"Show Me State"
Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon MO is another cult motel at Route 66 with big wonderful neon sign.
The Devil’s Elbow Bridge is a freshly-renovated bridge from 1923 on Big Piney River, right behind St. Robert MO. The name “Devil’s Elbow” comes from the events which – as a story tells – took place here on a nearby river bend. The lumberjacks used to sail on this river with wood beams, which always at this very spot used to break into two. Some of lumberjacks believed that the stone in the river, which blocked the way and caused their damage, was put here by the devil himself…
„Dead End" – we will not go this way for sure. Luckily we managed to avoid such surprises thanks to our good preparation for the road.
The World’s Largest Rocking Chair in Fanning MO was entered in Guinness Book of Records. Unfortunately it is so big that there’s no chance to seat on it – it is over 42 feet high (that’s 13 meters). But it gives joy proportional to its size.
66 Outpost is a gift-shop next to the giant rocking chair.
Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba MO, different from all the others by the Road. Rooms in stone cottages, with wooden windows and doors, among thick greenery. They say it is the longest continuously run motel at Route 66. Old (built in 1935) but completely renovated.
In the main lobby there’s a shop not only with souvenirs, but also with ladies’ jewellery and handbags – very pretty.
Missouri Hickory Bar BQ – from now on we start to eat barbecue. The meat is so thinly cut, as the Americans say into “slices”, sauces so untypical and tasty, that even me – although the meat is at the very end of my usual menu – I ate it with great appetite.
I am in a very special place with very special people. It’s amazing, but right here my dream came true, the most extraordinary one. The dream which for years seemed to be just… a movie. I don’t need to add anything else for the initiated. I’m in the garage for big trucks, standing next to fabulous Molly thanks to whom it was all possible, and next to the mascot of Mack company. Black, tank, duck, convoy…
Museum of Transportation in St. Louis MO. Great place for motorization and big machines fans. You will find here not only cars, but also locomotives and planes.
Immortal Ford T which you could buy in any colour you wanted to, on condition that it was black colour.
This car is one of a kind. It was built to special order of well known man in the USA, who wanted to stand out from the crowd. And he made it.
A limo with a jet engine!
Some of the movie theatres in the United States, so popular in the 60., are still open today, e.g. Admiral Twin Drive-In in Tulsa OK. Here is a museum “movie theatre”.
Maybe in one of these locomotives Doctor Emmet Brown (in “Back to the Future” Part III) traveled back in time to the Wild West?
The Gateway Arch is a great arch which symbolizes the gate to the mythical middle of America. It was built in St. Louis not without reason. Mississippi River flows across the city, which till 1801 was a western border of the USA. And from St. Louis in 1804 Lewis and Clark, since that moment famous American travelers and explorers, set out on the expedition. They were the first ever to reach Pacific Ocean by land. The expedition ended officially back in St. Louis almost two and a half year later.
In the Arch there’s an elevator which can take you to the very top.
Old Courthouse, nearby the Gateway Arch, remembers the slavery time.
Busch Stadium is a home to one of the well known baseball team in the United States – St. Louis Cardinals. There’s 44 thousand seats in this stadium.
When you go for a walk in St. Louis you need to drop in Ted Drewes Frozen Custard and try famous ice cream. In this city there are two such ice cream shops and in both locations you will get the ice cream in a cup which you can turn upside down and they don’t fall out. These delicacies are sold through the window shop and you can eat it only outdoors. But in a country where you always go for a walk in a car it’s no problem. And your car, especially if it’s a pick-up truck, is a pretty cool place to eat the ice cream in the company of other gourmets of these cold sweets.