Checking out Route 66 - Missouri

Sonya’s Blog - Day 19 - July 11th - Checking Out Route 66 - Missouri

We decided to drive some of Route 66 today and check out things to do. It is not the easiest thing to find or drive Route 66 for many reasons. In some places you simply cannot drive the old road as it has been converted to pedestrian traffic. For example, right near our campsite in Granite City,Missouri is the Chain of Rock Road and the famous Chain of Rocks Bridge. This bridge is now the longest pedestrian/cycling bridge in the USA, but was originally on Route 66. I found a website that talks about Route 66 and tells you how to get on it and the byways. Off we went for our adventure. We decided to take the Route 66 byways out of St. Louis and then come back through St. Louis on the way back, as Route 66 originally went through St. Louis.

Our first stop was in Kirkwood which was a quaint little town. We were hungry so we stopped for some snacks and drinks. It was already really hot by this time, but luckily we found a table with an umbrella outside where Kizmet could sit with us. We then moved onto the Route 66 State Park which was near Meramec River and after some driving around found the visitors centre. This was a very popular area back in the heyday of Route 66, until they decided to oil the road to keep the dust down. The oil was so contaminated that they had to close down the whole recreation area that was Times Beach, along the Meramec River. We learned some interesting things about the development and popularity of Route 66 as they had a museum in the visitors centre. It was also customer appreciation day and they had complimentary water and cookies - bonus!

We decided not to explore the park, but to move onto the Meramec Caverns. The Caverns are famous because they are so huge, but also because Jesse James used them as a hideout. They were a bit farther than we had anticipated, but we finally made it there. At one time you could drive right into the caverns, but now you need to take a tour in. What we were not expecting was that as soon as you walked into the visitors centre you were in the caverns and the temperature dropped significantly. The average temperature is about 15 degrees C in the Caverns and it was 32 degrees C outside by this time (with 91% humidity, so it was really hot). We did not have time to do the tour as it was quite late by this time and we had ordered supper from Pappy’s Smokehouse to pick up for 6:30, so we had to get going to make that pick up time.

We took the interstate back until we could get on the Route 66 road through St. Louis. On this route is Ted Drewes, which serves up their famous frozen custard. We had time to stop there and have our dessert before our supper. It is an iconic stop along route 66 and it was very busy. We read about it in every article or website that we had checked on Route 66 in Missouri, I am pretty sure they don’t need to advertise as everyone else is doing it for them as this was one of the places we knew about prior to even getting to St. Louis. The custard was good, we had to eat it pretty quick because it was melting so quickly. Kizmet enjoyed licking up the custard on the ground that someone had spilled. Here is a picture of us outside Ted Drewes under the Route 66 sign:

We then headed over to Pappy’s Smokehouse. The Trolley Man who did the tour on our first day recommended that we get some BBQ from there as it was the best place in St. Louis. He said just call ahead and order because otherwise you will be standing in line. The place is open until 8 PM or until they run out of food, whichever comes first. When we called to preorder, around 3 in the afternoon, they were already out of Burnt Ends. Blake went to get the food and the lineup to get in was an hour long, he just sauntered in and picked up his food and we were on our way. It was a good tip. When we were at the Visitors Centre Blake was chatting with the staff there and an older gentleman who had come in to visit with the staff. He told Blake to make sure he asked to see Walter when he was there. It turns out Walter is the smoker, not a smoker, but the smoker to make the BBQ meat. Blake got to check out Walter too. We headed back to the RV to eat our supper and it was very tasty.

We then played Cross Crib and Isaac and I came from behind to win the game! I didn’t think we we do it, but we had a great board at the end and a good crib. A good end to the day.

Tomorrow we explore Forest Park in St. Louis.

Have a good one,

Sonya