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Published: August 16th 2007
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Oklahoma
After Amarillo we drove through Texas to see the leaning tower of Texas and the u drop inn where they had a really old filling station , that was very art deco. Further along in Oklahoma we went to the route 66 museum there which was really good. We spent the evening in the brickhouse area of Oklahoma city which is where all the bars and restaurants are by the side of the canal, it felt a bit like Manchester! In the morning we went to the cowboy & western heritage museum, lots of John Wayne everywhere, we learned a lot about rodeo though! Jon went into an old Jail cell, basically a metal cage in a room! The bomb memorial in Oklahoma was quite chilling, 168 people died there in the bomb of 1995- there were empty chairs along the remnants of the building that was bombed, terrible.
We spent ages trying to book the next part of our trip, we wanted to go to the ozark mountains ,mo but couldnt find a motel to stay in. So we went to Walmart and bought the cheapest tent we could find, a $13 kids play tent . In
the evening we went to the route 66 bowl for some 10 pin action, Jon managed to beat me I wasnt impressed!It was a really cheap too!
Missouri
We decided we wanted to spend the weekend in the country so we planned to go to Van buren which is right by the mountains and a river. Along the way we went to the big blue whale an old 66 relic. We spent our first night in the play tent, Jon was too tall to lie down, ha ha!We met a lot of really nice people form Memphis so we spent the evening with them drinking around their camp fire, they felt pity on us and leant us some pillows to sleep on in the midget tent!
The next day we went in an old school bus to the river up stream then we went in cadillac tubes floating down the river back to the camp. It was brilliant we had a really good laugh, an excuse for most people to get drunk as it took 6 hours and everyone had drinks coolers with them!We were with the gang from Memphis the whole time which made it even
Oaklahoma city bomb memorial
1 chair for every person killed. more hilarious. The weather was fantastic 102 degrees, some people were really burned but we were both sensible with hats and t shirts on!The scenery was beautiful and the water was quite warm too. We stopped for lunch at islands and beaches along the way. In the evening we went to local BBQ restaurant , Jons favourite!
On Sunday we left Van Buren and set off for St Louis. When we arrived we went to the Anheuser busch brewery- the budweiser brewery- it was really interesting and we liked it more because it was a budweiser night where we met, plus you got free bud at the end!!The rest of the evening we spent lazing around the pool, we are having a heat wave at the moment over 100 all the time!The next stop was at the gateway arch, a huge steel arch- to symbolise st louis being the gateway to western usa. It was huge! We went for a boat ride along the Mississippi river then went to the museum of western expansion inside the arch. We also went to watch a movie in the gigantic cinema they have in there. We ate in the Hill area of
Bowling
At the route 66 bowl oaklahoma city. St Louis which is where they have all the Italian restaurants, it was lovely we are sick of all the junk food that is everywhere here. There is a route 66 icecream place called ted drewes which everyone raves about so we went there for "concrete" ice cream on the way back, it was gorgeous- its called concrete as its so thick that it wont come out of the tub even when you hold it upside down.
Illinois
After St Louis we set off to Springfield , along the way we stopped at the chain of rocks bridge along the old route 66,which is a huge old bridge with a massive 20degree bend in it, it also marks the boundary of illinois and missouri. At lunch we ate in an old route 66 cafe called the ariston which was lovely, jon managed to eat a 22oz steak. In the evening we went to the knights adventure park and played some minigolf, I was terrible at it lost golf balls galore! Jon played in the soft ball cage too, loads of ball being fired at him every few seconds, it was hilarious!Then we went to the route 66 drive in
Blue whale
Apparently used to be a big attraction on route 66. to watch the simpsons movie- a bizarre coincidence that we were in springfield too! The drive in was cool, but we got a bit hot sat in the car in the heat. Wednesday we spent driving up to Chicago to drop the car off and hit the city, we managed to get lost a couple of times but found it eventually. We have our next 4 days here before heading to NY next week!
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Enjoy!
Looking forward to seeing you soon. Enjoy the last bit of your journey and stay safe. We are off to London to see "old" friends from Sierra Leone days - Americans from Minneapolis and an Irish couple. Will be really great to be able to put the whole blog together