Anyone who tries to navigate the old Route 66 needs a few good books to help them along. We've been using a great spiral bound one called EZ66 Guide for Travelers with fairly detailed maps and driving instructions.
EZ66 Guide for Travelers
We have a couple of other "things to do along Route 66" books, but mostly Karen's been using Route 66 Adventure Handbook. It is divided up by state so Karen put colored tabs on the starting page of each of those sections to make them easier to find. She's so smart.
Route 66 Adventure Handbook
In our travels around St. Louis we've been on bits and pieces of the Route so today we thought we'd get the whole picture by traveling from east to west through the city.
As we mentioned before, the Chain of Rocks Bridge north of town over the Mississippi River WAS Route 66. So we drove up there and then started heading west along the Route.
I won't tell you every turn and stop sign we hit but it did take us about 45 minutes to get into downtown St. Louis on the old Road. The Road goes through neighborhoods that have seen better days. There are many boarded up buildings, apartments, churches, and businesses. There are no pictures because, well, we were afraid to take pictures. You get the idea.
Once we were on the west side of downtown the sites of Route 66 started coming fast and furious.
One of the best looking Catholic Churches anywhere is St. Francis DeSales.
This Bevo Mill was built by Anheuser Busch during Prohibition to serve non-alcoholic beverages.
An institution on the Mother Road.
Occasionally, even the great mom and pop diners succumb to the bulldozer. Garavellis served food, cafeteria style, to a dwindling elderly population. A credit union will soon serve everyone.
It surprises me that we only made it to Ted Drewes once in the 9 days we were in St. Louis. THIS place is famous. And it's ICE CREAM.
These entrances used to grace the Coral Court Motel. They used to have great daily rates for travelers. When business slowed down they started having hourly rates. Hmm. Now there's a subdivision of nice homes here. We've seen other signs from the Coral Court in museums. This ENTRANCE sign sat on the right side rock structure.
Wayside Motel on the fly...sometimes there just isn't a place to stop.
Chippewa Motel was on the Route from way back when. And the Duplex is still here as well. They were probably great places to stay "way back when". Not now.
From here, the Route changes from its own road to the same one as I-44.
So...let's go find another Frank Lloyd Wright home.
That definitely looks like a front gate for a FLW home.
Not quite as unusual as some of his other works.
We traveled to the community of Maplewood. The really old Route 66 (1926-1933) went through this area. They had shields on the ground that paid tribute to some iconic sites along the Road.
On our way back to the RV Park we went to The Delmar Loop section of town. It was only about 5 miles from us. They had Stars of the Stars on the sidewalk just like Hollywood. These 140 markers honored stars of acting, art, broadcasting, journalism, literature, music, science, and sports.
John Hartford wrote Gentle on My Mind for Glen Campbell and was also a riverboat worker and pilot.
Gentle on My Mind
Vincent Price is famous for speaking a part in Michael Jackson's Thriller song. Oh, alright. Maybe he did do other things as well.
There was a statue of Chuck Berry here too. He plays at the Blueberry Hill restaurant occasionally.
This area is an example of a previously depressed area that was revitalized by one guy. He owes Blueberry Hill. He encouraged the various businesses to move here. He got the "stars" thing going. He got Chuck Berry to play here. He is encouraging the local government to get the Trolley to run up and down the streets again. His enthusiasm should be duplicated in other areas of this city. They need it.
So I guess the way the route goes, it just wasn't a straight shot from East to West. I think of back in the day when cars didn't have huge tanks of gas and how many stops it would take to get from place to place. The shocks couldn't of been that good either so people had to rest a lot? I'm just rambling on here.
ReplyDeleteIf we talk about the road from Chicago to LA there was a pre-1928 road called the National Road. It was created because of the Good Roads campaign to get cars out of the mud. Route 66 was an improved road that sometimes was on the old road but sometimes they would create a new alignment. I should do a whole blog on the roads and why and how they were upgraded.
ReplyDelete