Day 15 Route 66

It was not a good night at WalMart. A truck came to pick up the semi-trailer parked next to us during the wee hours of the morning. Next time maybe we’ll remember to park by only RVs not trucks.

Since we didn’t have hookups I decided to try another water saving device. Dave had discovered he could dip the soap into water rather than wetting his whole body before washing it so I decided to try my version of that. When taking my morning shower I just dipped my washcloth in water in the pitcher left over from his shower the night before. Brrrr. That was a cold wash. But, at least I didn’t have to turn on the water until I was ready to rinse. I am determined to find ways to use less water so when we get to places we want to boondock for a long time we’ll be able to do so.

We also used pocket inverters to run our computers off the 12 volt system until Dave started to worry about draining the batteries. Then we powered up the generator to recharge everything. WalMart parking lots are good places to run generators since no one minds the noise there. As a bonus, we ran it long enough to cook breakfast. It’s important to run the generator under load at least an hour a month to keep it functioning properly. We have trouble remembering to do that since we hook up to shore power electricity most of the time.

For our first tourist stop in Carthage, Missouri, we visited their Civil War Museum. It’s hard to remember that the war came this far west but it did. In fact the first full scale land battle took place here on July 5, 1861 preceding First Bull Run by 16 days. The displays are interesting but the descriptions they wrote are hard to read so I didn’t get to learn everything I wanted to before my eyes gave up on me.

Then we drove by some of Carthage’s places of the past. Check out that glass block ticket booth at the drive in.  They are still showing movies there in the summer.

   

From Carthage we headed west into Kansas. We stopped in Galena, Kansas, at the former KanOtex station for lunch. This place is being rehabbed by a group calling themselves Four Women on the Route. They have great plans for what they want to do here. I think they are doing fine already; don’t you? Check out the vehicles that were the inspiration for some of the ones in the movie Cars.

  

In Riverton we stopped to take pictures of The Eisler Brothers’ Old Riverton Store.  

 

Since we didn’t need to buy anything we didn’t go in. We probably should have, though, since the owner of the KanOtex station grill made it clear she watches everyone who stops to take a picture to see if she’s going to get any business from them. I like to support the people who are trying to keep Route 66 alive but we don’t have room to store something from every shop along the way so we mostly buy food we can consume rather than store. But, we filled our larder at WalMart last night then ate lunch out so we have no place even for food right now.

Then we drove across the rainbow bridge. This place is known locally as graffiti bridge since this is where the youth come to record their conquests. Apparently, we got here just after the town gave them a clean slate to start on again.

 

Finally, we drove into Baxter Springs, Kansas, where we decided to stop early for a change. We are parked at a city campground here that charges $10 for electric and water hookups. That provided us lots of time and energy for me to do some more research and Dave to play his piano. We are content.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 14 Route 66

Day 14? We’ve really only been doing this two weeks?! Huh.

I spent the entire morning writing blogs trying to catch up with my backlog of notes  It’s more challenging to write them when they are not fresh in your mind but I think I did OK. We left camp about 1 p.m. and headed into Springfield, Missouri.

The rig had a new squeak. Dave though it might be the springs that hold the new carpet on the retractable steps. When we stopped along the way I discovered we’d left one of the slider windows open. I closed it. No more squeak  We’re glad we don’t have to figure out an alternate way of holding the carpet on the steps.

The Rest Haven Court has been in existance in 1947 which means it was built the same year we were born. Now it is advertising free Internet. Glad to see it has also kept up with the times.  I thought I had a picture of that sign but, if so, I don’t know where I stored it.

We had planned to go to WalMart next but since we got such a late start we decided to skip it and go on to Steak N Shake for lunch. This place still has the original 1962 architecture. You can still get curb service and the guys still wear paper hats. They had some funny signs inside. One said, “It’s important to study the classics.” Another one defined a milkshake as “milk a-la-mode.”

Next we drove by the Abou Ben Adhem Shrine Mosque. I wonder what today’s Shriners think about being so clearly identified with Islam?

