Route 66 -Day 4: Groom, TX – Santa Fe, NM

My first thing on the 4^th morning of driving the route 66 was the mission to find the leaning water tower of groom. (I’ve never made it yet to the Leaning Tower of Pisa so I’ll try to compensate with this one) And funny enough I actually drove right by it during the previous night! It was about 2 miles back on the road I came down to Groom. I noticed that by the water tower there was a truck still that was there on the previous night as well. I spoke with the Driver for few moments and now he really wants to go for a cruise from New Orleans! :)  He’s truck had revoked it’s “contract” with him. (meaning it was broken) and he had to wait for 17 hours for a replacement truck to come and pick the load he was transporting. Anyways.. He was kind enough to help me out with the “Angry Birds” shot in front of the tower, which btw is coming really nicely together! I believe I have apx 40 clips at the moment of that bird flying around. I’m hoping that by the end I’ll have about 60 of ’em!

-      Well, after Groom I started heading more westly for I wanted to find the other famous roadside attraction that was in the “neighborhood” The Cadillac Ranch. I got a bit confusing information from the location and noticed that I had driven by it already. So I turned around and drove a good 30 km back to the small town of Panhandle, TX where it was supposed to be located according to my guide information. BUT once I arrived – no body had even heard about it! Until I found this younger guy who told me that it’s not even close, it’s after Amarillo… so I turned the car around again and headed toward Amarillo. In Amarillo I wanted to do a stop as well since there was another attraction: The BIG Texan restaurant. Known for the 72oz steak (don’t even know how much it is in Grams probably about 1000) which if you finish you get FREE. Well knowing my appetite I would’ve finished probably 1/7^th of it, so I gave up before even starting

-       After Amarillo I managed to find the Cadillac Ranch. And it was exactly that: 10 cadillacs dug halfway down in the middle of a field. But it looked pretty cool though! Here’s an idea for some local art project in the fields of finland!

    After seeing the cadillacs I started following the Route 66 where ever I could and arrived to New Mexico (where btw they just did the “space jump”) and in NM I found the “midpoint Café” where I had driven exactly the 1193mi (2000km-ish) and I had 1193 mi left of route 66. For me though a bit more since I was planning to drive to Colorado to see my friend Mitch from few years back on Oasis of the Seas take out.

On my way towards Albuquerque, NM I noticed that it would be quicker for me to take the scenic route and drive to Santa Fe instead. So I did. And on the way there I noticed the road to change drastically and becoming more desert like with the long straight roads!! And I saw my first (out of many) Red Rocks and landscapes and it was something. I felt like I drove straight into a western movie with the tumble weeds and all! All that was missing was a stand off and gunfights! Luckily didn’t see any of those!

I arrived to Santa Fe after dark and found a nice cosy place to sleep in my car and waiting for the upcoming mountain drive to the start of the Rocky mountains

Route 66 - Day 3

On the third day of driving I finally managed to leave early from the Motel. At 8:30 am I was already driving. Really proud of myself actually. I do enjoy my long morning sleeps so getting up at 7:30 am was really a small "miracle"!

When I looked at the map and the sights I'd like to see for the day I noticed that I had just passed one of the most famous Route 66 road side attractions: the Blue Whale in Catoosa, Oklahoma. It was only about 10 km north from where I was staying so I decided to drive back to check it out. Most of the Route 66 roadside attractions are really "corny" and the blue Whale was no exception. It was this huge Whale sculpture that used to be part of a playground and swimming in the little pond it was next to. nowadays it was still in good shape and a nice camping stop but the pond was pretty dirty and muddy and there was definitely no swimming in it. What I found really interesting though was the fact that there was loads of turtles in the pond! small ones just swimming around and taking sun on the side of the pond. I took the pictures I wanted and continued towards Oklahoma city.

The next sights were in Arcadia, Oklahoma that I wanted to check out. There was actually plenty: the Round Barn, Motorbike Museum and the newest attraction on the Route 66 the "pops" diner with a big sculpture of a old soda bottle on the front of it.

Soon after Arcadia I arrived to Oklahoma city. There was nothing really that interested me to see in Oklahoma City. It is a big city and for sure with lots of places of interest, but I decided to just drive through the downtown to see the place and then move on. I wanted to reach the city Groom in Texas as my next overnight stop.

the round barn

On the way to Groom I went through something I haven't experienced before: A major thunder storm just came out of nowhere! and to make it worse it was already completely dark at the time. The rain from the storm was so thick and heavy that I lost completely the sight of the road and driving 65 mph (110km) at the time. Slowed down obviously after the rain started. I wasn't even able to see the backlights of the car in front of me during the heaviest downpour! Now to add to all of this rain and wind it was a thunder storm, and it was right above me. So when the lightnings stroke, all of my visuals just got filled with white light from it. One of the lightning strikes was so strong that I could feel it inside the car as it stroke!! I've seen big storms before but this one, feeling a lightning "shockwave" when it stroke was something I hadn't felt before.

