Ice Cream @ 9: 2014-10-22 Walking on a Crooked Bridge

Route 66 crossed the Mississippi River from Illinois to Missouri on the Chain of Rocks Bridge from 1935 until 1965. That's a long history.

Since the parking lot is closed on the Missouri side we traveled over to Illinois again to start our walk for the day. We were the only ones so inclined it seemed.

Off we go on our 1 mile walk across the bridge. This end of the bridge has been painted green.

Yes, it looks like a rusty old bridge. But they've spent over $4 million getting it pedestrian and bicycle worthy.

Ham

Hamette

They have this old fire truck sitting on the bridge for a photo op.

Looking south toward St. Louis

The bridge has a 22 degree bend in it to provide structural stability in the sometimes-frozen Mississippi River.

Some neat icons on the bridge.

Porta-Potties are on the other side of this structure and old postcard pictures are on the side wall.

Bendy Bridge

We had lunch at the Luna Cafe in Mitchell.

It's been here on Route 66 since 1924. Al Capone used to visit here on his way to St. Louis from Chicago.

Haven't seen one of these since I was in middle school.

Food was good. Bacon cheeseburger for me. Cheeseburger for Karen.

If we'd had fries with our meal maybe we could have used this. It is located in the city of Collinsville. 170' tall and built in 1949.

We headed back toward the river and the National Great Rivers Museum in Alton.

I love it when they have this video game of piloting a barge into a lock or under a bridge.

Overview of the lock and dam at this location.

Remember the Chain of Rocks Bridge. It went over a series of underwater shelves that made navigation very difficult in low water. So they built an 8 mile long canal alongside the river in 1953 and put in a couple of locks and now navigation is much easier from Minneapolis all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Here's a barge coming into the lock but we can't get to see it because only the pleasure boat lock is close to us. Pooh.

We commiserated with another couple that also would have loved to go watch the barge lock through.

Upon wandering back into the museum to watch the movie, I heard an announcement that a tour would be commencing shortly. YES!

I signed us up and went outside and told the other couple about our fortune.

Here we are up on the lock structure making our way toward the large lock where the barge was sitting.