 

We drove by the Gillioz Theater but there was no place to safely stop to take a picture of it. Then we drove by the Old Calaboose which was built in 1892 but we couldn’t find a place to park since we are too tall a rig to fit into the parking garage next door to it so we only got a picture of the back of it.

The Melinda Motel is a place I would be wiling to stay if we didn’t have our own house with us. I like the individual cabins so you don’t get a lot of neighbor noise.

 

The only thing worth photographing at Danny’s Service Station is the old sign. Every thing else original is long gone and what’s there now is nothing special. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stop close enough to get just the sign.

The Yeakley Chapel is out in the country. It has been standing since 1887 and is still an active Methodist Church today. Note the two front doors from a time when men and women were expected to enter and sit separately.

Traveling on down the road we came to this gas station and took a break here to use the restroom. We had to use our own since the building is closed. It must have been a real something once upon a time though. Notice the change in stone where they “fixed” the false front roof. Gas was 31.9 cents but Ethyl didn’t have a price listed.

  

The writer of the turn-by-turn book sometimes gets poetic. Today he suggested that we somehow revive the relics we are looking at by rebuilding them in our minds. I find that idea amusing in a likable sort of way.

When we entered Carthage, Missouri, we decided we’d better make that WalMart stop to resupply our RV. While there, we decided to try using our freezer so we bought a bunch of frozen dinners to microwave on those days we have electrical hookups. Then we decided it was late enough to just stay at WalMart overnight. So we moved over near other RV’s and semi-trailers and sort of set up camp.

TTYL,

Linda



Day 13 Route 66

Bennett Spring State Park’s local claim to fame is as a great fishing site.  This is what we saw as we left the park on this Saturday morning.  Those are waders hanging from the awning support.

  

Back in Lebanon, Missouri, we picked up one more box at the post office (a Scan Gauge) then we visited the new Route 66 museum in the new library.  This is a small but powerful museum. The first cafe photo is not a serving cafe but is one of the displays in the museum. The bridge picture is the Chain of Rocks Bridge we visited several days ago; notice the bend in the middle to counteract the force of the water flowing by.  I don’t know what the collection of salt and pepper shakers has to do with Route 66 but it is emblematic of the 1950s; my Mom had a collection that might have been this large if she displayed it all at once. We also ate lunch in their cafe; the picture of the piano tiled floor was taken there. 

        

There was a young family with their grandma eating in the cafe.  The daughter, about age 3, had apparently never had a hot dog before.  She had to be taught how to eat it.  She loved being able to put her own catsup on from the squeeze bottle.  Her older brother had new cowboy boots; he liked listening to the heels strike the floor as he walked.  I’m pleased to report they were well behaved children as we see so many who are not nowadays.

Next we stopped at the B&D Auto/Truck Plaza where we bought diesel and propane.  It’s nice to know we can keep running our furnace at night without worrying about running out of propane in the middle of the night.  I am looking forward to getting far enough south that we won’t need the furnace, though.

As we came into Conway we saw a sign that said, “Speed Limit 45”.  Right next to that was a sign that said, “Speed Limit 25 where not posted”.  How do we know where “not posted” starts?

Driving down County Road CC while watching the center lines wander all over the place made me wonder about the painter.  Was he new to the job?  Or drunk?

We passed several obviously new businesses using the name Route 66.  That irritated me. Then I realized Route 66 had always been a road advertising the businesses along it.  Why should that tradition not continue in the names of new ones?

We passed a horse motel. Lots of people travel with horses and they need a place to spend the night, too.  I got a chuckle out of the fact the barn had been painted to look like a strip motel.

In Strafford, Missouri, we stopped and shopped at Camping World.  We now have new carpet on our steps which I hope will help keep down the amount of dirt we track in.  We also have a second magazine rack to install to hold all those maps I picked up the other day.  But we didn’t get the electrical things Dave had on his list–out of stock or not available there.

