Thursday, June 28, 2007
Almost to the Finish Line
We left Springfield, Missouri, this morning about 7:00 am with NO RAIN. We took Route 66 until I saw the sign for Meramec Caverns. I remembered that this one of the places I visited with my parents on our 1949 trip. So, Cathy and I just had to stop. We decided to take the tour, which takes about 1½ hours. It was a little pricey but, oh well, what are vacations for… Cathy was amazed at the caverns, and the stalagmites and stalactites were well worth the tour.
Unfortunately, after we left the caverns, the weather started to close in on us, and we had to take the Interstate instead of staying on 66 to get ahead of the rain. (Much of the way, we could still see Route 66, because it was the frontage road.) We got through St. Louis and into Illinois – about 250 miles today. About 6 pm, we made it to Springfield, Illinois.
It’s been unfortunate that, because of the weather, we had to miss much of Route 66 in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois. We are going to try to see some of what we missed on our return trip from St. Louis west, because we won’t be on a schedule.
Tomorrow, we should finish up our Route 66 trip in Chicago. Saturday, we will be visiting Cathy’s family, and on Sunday we will spend some time with Cathy’s friend, Rose Marie, and her husband, Silvio. Sunday afternoon, we’ll be heading down through Indiana and Kentucky to McMinnville, Tennessee, were we are going to spend some time with my sons and their families. Chris has taken time off work to play with us, so we will be there for a few days and to celebrate the 4th of July.
This weekend is going to be a little hectic, so we probably won’t get back to the blog until Monday.
