Show me the way to Amarillo.

Another sensible breakfast awaited us at the Hampton Inn in Clinton. Deftly avoiding the 'dodgy hot stuff' we opted for the fruit juice/yoghurt/cereal choice and felt better for it.

Leaving our hotel at about 10:00 a.m. after our previous nights laundry experience with... A top loader! Oh yes... Well I was excited. Anyway, we left our hotel and popped into the Route 66 Museum just half a mile down the road and had a seriously informative tour around the history and legend that was the world famous road.

We came out slightly nostalgic and a little sad that a country that is always cracking on about history, wars and achievements would let such a fantastic piece of historical achievement fall by the wayside and into disrepair. The literal 'ghost towns' that we passed through as we reconnected with the '66' now and again along the road was quite upsetting. It was like another toy that a spoilt child had had enough of. For all their balling about 'Man Vs Nature' it seemed a waste of time, materials and worst of all; people's hearts, souls and livlihoods.

A few miles down the road there was, surprise surprise, another Route 66 museum. This time in Elk City but it wasn't quite as 'neat' as the first and seemed more focused on the merchandising aspect, that and farming history. While it was a pleasant diversion it wasn't quite what we were looking for, although we did manage to score some old school RC Cola and some Taffy.

Pushing on down the road we found some fantastic landmarks like the Devil's Rope Museum, which had nothing to do with devils or rope and plenty to do with barbed wire. While highly informative on the amazing technological advancements of the metal fencing material, it was clear that these people revel in kleptomania. We then pulled into the iconic art deco Conoco gas station and before we knew what was happening it was 14:30 and we realised that we hadn't eaten since breakfast. Crossing from Oklahoma into Texas we started to notice an abrubt change in the scenery, suddenly there were massive rents as the earth opened up and scrub bush ruled the plains. Sadly there was no tumble weed cruising across the road for me to aim at.

We found absolutely no service stations, not that we fancied anymore crappy fast food anyway. So we pulled into an atypical american town with a population of about.... oh I would say.... 5 and raided the local grocery store wearing bandanas over our faces and waving realistic replica guns around we made off with some sub rolls, Philidelphia cheese spread and some ham slices. Oh, ok maybe my imagination is playing tricks on me. Speaking of which it was deliriously hot today, but after our previous mistake yesterday we kept the top up this afternoon.This was definately 'Big Sky' country as the clouds shrank away like an ever repeating Escher drawing we jumped between Gray County and Conway County and Gray County again. As we ate up the miles the horizon was visible for 360 degrees and there was nothing but endless plains, grain silos and cattle ranches. Amarillo came into view before too long and we cruised slowly into town unsure what to expect. It was a town of one way streets and traffic lights... lots of traffic lights. We found a tourist infomation type place and they pointed out the local hotels and one particular point of interest, The Big Texan Steakhouse where if you can eat a 72oz steak in under an hour, you get it free! We didn't go there because lets face it, we would probably try it like idiots. We're going there for breakfast tomorrow as apparently they do a kick-ass omelette. I would feel bad if I didn't warn people however NOT to heed Tony Christie's immortal words and do not EVER ask the way to Amarillo because for some silly reason you might actually end up in this one horse town.

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Now playing: Max & Paddy - (Is This the Way To) Amarillo
via FoxyTunes


CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM ROUTE 66 - PART 2 HERE


CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM ROUTE 66 - PART 3 HERE

Gettin' Our Kicks.... on 66

In the week and a half we've been in the States, we've spent each and every day exploring many a tourist attraction in between the long drives between hotels. But today, the drive was the attraction, as we spent the best part of 9 hours on the "Mother Road".

We joined the 66 almost immediately after leaving our hotel at 10am this morning. Deciding to leave the TomTom in the trunk, and relying on our map-reading skills - and a lot of luck - our attempts to traverse the legendary road began fairly smoothly, and without much error. The road followed a fairly decently tarmac'd route out of Joplin and on toward Kansas - the State which we would be spending the least amount of time in, during our whole trip - just 14 miles infact. A glorious white bridge greeted us along this stretch of road, and due to the lack of traffic, we were able to take avantage of a photo opportunity, shown below.

The fourteen mile stretch in Kansas brought us into the State of Oklahoma, and to an almost abrubt halt - as we soon discovered just how difficult Route 66 can be to follow. A seemingly ordinary stretch of highway suddenly descended into a decaying mess of a track, laden with gravel and pot-holes, with little or no suggestion that we were still on the fabled road which we were attempting to follow. Help from a kindly farmer assured us that we were on the correct path, but it came with a warning, that the road gets "a lot worse" in places further into the State, and on into Texas. Mercifully, the rough section which we had found, opened back onto well-paved roads after only a few miles, and we continued to push on into Oklahoma State through towns such as Miami, and Chelsea.

