I made it to the IL/MO border a bit before noon on my second day. I’d never been to St. Louis before, and the skyline is pretty spectacular with the arch – even in the overcast foggy morning. I had originally planned to stop and check out the arch, but the weather was pushing me to move a bit faster. I will return, though!

Uranus, MO – Y’all, when I say these workers committed to the bit… I don’t even know how to express that in a way to really drive it home. 😂 When I stopped to ask about a restroom, the guy said hopefully they’re not too busy because “Uranus really gets packed with people.” Then inside the general store, anytime someone comes in, they all yell “Welcome to Uranus!” I bought a magnet, and when I checked out, I was instructed that I could tap, swipe, or insert my credit card. I tapped my card, to which she said, “Thank you for tapping Uranus. Please be sure you wash your hands.” How any of them kept a straight face, I will never know.

Springfield, MO – I opted to check out the history museum in Springfield, MO, as the city is considered to be the birthplace of Route 66, and the top floor was dedicated to this history. I did check out the entire museum – I mean, I like to learn. One floor talked about the ‘first shoot out in the old west.’ I’m not sure how they can know/claim it, but they do. 🙃 In fact, the square right out front of the museum, which has been turned into a tiny park, is the location of said shoot out. (It was also, unfortunately, my experience of seeing someone shoot up for the first time. In broad daylight. Needless to say, I did not dawdle in the park.) This first shoot out was between J.B. “Wild Bill” Hickok and David K. Tutt over a gambling debt and the value of Wild Bill’s watch (which he said Tutt continued to wear in public to embarrass him). Tutt died in the shoot out, and Wild Bill was acquitted of manslaughter after a three day trial.

I made a super quick stop on my way out of Springfield to check out the 66 hubcap sculpture.

Ash Grove, MO – This was a stop I’d seen a lot in photos posted to a couple Route 66 groups I’m a member of online. The Sinclair station is no longer in use, of course, but has been preserved as a museum of sorts. There is also a small Route 66 merch shop and an owner who is very willing to tell all about the history of the place, the route, and himself.

Red Oak II near Carthage, MO – Lowell Davis was born in Red Oak, MO. A number of years after he left his hometown, he learned that it had become a ghost town. He bought the buildings and moved them to his family’s land near Carthage and created Red Oak II – a collection of these buildings and his own sculptures. It’s a fun little stroll. But it was SUPER hot and humid the day I was there, so I wandered, but did not dawdle too much. Would be fun to revisit with lower temps.

Joplin, MO – This is Ryker. He’s a very good boy. In fact, he and his human (Tom) are a search and rescue team. They just so happened to be my neighbors at the KOA near the MO/KS border where I was to stay my third night. I’m an introvert who despises small talk, so I’m not one for chatting up random folks. But I knew I had to tell my writing buddy, Jack, all about this German Shepherd. So when the human came back to his site after taking the pup for a walk, I had to tell him what a beautiful dog he had. He was thrilled to talk about his pup, and immediately told me about all about their work. Their presence, however, meant that the storm I was worried about would be much worse than I had originally feared. We had a good chat, and he allowed me to check out the high-res radar on his equipment, which showed yet another storm that would follow this one (so a total of four tornado-producing storms in three days…). The storm was too long to skirt around this time, and my choices were to stay put and hope for the best or head east. I opted to head east and had hoped it would break up before reaching St. Louis, but it didn’t. Long story, lots of questioning, but I ultimately ended up back home.

That first storm that I skirted around my second morning? Ryker and his human saved a woman’s collie who had gotten buried in rubble during a Tornado. (Tom has a heat-seeking drone to find people/pets in the rubble. Ryker goes in to comfort them until they can be rescued.)

The meeting of storms near Bloomington, IL (on my drive back):

I was super bummed that I was SO CLOSE to marking off another state. I have a goal to visit all fifty states, and I would have marked five new ones off on this trip alone. I was only a couple of miles from the Kansas border, which would have been the first new one. [sigh] Next summer.

Full disclosure, I took the start pic when I was in Chicago for an event earlier in the year. This way, I wouldn’t have to stop and pay for parking to grab it. I could just drive the three and a half hours from home to the start – and then just keep going. It saved both time and money that first day. I frequent Chicago enough to know I can return and visit Route-66-specific stops another day. I just wanted to make sure I started driving at the very start.