The storm lasted a good 30 minutes and it kept raining for the whole night. I arrived nonetheless to Groom around 10 pm and got myself a place. At this point I started feeling the driving for the first time. After 3 days of 10-12 hours on the road was starting to ask for its toll.

Route 66 - Day 2 St.Louis

I wanted to get an early start for the 2nd day so that I could maximize the driving time at daylight. Note: I wanted! so I checked out from the Motel around 11:30 am and were on my way apx at noon. It was about an hour drive to St. Louis from where I was.

I wanted to check St. louis pretty quickly since I wanted to be close to Oklahoma City for next day. There were two things I wanted to check out while in city: the St. Louis Arch and "Ted Drewes Frozen Custard" shop. Now the Arch was easy to find since ..well.. you can't really miss it. Build in 1963 as a monument to the western expansion it stands 630 feet (192m) high dominating the city skyline. I actually never realized how big it was from the pictures I've seen, but it was massive! Underneath the arch there was a free museum about the western expansion and a chance to take a ride to the top of the arch. Now normally I've been trying to do all the possible touristic events and rides I've found, but this one was about 60 minutes long and I really wanted to move on quite quickly. So I got my picture taken with the arch and moved on.

As you leave St. Louis I tried to follow the Route 66 as much as possible (even though it was much slower driving). And then by chance I drove by the Ted Drewes Famous Frozen Custard place, Turned around and found out that it is actually an Ice Cream shop that just happens to be world famous by the route. So I helped myself with a Apple Pie crust ice cream.. and man.. IT WAS GOOD!

My next stop after st. Louis was to find the Meramec Caverns which are famous for being the "Jesse James hideout" Jesse and his brother Frank hid some of their loot to this cavern and escaped through the underground river. The cavern nowadays are owned by a local family and there is lots of tourist shops and a tour that you can take to explore the caverns and their stalagmites and stalactites. I've actually never seen them before so I was very exited taking the tour. It was about 1h 30min tour and about a kilometer of walking in the caves. It was really nicely put together with the lighting and all and was definitely worth the time and admission!

After the Caverns it was starting to get already darker so I started driving the highway toward Oklahoma City. I arrived to a small town right next to the city around 11 pm and stayed for the night.

Route 66

NOTICE!

 Reading these next and upcoming Blog spots needs to be done while humming to yourself "get your kicks on route 66" or even better! click the following link and let the song play in the background as you read this!

Wikipedia:

U.S. Route 66 (US 66 or Route 66), also known as the Will Rogers Highway and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. Highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926—with road signs erected the following year.^[2] The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in America, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri,Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).^[3] It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s.

Well as for me I started driving the Route 66 from Chicago on the 12th of October and to get a proper start to the journey I decided to drive back to Downtown Chicago and find the "BEGIN" sign of the historic Route 66. I thought that it would've been a little 45 minutes detour. What I didn't realize was that it was morning rush hour time! so it ended up being a 2 hour detour. Well worth it though. I found the sign on the first try and got my picture taken with it (and an "angry bird video").

I knew that lot of the original road had been moved or replaced with modern highways so I decided to just get to the south bound highway and catch the road from there. And very soon the first marks of "historic Route 66" started appearing. I followed them as much as possible but very soon it got clear to me that I really need to have a proper separate"Route 66" map in order to follow the road proper. 

So after couple of "funky turns" and getting lost twice I found a nice little Route 66 diner from the road.  From there I got my first taste of a catfish and a basic map for the road. Quite quickly I noticed as well that for lots of time the original historic route 66 went right next to the highway. With the biggest difference that on the route you had a speed limit of 55 mph (80km/h) while on the highway it was for the most parts 70mph (110km/h). So... I found myself juggling between the two to make some distance as well.  I went through lots of small towns on the route and had one bigger stop in Springfield, IL. A very nice town and also very known as the hometown of Abraham Lincoln. Even though it was dark I decided to find the house he used to live in (might as well). 

On the first day I must say that the dark creeped on me. Since it was already 1:30 pm when I left from Chicago and the sun set roughly 6:30 pm. It didn't really leave me much daylight to drive and see the places. So once it got dark I decided to just get on the highway and make some good time and distance. Around 10pm I got so tired that needed to find a place to stay for the night in Troy, right outside of St. Louis.

The missing Day 2 of Driving West

(I noticed that I had missed a blog note that I wrote but never posted: the missing day 2)

On the 2nd day of driving I decided to stop by in Pittsburgh for couple of hours. I thought that I might as well since I was driving by it. Pittsburgh seemed like a nice cultural city. After I asked from the locals that what would be the one thing to do or see in Chicago, I found the Station Square. Which was about a km walk away from where I was which was perfect. The Station Square seemed to be a cultural place with restaurants and nightlife, but as it was day time it was quite "dead" in there. So I walked around took few photos and headed back to the car.