Despite the farmer's warnings, the route was kind to us on the rest of journey down to Oklahoma City, in which we stayed faithful to the Route, with the exception of a quick detour through Tulsa on the Interstate. Oklahoma is littered with turnpikes (toll-roads), yet we managed to avoid them all by following 66. During the morning we drove the car with the top down, as you of course should do when getting your kicks on the fabled highway, but as morning turned into afternoon, it quickly became clear that the weather was turning abusively hot! Temperatures were somewhere in the low to mid 40s, and was pretty oppressive to say the least. On our days on the Interstate this heat would escape us because we were constantly on the move, but with traffic lights, and stop signs every few miles on Route 66, stopping the car briefly would cause us to feel like we were on the edge of boiling point. After stopping for a burrito for lunch, we put the roof up, and switched the air-con on - and kept it this way till we reached our hotel later that evening.

Route 66 itself was a welcome respite from the mundane Interstate roads we'd been driving along over the past 10 days. The roads were still ridiculously straight, but the hills, and occasional twists and turns made it a far more enjoyable drive. The small towns that we passed through were a bit of shock though. The USA is the richest country in the world, and to see the desolation, and deprevation that has befallen these backwater places, you suddenly become acutely aware of the economical divide between the big cities, and the small towns. Empty buildings, closed businesses and battered old cars lined every street, most notably because of the declassification of Route 66, and the change of truck routes to the larger Interstates. Those businesses that do survive, do so almost entirely on the basis of the 66 tourist trade, with many claiming to be "genuine" or "authentic" historical landmarks. It's as difficult to decipher who is telling the truth as much as it is navigating your way along the road itself.

Later in the day we arrived in Oklahoma City, and headed downtown. We were in for a shock, as the streets were almost entirely deserted. No-one seemed to want to venture out on the Sunday after 4th July. We visited the Myriad Botanical Gardens and it's Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, which we found unremarkable at best. The most interesting thing was when Adam was told there was a "Tripod Charge" for the Conservatory, which was $25. Now considering the entry for a person was $6, we thought that was pretty steep, so the left the tripod outside.

Oklahoma just didn't do it for us after such a long drive, so we decided to drive another hour toward Clinton, where we were reliably informed a rather good Route 66 Museum was located. It was late so the place was shut, but we crossed over to a hotel on the other side of the road, and checked in for the night. We were relieved to find that it had a self-serve laundry, and as we did the loads of washing we so desperately needed to have cleaned, we headed for a pizza, and discussed what was in-store for us in the next couple of days - namely Texas!



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Now playing: The Rolling Stones - Route 66
via FoxyTunes

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM ROUTE 66 PART 1 HERE

Captain Caveman!!!

Exiting St Louis and heading toward the small town of Joplin on the edge of Missouri, we spotted a sight on the map that we thought we may as well investigate further.

The Meramec Cavern's lie (funnily enough) in the Meramec Vally, which in itself is enough to provide some beautiful scenery - and us with a short joyful drive away from the Interstate. The caverns themselves are millions of years old, but that doesn't stop dear old Uncle Sam from claiming the most important thing that's ever happened to them are the James Younger Gang led by the James brothers Frank and Jesse, who used the caves to hide their stolen loot during the 19th century.

Now the caves had an undeniable beauty and eeireness that makes any trip inside them worth the entrance fee of $17.50 per head. The stalagmite and stalactite formations are quite stunning to behold, although the mention of them always reminds me of Harry Hill for some reason.

The caverns contain some amazing rock formations, and the sound of water constantly trickling down the walls creates a natural atmosphere that that is only broken by the Tour Operators attempts to "spice things up". Poor, fake coloured lighting is used to emphasise points of interest at every turn, and cardboard cutouts of Lassie are used to show where an episode of said TV show was shot over 50 years ago. Our tour guide looked like Fred Savage from the Wonder Years, and he failed to capture the imagination of the group in-front of him, whose number was a quite ridiculous 80!!! All those people meant that it was impossible to hear what was being said, and meant the tour lasted at least half an hour longer than it could have done. And just to top it all off, they managed to ruin one the best natural formations of the cave - known as the "theatre curtain", by playing "God Bless America" and putting on a phony fake light show that culminated in rather predictable fashion with an American flag being projected onto the beautious natural feature before us. All this was rather grinding. It's not as if these Caverns are present in these lands because of America! They've been there for millions of years, and they belong to Mother Nature. If the tour operators had got a sense of this, we may have enjoyed this wonderful place in all it's majesty - instead of seeing it dressed up like a prom queen!