Because telling you every turn and stop would get monotonous for the both of us, I thought I’d hit the highlights from each state. I spent about a day and a half in IL. I spent my first night at the KOA in Springfield. There is so much of this state I’ve never explored (it’s soooo long, yo), and this stop reminded me of that. The campground was lovely, though – well kept. Bathrooms were spotless.

Also, for folks that don’t know, the cicadas were out in full force. More than just the regularly yearly ones. There were those PLUS the ‘I have slept in the ground for seventeen years and now have a lot to say’ cicadas. And my goodness – can they all scream their little heads of in unison. (*￣0￣)↗　(Yes, I know it’s not actually their mouth that makes that sound.) I’ve never experienced this before. While they do live in my state, they are far to the south of me. Let me just say – wow.

Braidwood, IL – One of the most common things you’ll find on the route are old-school diners, which I have always loved (though can’t often eat at because I don’t eat meat and fried food makes me queasy). But I had to stop here for lunch. Y’all – when I tell you the bathroom was PLASTERED with Elvis pictures… there wasn’t a square inch to spare. Good luck if you’ve got a shy bladder like I do… It was a cute stop with lots of photo ops.

Nilwood, IL – I had woken up earlier than originally planned my second morning because there was a storm coming I wanted to miss. This meant I hit my favorite stop a bit after sunrise. At first, I wasn’t sure if I could even turn down this particular stretch of road – but you can indeed. People live right off this section of the original road! When this section was laid in Macoupin County in the 1920s, a turkey left it’s mark, thirty-four marks to be exact, in the wet cement. The tracks, now over a hundred years old, remain.

Collinsville, IL – World’s largest castup bottle. I had to stop and grab a photo for my catsup/ketchup-loving mini muffin (I think he would drink that stuff straight if his parents would let him, which they do not). It’s a 170-foot tall water tower built in 1949. I’m sure the mini muffin would be disappointed to learn that it contains water and not catsup, as advertised. 😂

Pontiac, IL – The Route 66 museum in Pontiac is a must stop. They have a lot of memorabilia, but also, the owners are knowledgeable and happy to chat. Pictured below is the “School Bus Road Yacht” of Bob Waldmire, a self-proclaimed hippie who spent decades driving the route and creating sketches of what he saw. The museum in has one of his murals inside, as well as his orange 1972 VW Microbus. That Microbus was the inspiration for Fillmore (Cars, Pixar), who was originally going to be named Waldmire in his honor – but the plan was abandoned because Waldmire, an ethical vegetarian, was unwilling to sell marketing rights to Disney for a series of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. (Can you even imagine how much money he turned down?)

I will say that the route is well-marked. They even have signs that will indicate the different routes (since 66 was realigned a couple times in various places). I found that if I put ‘avoid highway’ on my GPS, it would, for the most part, stick to 66 since I was going from one route address to another. But there were a few times I had to ignore the GPS and follow the signs.

At the start of this summer, I was set to embark on a trip I’ve been wanting to take for a long time. I don’t remember when I first wanted to take this particular road trip, but over this last winter break, I finally decided this was the summer I would go. I planned to drive the entire Route 66 – Chicago to Santa Monica. I spent my winter break plotting my trip, all the stops I wanted to make, where I would camp (and made reservations). I picked a couple motels, so I’d have a few nights with some air conditioning. And then I waited. Summer could not get here soon enough.

I was a bit nervous about making the trek. (What if my car broke down and delayed me, and I’d have to change all my reservations? What if my plan for camping didn’t work out like I thought, and I couldn’t sleep?) Some folks were shocked that I would be driving the entire route alone. (Um, two weeks where I got to go wherever I wanted and stay for as long as I cared to and didn’t have to answer to someone else? Yes, please!)

I could see myself at the start – I could see myself triumphant at the finish!

But then Mother Nature had her say.

I only made it to the western border of Missouri, three days into my planned travels. The second morning, I had to leave early to skirt around a storm (that had been producing tornadoes…). The second evening, I made it to camp early so that I could avoid a second storm (that had been producing tornadoes…). The third evening, I landed at the campground knowing a bad storm was coming – only to learn my neighbors were a search and rescue team, and their presence meant things were about to get real nasty. The storm had already produced several tornadoes, and more were expected. (More about this exchange in a future post. And yes, I have photos of the rescue dog to share.) There was no way to skirt around this storm – no heading north or south to wait it out. AND a fourth tornado-producing storm was coming behind it. I admitted defeat and turned around – it was just too unsafe. (I will attempt the trip again next summer.)