I continued driving towards Detroit from Pittsburgh for I have a friend living in there and there were some preliminary talk that I could've gone for a visit. Unfortunately though the timings didn't work out after all (she flew to detroit on the same day and was flying on the next). So I found a nice motel from the road and stayed overnight.

Chicago – Day 2

The "Bean" in Chicago

I wanted to dedicate my 2^nd day in Chicago fully in sighseeing. I drove to downtown and circled around the city for awhile just driving around. First Thing I did was looking around the Wrigler Stadium, which is the 2nd oldest Baseball Stadium in the States. I've never seen a game live, but it was great to see this place of American Sporting History.

I got recommended to take a look at the “Navy Pier” which was a little themed tourist trap right by the city. In this case a very nice “tourist trap”. Lots of restaurants – great view of the city – and a FERRIS WHEEL! Which is something I never been to. So I figured that it would be in order to remedy this fact! From the top of the ferris wheel I got a great bird eye view of both the city itself and the Lake Michigan.

After the Navy Pier I wanted to find couple of things: first the Millenium park, which was full of sights and then the starting point of Route 66 and after if I had time maybe check the “Sears” building (the highest skyscraper in Chicago). The Millenium Park was actually right by the Navy Pier, I could’ve walked there – but decided to pay again over $20 for parking! It was very much worth it though for Millenium Park had so many cool sights to see and the city was right by it. First I saw the “Cloud stage”, an architectural wonder in the park. After I saw the “Bean”. A friend of mine tried to explain it to me and said that I had to go and take a look at it! He said that it’s like this huge bean with reflection of the city etc. I didn’t really get it when he explained it to me, but when I got there I realized that it indeed was a HUGE bean with a reflection of the city and the sky on it. And as you got closer you could reflect yourself from it, which was good fun. Next up I went to see the Fountain next to it. Now this was not any kind of fountain: It had two major structures facing each others with faces projected on them. And then the faces would actually “spit” toward each other. A funky and funny idea.. I actually really liked this little monument!

At this point I started to have cautiously low battery on my iPhone (to which I rely with my navigation to wherever I go) and decided to find the beginning point of Route 66. I had gotten some mixed information where the actual spot is so I wondered awhile without finding it. And just then – the battery died from my iPhone – and there was no more navigation for me! I tried to ask the people around if anybody would’ve known but nobody had a clue. So I gave up and decided to walk around the downtown a bit more. After an hour of aimless walking I got a tip of one more spot I should really check out: the Wicker Park, which apparently was this hipster venue with lots of live music and good atmosphere. I decided to check it out and after that find a hostel for me.

The wicker park area was a relatively easy drive away and it was all what was promised- I did end up hoping that I would not have been there with a car.. :( But after I had my dinner I grew so tired that I decided to give it up for the night and find a place to stay for the night and get ready for the Route 66.

Driving west - Day 3, Arriving to Chicago

Detroit was a bit of a drive away from where I was so I decided to move on to my final Driving west destination: Chicago.

During this drive I didn't do any major stops. The one thing that was though extremely memorable was the colors of the autumn. I've seen some great Autumn colors back home in Finland but these were absolutely great. Just trees and trees one after another in more spectacular colors. And it was so nice that on one of my "pitstops" I wondered a bit in the nearby forests, just to see the colors more close. And then.. there it was.. the BIGGEST forest frog I've ever seen! (on that note they don't get that big in finland so it was probably an average size frog) but STILL!! it was HUGE!

I actually almost stepped on it, but luckily it moved a bit so I would recognize it from the leaves in the ground. I said hi to it and continued. :)

The drive itself was about 5 hours between Toledo and Chicago and I arrived there around 4:30pm, Which "nobody told me" was an hour too early! I was about to go for a dinner with another friend from the ships, Erin. And we agreed that we'd meet up at 5 pm and see from there. So as it was I was 1,5 hour early! Which really was no problem since there were few things I needed to get sorted in internet anyway. So this gave me a good reason to catch up with all of that.

After awhile Erin found her way to the place I was waiting and then it was all about catching up for another 2 hours! Erin really recommended this nice place right by the Clarks road by the Wrigler Stadium called Cuddy Bear so I thought that it might be worthwhile checking it out. I found myself a nice Inn near by.. well.. about 30 min transportation away. I got my little public transportation adventure trying to find the right station at night time. After going in circles for about 30 minutes in a neighborhood I probably should not go after dark, I found the station. In the train I met this Australian girl who was very helpful in letting me know what station to get off to get to my destination. With her assistance I was able to get off right by the bar I was headed and I was there just in time to hear first out of the three bands that were playing there that night. Good choice altogether. It was a little bit UnderGroud kinda feeling in the place so I fitted right in! The bands styles variated between Alice in Chance – incubus – Coldplay and the White Stripes. It turned out to be a great night of ROCK! Unfortunately as it was Wednesday everything closed early and by 2 pm I was already on my way back to the Motel.