We left the caverns behind with a sense of both achievement, and dissapointment and headed back onto the road. Cutting through Missouri, Route 66 runs almost parrallel to the Interstate for the entire duration, breaking off at times when small towns appear, and dissapearing completely when rivers block it's path - the bridges long ago dismantled upon its declassification as a US Highway. We kept to the Interstate for the most part, as such was the close proximity of the two roads, that we felt we were in no way cheating by taking a road which allowed us to travel at 70mph instead of 40 and 55mph. Stopping off in Joplin, just before the Will Roger's Turnpike, we checked into our hotel for the night, and headed across the road to Outback Steakhouse, where we enjoyed a surprisingly good meal, at yet another reasonable price. Tomorrow we get back on the road and head toward Oklahoma, but this time we'll be sticking to legendary 66, as we bid to avoid the Interstate, and the dreaded toll-route.

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Now playing: Green Day - American Idiot
via FoxyTunes

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM MERAMEC CAVERNS HERE

Meet Me In St Louis

300 miles ago we arrived in St Louis and once again eagle eyed Joel was the first to see this particular regions local land mark first, the fabulous Gateway Arch.

St Louis was a sight for sore eyes, mainly because when we both checked the map the previous evening in Chicago we had both read St Louis as being only 183 miles away. It wasn't. Our kindly GPS, which I have named Thomas, told us it was closer to 300 and about a 5 hour drive. This meant that while the other person was driving, the passenger got a little shut-eye because our first real leg of Route 66 was a featureless flat wasteland something akin to Cambridge - not the City of course, that's beautiful. The surrounding areas, you know fields, trees, bushes... the horizon... no hills. Yeah you get the idea. Now imagine that with a couple of 'Roman stylee' straight roads and it's like playing a real live version of 'Outrun'.

Needless to say the drive got a whole lot more interesting when we hit the torrential downpour as shown in the video in the previous post. Now that was some scary stuff. Luckily we got through it, because rain ain't no thing to real Brits. Joel clocked the Gateway Arch as the sun beamed through the clouds like a sign from god and we knew it was going to be all good.

We checked into the most expensive hotel of our trip so far. The Hyatt at Union Station was sheer decadance. Created from, as the name implies, the old main station at St Louis. The lobby was gigantic and a swear I have never seen so much marble dedicated to one building in my entire life. The flipside of the good looking hotel was the hilarity that ensued upon checking out the toilet in our room.

Not only could you conduct conference calling from the comfort of the can but the dang thing had an ethernet port for those types who just couldn't stay off the interweb. Or maybe it was for fat yanks who somehow got stuck there and needed to call a porter to wheel them out.. I just don't know.





After our unexpectedly long drive we had a nice little walk down Market St. into downtown St Louis to get a better look at this little arch thing. Needless to say this was one impressive piece of engineering and a fitting monument to commemorate Lewis & Clark's expedition to the west.


That night as Joel mentioned we had a few drinks to celebrate... Err.... Thursday. At $1 each we had quite a few, ok we had a lot. Then we found a club called Buca and listened to Hip-Hop and Drum and Bass. Which neither of us particularly liked, so we headed back to the hotel.

JULY the 4th came and we headed to breakfast as I loaded my plate up with bacon and eggs I was beginning to feel decidedly unwell, and left breakfast uneaten and Joel sucking down coffee. Having a little sleep I woke up to see Joel had found the latest episodes of Doctor Who online and was catching up with the latest David Tennant adventures. And such was the July 4th parade for us! We made up for our late day by doing the American thing and going to see Hancock at the local movie theatre and came back to the most fantastic fireworks show we had seen since Wednesday.

The next morning we got up ludicrously early (not hungover) and ventured back to the Gateway Arch to ride the tiny little trams up to the top to check out St Louis from over 600 feet inside a giant tringular sardine can. Classic claustrophobia for some but a glorious view for us.


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Now playing: Train - Mississippi
via FoxyTunes

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM ST LOUIS HERE

Bloody Weather!!!

Just a quick post to summarise what we've covered so far.

We've covered 1800 miles in just over a week and we find ourselves in St Louis for the 4th July celebrations (although we did a little celebrating of our own last night when we discovered a bar that was serving drinks for $1 all night - sssshhhh - better keep it down, Adam is sleeping off a hangover!).

Here's the map of our journey so far, and as you can see, we're well into Route 66 territory now, and we shall be following the "mother road" across to California over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Yesterday, on the drive down from Chicago to St Louis, we came across some rather adverse weather conditions in the form of the most horrible rain shower you will ever see. Take a look at the video clip below if you don't believe me. Take note of the cars pulling over to the side of the road - that's how bad it was.



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Now playing: B.J. Thomas - Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
via FoxyTunes

Sweet Home Chicago

Chicago, Illinois - we came, we saw - we frickin' loved it!!!