Now we are camped across the highway from Camping World at Stafford RV Park.  It’s basically another parking lot but it is giving me a place to catch up on all these blogs. I guess I’d better post the URL for this new blog on the old blog so you can all read these, huh?

TTYL,

Linda

Day 12 Route 66

Today was a catch up day.  We had stopped at the post office in Lebanon, Missouri, yesterday and picked up three boxes of mail.  One of them was a box of forwarded mail and the other two contained our new Wilson Trucker’s Antenna and booster which are, we hope, going to help us stay connected to the world in places where the signal may not be so great.

So today we processed lots of mail and spent hours crawling around the RV figuring out where we could place the outside antenna, inside antenna, and booster box so as to get the best reception.  These all have to connect to one another by cables.  Figuring out where we can safely run those cables is challenging, to say the least.  We could hire someone to install all that but that’s not nearly as much fun.  Of course, we might not think it was so much fun if we ever actually finish this task.  For now, we are still thinking about the best way to do it.

We did install our new Instant Off Water Saver.

 

This thing is designed to let you leave the water turned on low but the water doesn’t flow until you push against the rod hanging from the faucet.  The idea for us is that I could quit getting the handle soapy when I turned the water back on after washing my hands and I could quit dripping water all over the sink when turning off the water or washing the soap off the handles.  It might work well for a sink where the faucet is located down in the sink but this one sprayed the whole counter.  I tried several times to make it work but got tired of cleaning up the messes I was making so we took it off again.  Oh, well, another “good” idea gone by the wayside.

The final task of the day was to set up and learn to use this new blog site.  How am I doing?

TTYL,

Linda

Day 11 Route 66

I think I mentioned before that we like Missouri State Parks.  They have no admission fees, usually have electrical hookups for $16-$20 dollars, and their campsites are often shaded by trees.  They also have a checkout time of 2 p.m.  Which for us is a mixed blessing since we have so much trouble getting on the road in the morning anyway without having permission to stay so long.  Still we are picking Missouri State Parks for most of our overnights even when we have to drive a ways off our route to get to them.  It’s so easy to get tired of RV parks where you park too close to your neighbors in what is essentially a parking lot.

This section of Route 66 is also the I-44 freeway frontage road.  It is very well maintained.  Part of that is probably because, according to the signs, it is also the “Incident By-Pass Route.”  Apparently, they have enough accidents on the freeway here to have a marked route for detouring around them.  That makes me glad we are over here to start with.

We are seeing fewer colorful leaves today so we must be headed in the right direction.  

Cuba, Missouri is a town that understand the importance of Route 66.  They have been restoring buildings and many other town buildings have Route 66 murals painted on them.

 

One of the funniest sights I saw was a man walking a dog.  The dog got just far enough ahead of the man to walk around a post wrapping his leash around it.  When the man tried to follow the dog to unwrap the leash, the dog followed the man.  They went around a couple of times before the the leash finally came unwrapped.

In St James, Missouri, we stopped at a visitor center.  When you travel the 2-lane highways instead of the Interstates, you don’t get a visitor center every time you cross a state border.  This small town visitor center was an excellent place to stop.  They had current highway maps for most of the states we will be passing through.  What a bonus!

Also, in St James we saw a place that had three former tour buses for sale.  So, If any of your are looking to buy a bus to convert to an RV, here’s a place you might want to visit.

We stopped at a Subway for lunch and this vehicle pulled in.  The owner thanked me for wanting to take pictures of it.  Who wouldn’t?!

 

Then we drove though an area known as Devil’s Elbow.  It included a two lane road with a one lane bridge.  And a pullout with this fantastic view.

Lebanon, Missouri, is another place that appreciates its Route 66 history.  

    

We bought groceries at Winks Market and ate supper at the Bell Restaurant but we didn’t stay at the Munger Moss Motel.  They are open for business and are popular with Route 66 travelers but we went on to Bennet Springs State Park for another pleasant stay at a Missouri state park.

TTYL,

Linda