2014-10-27 Route 66 Tour Through St. Louis

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.

2014-10-23 Meet Me in St Louis Arch

First off, let's get the name straight. Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The memorial commemorates the Louisiana Purchase, the slavery debate because of the Dred Scott case, and the first civilized government west of the Mississippi.

So what's here?
There's a 91 acre park, the Old Courthouse, a museum (Museum of the Westward Expansion) inside the Arch, and the Gateway Arch itself.

Our walk from the parking lot to the Arch was lined with trees dressed in their fall colors. I don't think we need to go to Vermont to see trees change colors. They are everywhere. And Vermont certainly doesn't have THIS as a backdrop.

We bought tickets online last night so that we could get in one of the 8 elevator cars (they hold 5 people each) at the time we wanted. The set of cars leaves every 10 minutes.

Here's what ONE of the elevator pods looks like. As they go from the basement of the Arch, up a leg, and then to the top, and they rotate to keep you level.

The stainless steel arch is such a beautiful structure. The triangular bases are 51' on all three sides at the bottom. They taper to 17' at the top where the observation area is located.

Once you are up to the top you'll find room for about 100 people.

These are the windows you get to look out of. There is a set of 16 on each side.

The Old Courthouse is sitting to our west. I see they are putting a lid over the freeway to make access to the Arch easier.

We can also see the St Louis Cardinals baseball team's stadium. (If they had made it into the World Series this city would have been a zoo this week)

Artsy Fartsy shot of the Arch's shadow.

Karen's dreaming about a cruise on the Mississippi River again.

They are rebuilding their floodwall and McDonald's used to have a floating restaurant on the waterfront.

The Museum of the Westward Expansion is confusing. It looks like 1/2 of a wagon wheel and it doesn't lend itself well to following westward expansion in a chronological order. You just kind of wander around.

The back wall has panels of Lewis and Clark's journey from St Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. The panels use words from the writings of about 6 of the men who kept journals.

There were some working audioanimatronics also. This guy explained how he was choosen to make the peace medal that they took with them.

Sadly, some weren't working and just held their head down in shame.

We walked up to the Old Courthouse and it is really pretty inside.

History lesson time. This courthouse heard the Dred Scott case. Dred was a slave but his owner moved to a non-slave state and then back again and by the laws of the state he should have been free. So he sued for his freedom. The ruling was that Africans could not claim citizenship and therefore could not bring suit in court. The judge basically ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

The resultant public outrage increased tension between the North and the South, prompted Abraham Lincoln to re-enter politics, and led to the Civil War.

Karen has a great eye for finding these lovely shots to take.