Since my last post we spent the day in St Louis looking at the sites near the waterfront and the big arch of course, very impressive. After St Louis we headed north up the I-55 on our way to Springfield checking out some of the route 66 sites.
Probably the biggest thing to see in Springfield was the Lincoln neighborhood before he was president which is national park. We toured the old Lincoln house and other houses in the streets. The streets have been maintained/restored period correct and they even had a President Lincoln and his wife lookalike's there to take a photo with, quite interesting to visit and worthwhile if your going that way. A few blocks away was capital building and also impressive to see, very ornate.
We continued north on the I-55 stopping at various route 66 sites, looking at old petrol/gas stations and other things. We stopped at Pontiac for the night and went to the visitors centre museum and military museum that is connected. The museums are free and I would highly recommend them, they had lots of great stuff to see. Pontiac is a great little town and a must see if you are doing Route 66.From Pontiac we looked at a few more sites and stayed the night at a Walmart on the south side of Chicago.
I found that Illinois promotes and sign posts Route 66 the best of all the state that we visited.
We left the caravan/trailer at the Walmart and visited the Volo Auto Museum. The museum was more than I was expecting, a room full of Duesenbergs, lots of theme cars from movies and TV programmes, a room full of celebrity and famous peoples cars and all the cars for sale (all I thought over priced). We went to the field museum the next day to see the biggest T Rex and other great dinosaur fossils, aswell as many other things to see. All my daughter talked about for the next day was how she wanted to find a big dinosaur fossil.
We headed out from Chicago that night and went to Byron the next day (Saturday)where I met a lot of the Y guys and joined them at the Melt Down nostalgic drag meeting. The drag meet was great with all the classic and original style drag cars. Thank you to everyone for being so hospitable and especially Tom who showed me his toys later that night at his house.
Paul we're way ahead of you with the Walmarts, most of our nights are spent in the parking lots. It was a nice quiet one you suggested yesterday, thanks. It was great to meet all you guys. I forgot to give you our cell number while we're in you US, 619 761 2309.
Yes Gary you do see some interesting people at the Walmarts