After the flat, un-impressive views of the drive up through Indiana, we knew The Windy City had to be something special in order to re-ignite our energies. As we drove up the Interstate toward the city, we already became suitably impressed with what we saw before us.

We check into the Days Inn - Lincoln Park-North, and almost immediatly headed into the city on the number 151 bus, which took us down Michigan Ave, which is pretty much the central hub to all the sights in the city. Almost immediatly you could tell that this is a city unlike any you'd find in Europe. It was clean, well-organised, and despite it's modern-feel, really rather beautiful. Tall skyscrapers reached high up to the few clouds that were dotted in the sky above. And with Lake Michigan to one side of us, Chicago ebbed a beauty I had not seen in a city before. We wandered around the streets, underneath the El-trains rattling above us, and felt very much at home. Stopping off for a beer in The Berghoff (on W Adam's Street!), we soon discovered the water taxi's near Adam's St Bridge. It took us from just underneath the Sears Tower back toward Michigan Ave, where we took in another drink by the river before heading back to our hotel for a quick change, before we headed out to the bars along Division, where we sampled some very Irish bars.

The next day we headed back into the main Loop, and headed straight for Sears Tower (on the Water Taxi again), and made it our mission to head to the SkyDeck at the very top of the world's second tallest building. Here's Adam talking about the great view.


After the tower we took a wander to Grant Park, where we stumbled across the Taste of Chicago food festival, and sampled some proper Chicago-style Hot-Dogs. We had only a few food tickets, so Adam had to make-do with a sample portion of ice-cream - which ended up being about as big as his head.

Through Millenium Park we wandered next, which apparantly took four years too long to build (see it's not just the Brits that build things that become overdue), but was worth the wait, with some breathtaking architecture dotted around some well-trimmed lawns. Adam then decided it was time to visit Lincoln Park Zoo, which I took as an opportunity to head back the hotel room to catch up on the sleep I'd been missing out on due to his constant snoring!! He jumped off the bus in Lincoln Park, and went and took some photos of some animals looking decidedly miserable in their caged environment. Needless to say it made him feel rather down seeing them in that state, and he came back to the hotel shortly.

In the evening we headed to Navy Pier for some good American food (again) and an added bonus of a massive fireworks display over Lake Michigan. "What was that in aid of?" I here you ask. Beats us. Think they were celebrating because it was a Wednesday or something. Only in America. It won't be the last of the fireworks we'll see on this trip, as we're off to St Louis now, where we'll be spending 4th July!!!



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Now playing: The Blues Brothers - Sweet Home Chicago
via FoxyTunes

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM CHICAGO HERE

Layin' down some bricks

Just a quick entry today, and it's all about our time in Indianapolis - which was short, and fairly light on the anecdotes.

The drive up to Indianapolis was pretty uneventful. Indiana's scenery consisted mainly of flat horizons and farmland, that quickly began looking overtly repetitive the more we pushed on into the State. We arrived late Monday evening at the Jameson Inn-Indy West, which was a functional, if basic Interstate-motel. The most exicting thing about out was the waffle-maker at breakfast, which we put to good use by making a large pile of said battered-product and smothering them in jam. We did have a small hiccup at the motel whereby the good people at Travelocity had usefully lost our booking, and the hotel had no details of us whatsoever. The staff sorted it out for us though by the morning, and all was well as we tucked into our waffles.

We had only one real sight to see in the whole of Indiana, and that was to visit the Indianapolis Speedway and Museum, which wasn't far from our hotel. We checked out and headed to the circuit. Now, when we went to Daytona we had to go on a tour to see the inside of the race-track, which was fantastic. After reading up about Indianapolis, it stated nothing about any track tours, so we thought we might not be able to see the circuit. We were wrong. As we drove into what we thought was the carpark at the speedway, we found ourselves parked up in the middle of the arena, where the Museum was located. We watched as motorbikes went speeding round the circuit, and took in the small but quaint sights inside the main building. Now, it has to be said - if Daytona is all glitz, glamour and razamataz, then "The Brick Yard" is much more reserved and builds its reputation on it's history. The Museum was a jewel in motorsport's history, with cars dating back to the 19th century, and vehicles from Indy 500 races, and Formula One seasons. It was all rather grandiose, if a little antiquated in it's presentation.

With the Indy circuit in the bag, there was nothing more to do in the State, but push on through the flatness, and head for a certain city that lies in Illinois on Lake Michigan - Chicago. But seeing as we're spending more than just the one day there - you'll just have to wait a little longer for that one! But as final thought - I'll leave you with this. We've been in the States just six days, yet we've covered over 1500 miles already - cor!!!!





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Now playing: Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall
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CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM INDIANAPOLIS HERE