Two days for the price of one!

A slight struggle to find our way back onto route 66 this a.m. – call it a matter of differing opinions – trying to figure out east/west/north/south when you have no landmarks is a tad difficult.

Anyway, we headed through the pretty township of Mt Olive and onto Williamson, nearly missing the Country Classic Cars – sale lot – over 600 cars mostly owned by the operator are being sold.  OMG it was amazing. We were heading for St Louis, but stopped here for a couple of hours and Neil was in car heaven.  There are barns and barns of these cars, plus more lined up outside.

Cars for as far as you can see - this was shed 1 of 9!

A 56 Ford

A 1920 Chevrolet

A 48 Ford Coupe

Same year - but this model is  has the rare flathead 6 motor

Some of the line up of cars outside the sheds

Chain of Rocks Bridge - longest walking bridge in the world

Our first glimpse of the arch a we arrive in St Louis

After the 1^st barn from which you couldn’t see the end of it for the number of cars in there, I decided to head back to our car and do the editing which has to be in to my editor in a couple of days – hey –I’ve only got 120 pages more to read thru, but trying to do it 1 hour each night is a struggle – especially after long days of driving and sightseeing.

 The sky is overcast today, a heavy thick cloud and with there is humidity!  Thank goodness for car air conditioning, but of course while I’m waiting for Neil I’m at the vagaries of humidity.

We went over the world’s longest foot bridge – Chain of Rocks Bridge in Mitchell not far from an interstate interchange that was like driving through a pretzel! 

We had a slight slip up about 20 miles out of St Louis- oops  - went the wrong way for about 10 miles.

Arrived in the outskirts of St Louis – what a lovely city – think it’s quite pretty – the architecture in the centre really nice – virtually all brick.  The Gateway arch could be seen for miles.  We drove down to it and checked out the area, thinking we would come back Sunday/tomorrow as we heard there was a ball game in ST Louis today- and the big ball park is in the centre of town and we reconed the traffic would be a bit too much

Next on the agenda is to find accommodation. We get these free brochure booklets at visitor centres and these have discounts for a stack of hotel/motels.  We chose a Comfort Inn, thinking on the map that it was only a short drive away – not – 14miles later LOL – oh well, we really did luck out here though, there’s a beautiful pool and it’s so hot it’s a real treat.

We were recommended a small grocery chain called Dierbergs – what a place – HUGE – like 2-3 times our supermarkets – but it’s what it has inside that is awesome.  Lots of ready made meals – pastas, lasagne, meat balls, chicken dishes etc -so much variety, and a salad bar that is right up my alley.

So a great end to day 2 of our route 66 trip.

Neil's view from the top of the arch

The courthouse viewed from the arch

The paddle steamer - Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher

We went on the Tom Sawyer - fun but sooo hot

The Arch

Cruising the Mississippi

A bridge nearly completed - just a metre or two to go - $250 million dollars to build

The Becky Thatcher Paddle Steamer

Day 3

Another oops we didn’t have the chance to load the blog yesterday.  This morning we had breakfast at the hotel – included in our room price – mind you so did the rest of the guests – stacks of them, but at least none were in pyjamas like they were in Detroit.

We headed back into St Louis about 9 and went down town to the Gateway- you go underground to enter, but first all your bags are xrayed along with watches, everything, belts, buckles, my bracelets, and of course I beeped going through the xray machine so they wanted to see my scar to confirm the actual operation.  This was quite a shock really – the state of security and was the first time we’ve had to really go through this – I guess  it’s a testament to the state of real life threat in this country.  A shock for these two hicks from downunder.

We bought tickets – Neil was going up the arch – you go up in a pod which seats 5 and takes about  5 minutes to go up inside the arch and goes up in an actual arch.   Neil said that you actually do feel the curve as you go up.  There is a viewing platform with small windows at the top of the arch – it’s something like 650 feet high.

While Neil was up the arch I went to the Lewis and Clark (explorers) movie in the Jeffersen Centre which is where the arch is.  It was a great documentary and the photography of the country was stunning.  Sky high over the Rockies etc. 

Then we quickly headed off for a five minute walk to the Mississippi river boat tour – it’s a one hour tour that goes under the bridges.  There are huge concrete walls one side of the river,  (a levee?) anyway, apparently the flood in the 90s was 23 feet up these walls – that’s a lot of water.

It was sooooo hot when we got off the boat.  The sweat dripped down and when we got back to the car I felt like I’d melted.  Temp today is 93F – 32 C! 

We headed next (with the air conditioning on full bore) the Science Centre a little further out of town.  While it was a great place, I was a little disappointed.  It’s a fab place for families/children, more like a science museum for school kids.  Anyway, I did note that on one map they’d left New Zealand off!  Not impressed. LOL

Another trip to the Dierberg food market and back to the hotel and in that pool – bliss.

Tomorrow we start off on route 66 again.

See you tomorrow

Jane and Neil