.

Yes, more doubling back! It is not easy to find some of the roadside features. It turned out that the rare 1.4 mile brick section on Snell and Curran Roads was closer to Auburn than we realised. Fortunately we did find it and that is another Route 66 feature that we can tick off as seen. We continued on through Thayer and Virden to Girard where we were disappointed to discover that the Whirl-a-Whip Drive-In, with 50 flavours of soft serve, has closed down! We were all set to have ice-creams for afternoon tea.

From Girard to Nilwood and Nilwood to Carlinville Route 66 dates to 1920 and it is a crazy, winding, zig-zagging route through farmland. These sections are paved with concrete that is very cracked these days - more like crazy paving than a road!! We arrived in Carlinville and found that Carlinville Square with its gazebo, is actually a roundabout - the only roundabout on Route 66 in Illinois. We also found the impressive domed courthouse that dates from 1870. Substantial cost overruns at the time it was built have resulted in it being known locally as the Million Dollar Courthouse.

Somehow we missed the Coliseum Ballroom at Benld with its Giant Surfer Dude and pink elephant before arriving in Staunton where the pre- and post-1930 alignments rejoin before passing through Hamel, Edwardsville and Glen Carbon.

Although it was getting late in the day we decided to try to find the Chain of Rocks Road that would take us out to the Chain of Rocks Bridge where Route 66 crossed the Mississippi River from 1937 until 1960. This section also had some classic old motels and signs along the way including the Luna Cafe at Mitchell.

Although we successfully navigated to the Chain of Rocks Road there aren't many photos from along the road because there really weren't many opportunities to pull over for photos. Very frustrating! At least we managed to walk across the bridge (it's only open to pedestrians and bicycles these days) to the middle of the Mississippi River and step from Illinois into Missouri.

From the bridge we programmed the SatNav to take us to the Hampton Inn in Saint Louis. After a premature exit from the Interstate we eventually made it to the hotel. Edna kept wanting to take us back onto the Interstate, but every on ramp seemed to be closed. We kept meandering our way through the back streets of Saint Louis and Edna kept recalculating the route and before we knew it we were actually on Washington Avenue where we needed to be. I just sat quietly and let Bernie and Edna work it out between themselves!!

We checked into our room with a view of The Arch and then went down to the in-house Irish Pub for dinner. It was a long time since our cozy dog lunch!! After dinner we went to scout out vantage points for photos. According to the Cardinal's website there were fireworks over the arch scheduled for after the ball game tonight.

Back to our room where we tuned into the game to keep track of when it might finish. At the top of the 8th we headed back out to get set up for the fireworks. We set up our tripods and cameras in the plaza opposite the (heavily scaffolded) Old Courthouse with Gateway Arch behind it. Unfortunately, when the fireworks started, they were over Busch Stadium!! Damn, if we'd known that the fireworks would be over the ballpark, rather than the arch, we would have walked the extra block for a better view!!! At least we felt better that there was a local out with his tripod too and he was also expecting the fireworks to be over the arch tonight.

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Comments

[Cathy]

St Louis baseball fireworks
Can you believe another friend of ours photographed those fireworks too? From his hotel window as he had a lovely view of the ballpark, although he went to the game earlier. He's over there from Brisbane on a work trip.