Day 10 Thursday September 29, 2011
                      Carlinville, Ill to Chicago, Ill
This day turned out to be a lot longer than planned so I am posting it a day late.

Out of all the miles of concrete poured it is amazing that these are the only animal tracks.

This section of 66 was brick.  It is 1.4 miles long.

                                 Lauderbach Giant at Lauderbach's tire and auto service.

Cozy Dogs (the original corn dog) at 10am yummy.

Route 66 goes by the capitol of Ill

Famous old gas station with lots of old stuff

Giant Abe Lincoln

Route 66 runs through farm country so there are a lot of silos to see

     They are trying to restore this famous old restruant.

The country side

Atlanta, Ill has a lot of murals we liked this one

                                                       They also have a smiley face water tower

Bunyon gaint and his hot dog.

At one time this was a very busy truck stop, not so much now

but they still serve lunch.

I wanted to get some sirup (yes they spell it this way on purpose) but it was sold out

                                          The leaves are turning, fall is coming.

We are in farm country can you tell?

A fixed up Standard Oil station

I don't think thesse will give you gas anymore.

David and the Blues Brothers dancing at the Poke a Dot drive in

Gemini Giant at

the Launching Pad - fast food place.

The Joliet Museum

This is an operating tow service.

There it is Chicago

One block in the city has homes that look like the street on the Cosby Show.

The River

Downtown

We made it!!!!!!!!

This is the begining sign around the block

Lake Michigan

A storm is coming in.  The windy city is just that! 

Looking at Chicago from the pier

We left the windy city to find a motel as it started to rain. 

It was a very fun trip.  We met some very nice people and saw a lot of neat things!

The following link will lead you to the info about route 66 and the characters in the movie cars

http://route66news.com/2006/06/09/a-route-66-guide-to-the-cars-movie/

        Day 9  Rolla MO to Carlinville Ill
             September 28, 2011

                                          They still fix cars here.

                                          Worlds largest rocking chair

                                          Mural on US 66 Outpost  "Dannys gas hole"

Found our new lawn mower for our grandson to mow our lawn

Restored Phillips gas station in Cuba MO the city of murals

                           The murals are painted on the walls of the towns buildings

The Wagon Wheel Motel is an icon and restored Cuba, MO

                         We saw a lot of this make of car displayed along the route

Bourbon anyone - says it is in the water tower.  Not - there are water towers in every town.  They have the towns name on them and this towns name is Bourbon.

This is the scenery on our route and the leaves are turning

We stopped at Meramec Caverns.  The original owner promoted the cave along 66 by painting the caves name on sides of barns.  The cabin was brought in just for fun.

This is one of the sights we saw.  The cave is huge the tour lasted an hour and half.

A restored Mack truck

These odd buildings are what road maintance keeps what they spread on iced roads in winter.  You find them through out the mid west.

This 66 bridge that spans the Meramec River has been condemed and is scheduled to be torn down:(

This key shaped neon was on display at the visitor center at the above bridge.

These signs lined route 66 as advertisements for Burma-Shave.  There would be like five of them about 500 feet apart with sayings like:  Thirty days.... Hath september.... April, June....and the speed offender....Burma-Shave.

Giant Farmer and son

This place is famous for their custard ice cream

Of course we stopped and had some. YUM!

St Louis MO

I thought these brick houses were cute.  St Louis MO

Couldn't afford a whole car so he just got a trailer shaped one for the bike -not.  It is fun:)

Steam boat on the Mississippi

                                                       The St Louis Arch

We went to the top of the inside of the arch what a hoot!

                                          And quite the view

See the dark rectangles those are the windows to look out at the top of the arch.

Fire on a stick-steel mill

All that is left is the marque

It's a restruant

The ever changing country side

The sun is setting

A nice place to stay the night the Carlin Villa in Carlinville, Ill

We couldn't make the distance to Springfield, Ill as planed.  We had too much fun and spent too much time at the caverns and the arch.

 

This is the gazebo in Carlinville's city square.  This downtown is like in the movie Pollyanna and Back to the Future.  It is late and it has been antoher fun day:)