Getting Our Kicks on Route 66 in a 1969 FJ40 (3 Viewers)

[120mm]

My wife and I are setting out on a journey along Route 66 with our two dogs, Lela and Charley.

I drug my rig, named Mavis, after my late mother, out of a backyard two years ago, got it running a year later, and have been daily driving it since then. I documented that process in this thread. Builds - 1969 FJ40 named Mavis - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/1969-fj40-named-mavis.1278957/

Since we lived in Illinois for several years and have seen all the Illinois Route 66 sites, we are driving from our home in Clarksville, TN through the ghost city of Cairo Illinois and joining Route 66 at Ted Drewes Custard shop in St. Louis.

With luck, and God Willing the creek don't rise, we will try to get all the way to Santa Monica in a couple weeks, and will update our progress here.

 

[cbmontgo]

Awesome. Can't wait to see the trip report.

Nothing like a real adventure in a 40.

 

[thatcabledude]

Subscribed!

 

[Honger]

Subscribed for sure... cross-country by 40!

 

[ajordan1975]

Ted Drews has some of the best frozen custard!
Subscribed!

 

[120mm]

We started our journey Tuesday morning at 0610. Hate driving in the dark as my macular degeneration doesn't deal well with headlights through flat glass.

Managed to make it out of town coincident with sunrise. Had a good drive through a little bit of Tennessee and Kentucky, though GPS kept trying to get me into Illinois to save 4 minutes or so. We did enter Illinois through Cairo, which up until a couple years ago was a virtual ghost city. We were shocked to see that while it was still a sh*t hole, it was quite active, with lots of people about and even some building restoration/construction going on. No pics, as we were kind of in shock at its apparent comeback.

Made it to Cape Girardeau and stopped to walk the dogs. Was super impressed by what a nice place it is. Travelled via highway 61, aka the River Road, which comes onto Route 66 just a few blocks away from Ted Drewes.

BTW, Ted Drewes sounds like it could be a tourist trap, but believe me, it's not. I have eaten my share of frozen custard, but nothing even close to the creaminess and flavor of Ted Drewes. Plus, the service is great.

This then became the start of our journey.

We immediately jumped on America's Road and headed west with the intention of making it to the Route 66 park in Eureka. We failed to accomplish this on our own as we ended up trespassing on a mine, where coincidentally, several police agencies were doing some training.

Once we realized our mistake, I immediately kicked in my retired mil/LEO schmooze, and instead of getting jammed up, St Louis County police gave us an escort to the park. And man is it hard to find, but worth it.

We then drove up to Wildwood, where we found a hotel room, also attached to the police station, at the Wildwood inn. It's a nice area but the hotel is a bit worn down.

 

[clrussell]

Watching, you’re coming right through my next tomorrow I bet!

Enjoy the trip!

 

[120mm]

Wednesday, we left Wildwood, and after doing a quick puppy walk and a thorough maintenance check, we headed west along pre 1932 Route 66 to Gray summit. Route 66 shadows I-44 through Missouri so any chance to get out of its shadow is welcome. Nice squirrelly country road.

As an aside, I'm nursing a timing cover leak and discovered today it's not that bad. No way to know until you put some serious miles on it. It looks like crap, but I'm losing a cup or two a day so I'm ok with that.

Our first major stop was Meramac caverns. I again expected a tourist trap and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the tour.

We next stopped at Bourbon to get a picture of one of their three water towers. Don't ask me why.

Cuba MO is a major stop with lots of murals and important attractions like the Wagon Wheel motel.

 

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Once leaving Cuba, we set out for Fanning, with the express purpose of seeing the world's largest rocking chair which is actually the world's second largest rocking chair. "Shhh... Don't tell anyone".

We drove a good 1/8th mile past it before we realized we had. We flipped the rig around and got back there.

We had stopped in Sullivan at the American Pie Company and they gave us leftover smoked ham hocks for our puppies, which we allowed them to eat the meat, and in search of a trash can to dispose them in Fanning, we were beset by a couple stray cats who gleefully did the honors for us.

Many miles of fun twisty road after, we arrived in Uranus, where of course we visited the fudge factory, because everyone knows the best fudge comes from Uranus.

About 80 million bad dad jokes later, we saw the world's biggest belt buckle.

We were completely worn out so we checked into a hotel in nearby Waynesville This is a military town for Fort Leonard Wood, so there was plenty of good Korean food options. Stopped at Koba and was super impressed by their Bibimbop, Mandu and chicken noodles.

 

[120mm]

Headed out this morning from St James and proceeded by crossing I-44 a ludicrous amount of times.