But even in my short time on the route, I have some tips and tricks to offer.

First, take the trip you want to take. Don’t listen to anyone else who says you HAVE to do this or you HAVE to see that or that it only counts if you drive east to west. (Yes, there are people who believe west to east is the ‘wrong way’ to drive it.) Don’t let them tell you that two weeks (or whatever your plan is) isn’t enough. Decide for yourself how long you have to make the trip (regarding time, money, interest), and make your plan. If you only have two weeks, then plan for two weeks. If you have more time and can afford it, then take longer. You can probably drive the route in a few days, but you’re going to be driving the entire time. (Which, for some people, is enough.) You won’t see everything – but you can plan a trip for what you want to see and can reasonably afford.

Next, have a plan, but allow for the unexpected. There are SO MANY things to see along the route. There are books and apps galore that can help you with this. I used the website Route 66 Road Trip to start my plan (but there are MANY others, such as Driving Route 66, which has maps, and The Ultimate Route 66 Trip, which has interactive maps and discusses some attractions). I went state by state and read through what they had listed and included what I wanted to make sure I saw in a Word doc. I then mapped the distances between each stop, deciding how much I could reasonably drive each day, estimating how long I might stay at each stop. (Also tracked whether there was a charge or not. Budgeting is a good idea if you are like me and not independently wealthy. I managed to afford this because I set aside five bucks a day into a travel account for years, and since I went nowhere during the pandemic or really since, I had travel bucks to burn. So if you want to do this but don’t have a lot of disposable income, plan in advance so that you know what you should save before you head out. And plan extra high for gas prices just to be safe. Though the Trip Calculator website can help you make a more accurate estimate – even for your specific vehicle.) Make sure you plan extra time each day because you will see things as you drive that you just have to stop and see. 🙂 (There are also Route 66 group pages on platforms like Facebook, and people will post things that look interesting that you may want to add to your plan. I had to mute such groups because I couldn’t cram any more in!)

If you don’t have a weather app on your phone, download one. And then store all the towns (or at least major cities) you will pass through. It’s nice to do this in advance as you plan your trip. Then, you can delete cities as you pass through them – but you’ll have a heads up for weather. You want to be aware in case things like tornadoes might pop up or areas might have flash flood warnings (looking at you, entire state of Missouri!). You never want to be taken by surprise. (If it’s too much to have ALL those towns and cities on the app at once, or there is a limit to the number you can add, then you can plan a bit of time at night to delete ones you’ve been through and add more. I would recommend at least two or three days worth of towns/cities, though. Depending on the way a storm is moving, you can see if you should perhaps speed up that day to skirt around it or perhaps slow down so that it passes before you get there. Just be weather aware. And safe.

If your check engine light comes on your dash, be aware that AutoZone will check dash lights for free and let you know what the code points to. If the car is making noise or not driving well, don’t drive, of course. But if it’s driving fine, AutoZone is a great place to aim for. Also, I would recommend AAA (or other such roadside assistance). If you have roadside through your insurance, check with them about whether they charge for dispatches or not. My insurance went up because I had made a call – even though the driver never actually came out to my car (they didn’t provide the services I needed them to perform). Because the call had simply been made, though, my insurance got charged. I went back to AAA because it was cheaper than having my insurance go up again. (Also, some places will offer discounts if you are a AAA member.) There’s no worse feeling than being stranded on the side of the road. Doesn’t hurt to plan ahead simply to have that peace of mind.

I learned a lot after even only those three days. I do plan to take the route and go the whole way, but I will make some changes. I decided I will go out west on my ‘fast route’ plan, and then make my way east along 66. This way, I can wait behind storms as they move out of the way (and be able to hug the mountain going through the Sidewinder between Kingman and Oatman). Or if I do get chased by another tornado-producing storm, I won’t be backtracking. I can still complete the route. Also, I won’t be making reservations for camping the whole route. (I had to cancel all of them once I got back…) That second day, because I had to leave early to avoid the storm, I ended up at the next camp super early. If I hadn’t had that reservation, I could have kept going and made it a bit farther along my itinerary. There are so many places to stay, and as long as it’s not a holiday, it should be fairly easy to find a spot. Worst case scenario, I can find a cheap motel/hotel on any of those ‘discount’ sites that have commercials starring the likes of Kaley Cuoco or William Shatner.

Have you ever driven Route 66? Or taken another epic road trip? Share your own tips and tricks in the comments. 🙂