She kissed the hairbrush…

Sunday, August 29, 2021—Starting mileage: 35,250

[Aside: Randy wears his “Vietnam Vet” hat pretty much all the time. So far, it has saved us about $45 in admission prices! He doesn’t ask, the concessionaires just say, “Thank you for your service” and give him a discount or free admission! Never expected that! We’ll remember to pay it forward.]

And we’re off! The first hurdle for Randy was to ransom the car (and it was a pretty big ransom; it is, after all, a big city with few parking spaces) and then he had to manage to pack everything back in what passes for a “trunk.” [Aside: there are advantages to having very little trunk space: we can’t buy much (Translation: any!) stuff.]

With some difficulty with the traffic (thank goodness it is a Sunday!) we succeeded in finding the sign for the (current) start of Route 66. 

Hard to call it the highlight of the day—or even the hour—but we did get to see the Weinermobile! I’m so excited.

We are following the VERY detailed maps in the EZ66 Route 66 Guide for Travelers to, as much as possible, stay on Historic Route 66. One of the many fun things along the way are old Burma-Shave signs. So far we’ve seen four (but only remember two!): “He is shaved/So neat and trim/Red Riding Hood/Is chasing him/Burma-Shave!” and “She kissed the hairbrush/By mistake/She thought it was/Her husband Jake/Burma-Shave!” You wondered about the title, didn’t you!

The Blues Brothers in Joliet, IL.

For our daughter who has a dog named Elwood.

More Blues Brothers.

These next photos are just some of the wonderful stuff to be seen on Route 66.

Luckily, outside the two-room jail.

And inside.

Another dangerous criminal locked up!

We’re driving on roads that we ordinarily wouldn’t with the Corvette but they are a lot of fun. We been on a mile and a half original section of brick—yes, the original bricks—Route 66 and we’ve been on a section of original concrete that was walked on by turkeys when the concrete was wet. So cool! A lot more of Route 66 is drivable than I thought although a few sections have caused us a little heartburn (but no damage at all).

It's not yellow, but it is a brick road. Quite smooth, too.

An original section of Route 66.

Springfield, IL, was our first layover. [Aside: What’s the difference between a layover and a stopover? Luck.] We reserved a nice (we thought) room in an old, historic house, the Inn at 835. While the staff were friendly and helpful, they need to work on their host skills. For example, we ordered an cheese and crackers appetizer to be delivered to our room with a bottle of wine. They brought the wine and cheese but there is NO table in the room to put them on, there were no wine glasses, and no napkins or small plates. There were other minor things but it could have been SO much better with a little thought.

Spent some time in Springfield touring Lincoln’s home and seeking out Lou Pisani’s boyhood home, now a restored house in the four-block Lincoln Home historical area, the DuBois  (pronounced du-BOYS) house (not open to the public, it’s a maintenance headquarters).

The DuBois house. Lou Pisani's childhood home.

 

As we were entering the grounds of Lincoln’s home, there was a man sitting on a bench, bleeding rather heavily (that means there were small pools of blood on the ground beneath his foot, not large lakes of blood—its all relative!). People were just walking by so I had to offer to help. I ordered Randy around a bit and he got the Ranger to come and the Ranger had to call another “Lead” Ranger who proceeded to tell me I was better trained than he was! So much for thinking they are EMTs! Anyway, his foot got cleaned up and together we got the bleeding stopped and bandaged his foot (it was not a stitchable injury) and we all went our separate ways.

Lincoln’s home is beautifully restored and there is a lot of his original furniture. Most impressive to me was the kitchen! Of course, because of the time (1840s), there was no indoor plumbing at all. So, no indoor toilets and of course no water for the kitchen; can you imagine cooking dinner without running water? I can’t. The kitchen, which appeared to be about 10 x 12 feet, is the size of the cabin Abe grew up in with his parents and two siblings!

Mary Lincoln's kitchen.

We had lunch in Carlinsville, IL, the home of the highest concentration of contiguous Sears mail order houses in the nation, more than 150 in a 12 block neighborhood called the Standard Addition.

We think this is one of the Sears mail order homes. They stopped selling in 1940.

Lunch stop.

Second night was in St. Louis (back to Marriott hotels) after abandoning Route 66 because of one of the heaviest rainstorms I’ve had the misfortune to drive through. Not quite the quantity we occasionally get in AZ, but AZ storms are generally short; this was heavy, heavy, heavy rain for about an hour. Difficult to even see the lane markers. So we decided to just get on the Interstate and go to a hotel.