We got together with Steve in the morning for a short visit then hit the road.
We left Route 66 in Springfield IL and now we were going to rejoin it in Litchfield (probably 30 miles or so South of Springfield).
It was a good ride and the clouds seemed to be thinning somewhat the further west we travelled. We rejoined the Route 66 and pretty much followed it. I had to stop a few times to study the maps. These maps are good and have driving instructions that are pretty detailed, but it would be better suited to have a passenger reading the instructions along the way. Anyway it is what I have.
I set my itinerary with around 200 to 300 miles a day for 14 days to do Route 66, so I have some latitude on where I stop and when. There is only one lay-over day and that is at the Grand Canyon.
Anyway, from Litchfield we made our way to St Louis and crossed the Mississippi on the McKinley Bridge which was used in 1926. As I mentioned in yesterdays post, there is not a lot of traffic on the Route 66 road but quite a bit on the adjacent Interstate when they are close.
It was somewhat confusing when we came across the bridge and I tried to figure out where I was going in the part of St Louis that is in Mosourri. One of the advantages when I got confused is to pick an exit west of where I was and get on the Interstate and go to the exit and pick up Route 66 there, I only did that once leaving St Louis for the west.
The scenery is incredible along Route 66 because you are moving at slower speed, going thru small towns and some are so small the Map people gave names to places that you cannot really Google and get any information.
Our stop was Rolla, MO. I had it on the Itinerrary but I was starting to get tired and somewhat frustrated at missing signs.
Rolla is a good sized town about 100 miles from St Louis. A lot of the small towns have no motels or restuarants or other common conveniences. Rolla was large enough for 5 exits on I-44, which is the Interstate that Route 66 follows in Mossouri.
The 2nd picture below is Cuba, MO (In case you ever thought of living in Cuba).