The lovely bride had purchased some postcards the day before, so we stopped at the Laquey post office to mail them.

Next we stopped by the Gasconade bridge, which has been abandoned and efforts are underway to save it.

Then it was off to Lebanon to see sights like historic Wrinks Market and to tour the Leclede County library, which has an amazing museum inside. We ended our time there with a nice dog walk around their veterans park which had my favorite tank, an M4A3 76(W) HVSS.

 

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Next up was Marshfield. Most famous as the birthplace of Edwin Hubble, the scientist who discovered the expanding nature of the universe.

A scenic town with a 1/4 scale model of the space borne telescope named after him.

We stopped in Strafford for a frozen custard at the Andy's custard there. Not even close to Ted Drewes. I'm afraid we've been ruined now. Nothing will come close.

We traveled through Springfield, a town where we conducted tornado relief in 2004. We stopped at the famous Reds Giant Hamburg sign.

It's a city park now. A man was trying to feed a woodchuck. Weirdness.

Next stop has been the highlight of the trip so far, which is the one horse town known as Gay Parita. It is run by a good old boy known as George and he is awesome. Spent a good hour shooting the breeze with him and bleeding off some of the road stress.

Ended the day in Joplin, ready to cross the Kansas and Oklahoma border early tomorrow morning. Nothing but cool old bridges and old stores between Gay Parita and Joplin, though the last 30 miles were on highway 96 which has a 65 mph limit and we stuck to 55 to the chagrin to all the cars behind us.

 

[ajordan1975]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I grew up in the St Louis area and did a lot of this Route 66 stuff with my dad.

 

[clrussell]

Man there’s history I did not know up there. Thank you for this.

 

[cbmontgo]

Read up on that 2011 tornado in Joplin. It was insane.

 

[120mm]

Ironically, we just lived through the Clarksville tornado in December, missing our house by a block.

 

[120mm]

Today was our busiest day.

My lovely bride has most of the pictures, but I'll post what I have.

Woke up in Joplin and took the dogs to the Greenway for a nice long walk. The night before, we had to detour because they have a third Thursday celebration where they shut down route 66 downtown.

Don't have the pics, but Joplin is a nice little town with some good sights, in addition to your normal industrial sections.

Next town was Galena Kansas, which is home to Cars on 66, which inspired the movie Cars. The movie is basically a combination of several route 66 tourist stops.

Fun fact: the first anthropomorphic car was named "Tow Tater", which was changed to "Tow Mater" for the movie.

 

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A seldom seen attraction in Galena is the Murder Bordello. I have no idea why it has that name, but the stained glass window leaves little doubt what the establishment was about.

Next stop was Baxter Springs, which is home of the progenitor of Cars on 66, Dean Walker.

Kansas is only 14 miles of route 66, so we crossed into Oklahoma and through Miami Oklahoma which is bigger than you'd think.

South of miami is a stretch of the original pavement known as "The 9 foot road". The FJ40 dealt really well with this.

We stopped for lunch in Vinita at clantons cafe, which has been owned and operated by the same family since 1927.

Next up was Foyil. South of Foyil is a totem pole park. Most meh attraction so far.

 

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We then traveled to Claremore, home of Will Rogers, and Lynn Riggs. Riggs wrote the musical Oklahoma, and the museum there is free and well done and houses the actual surrey with the fringe on top.

Next stop is Catoosa, home of the most popular sight on route 66, The Blue Whale. Another big meh.

No pictures because I had my hands busy driving, but Tulsa is the most Route 66 friendly city on the route. Everything is Route 66 themed and the place is awash in both old and modern neon.
After that we chose to drive some of the Ozark Trail, which preceded Route 66, because it was dirt and challenging. Loved it.

 

[120mm]

We finally came to a rest in Chandler OK, at the 1939 restored Lincoln Motel. Rest now and more tomorrow.

 

[120mm]

I've decided to quit doing detailed posting, as I am getting worn down by the effort of driving and managing the dogs. I'll flesh out the details after I'm home. Today we traveled from Chandler OK to Elk City OK.

Morning in Chandler was dog walk, breakfast downtown at a Boomarangs and a meet up with Jerry McLanahan, who wrote the EZ Guide to Route 66 as well as many of the murals along the way.

McJerry66

The rest of the route consisted of jumping back and forth across I-44 on small chunks of the old highway. We also stopped at the Oklahoma Route 66 museum in Clinton.

We stopped at Pops, a store dedicated to soda pop. Had a Route 66 grape soda and a Dang! Root beer.