Race Day

Even though the gates opened at 5:30, we decided to wait until 9:00 to leave the hotel for the track.  When we got there, people were already everywhere!  Since we had been there yesterday, we knew the shortest route to our seat.  We quickly found where we needed to be and climbed the stairs up to the second to last row.  Since I have never been to an Indy 500 race, I had no idea if the tickets I bought were in a place where we could see too much.  As it turned out we were sitting at the start/finish line which was absolutely perfect.  There was so much going on before the race that sitting there for over 2 hours seemed like just a few minutes.  The day could not have been more perfect and the race started about 12:30.  It was amazing to watch the cars drive so fast and for about 150 laps there were no problems.  Then there were three wrecks, three yellow flags and finally a red flag which totally stopped the race to clean off the track.  The race got re-started with only about 6 laps to go an it was the second closest finish in Indy 500 history with only .06 seconds between first and second.  And we were in the perfect place to see it!  There were so many people it took about two hours to get back to the hotel.  It was an amaIng day at the end of an even more amazing trip.

Pre-Race

I left our hotel early to pick up our son at Chicago O'Hare airport.  He flew in from California to join us on the last leg of our journey- the Indianapolis 500.  Instead of driving straight to Indianapolis we planned to make a side trip to Auburn, Indiana to see the Auburn, Cord and Duesenburg museum.  The original factory was in Auburn and it was an amazing experience.  It would be very tempting to sell my hot rod pickup and get a 1937 Cord 812.  It is one of the most amazing and beautiful cars I have ever seen!  So much for dreaming.  After the museum we drive to Indianapolis. Today we spent the day at the track walking around and seeing old Indy cars and the museum.  Wow, what a day especially with Gene and Matt.  It was a fantastic day for all of us, and tomorrow is the big race.

The end was the beginning

We did not have that many miles to Chicago, but we did want to see one more amazing Route 66 attraction.  It was in the little town of Wilmington, Illinois.  It is called the Gemini Giant and is next to the recently closed Launching Pad Restaurant.  It seems to me that he is the cousin of Paul Bunyon.  While we were there we met a man who had driven  from Los Angeles.  He had an accent that seemed to be from Australia.  He was very excited to be there and maybe more excited than us.  Just think, grown men from different parts of the world excited to see a 20' tall statue of a guy with a space helmet on.  

After the Grmini Giant, we set the GPS for Lake Shore and Jackson street in downtown Chicago.  That was the beginning of Route 66.  We made it to downtown just fine, but it took just as long to find a parking space as it did to drive.  We parked and walked looking for the famous intersection.  It took some looking but we finally found the official beginning of Route 66.  So that beginning was our ending.  What an amazing 7 days that will be etched into my memory for decades.

It's not always bigger in Texas

We sadly said goodbye to Trisha this morning and got back on the road.  One of the stops for today was the President Linclon library and museum in Springfield.  I have never been to a presidential library or museum so I had no idea how long it would take.  As a result I did not plan too many stops today along the way.  However we did manage to squeeze in two stops that were well worth the time.  The first one was in Collinsville which is the he of the world's largest catsup bottle.  It was for a now abandon catsup factory started inthe 1940's.  After that we saw the presential museum which was well worth the time.  Then we saw another Route 66 site in Atlanta, Illinois.  It is a giant Paul Bunyon holding a giant hotdog.  Random-yes, but a unique Route 66 attraction.  We were not the only ones visiting Paul Bunyon today.  Three college students were there and asked me to take their picture with him.  In Texas we have a saying,"Everything is always bigger in Texas."  Well Illinois has us beat in catsup bottles and at least one other random item.

Time with family

This afternoon we arrived in St. Louis where our daughter Trisha lives.  After spending some time catching up she took us out on the town to two unique and famous Route 66 eating places.  The first one was the Eat Rite Diner.  This 10 seat diner has been around for decades and has served thousands of hungry Route 66 travelers.  Their speciality is 6 hamburgers for $6.60.  Their slogan is "Eat Rite or don't eat at all."  We got there just before the baseball crowd and had a nice visit with the cook.  She even let us go behind the counter and be honorary cooks.  The food was great and the place is amazing. We left there and headed for the next stop, which is another icon for Route 66 travelers- Ted Drewes frozen custard.  WOW!  That place has been a St. Louis tradition since 1929.  It was fantastic and after the burger and frozen custard we went back to Trisha's apartment and acted like the beached Blue Whale we saw in Catoosa a few days ago.

Old Fashioned Ingenuity

We left the Boots Court and headed east ready for another day of adventure.  We saw a sign that read, "With every sunrise there is a new adventure."  That certainly has been true for us on this trip.  And today was certainly an adventure.  We drove through several small towns and then finally came to Fanning. It was here we saw double evidence of old fashioned ingenuity. First we saw the world's largest  rocking chair.  It is 42.5 feet tall and weighs 27,500 pounds.  It was a great place for a nap instead of taking one in the car while I was driving.  Twenty feet away from the rocking chair was another amazing site.  It was something else I had never seen and as I looked I wondered why the inventor didn't mass produce it and make millions of dollars.  With all the lawn tools on the market, this one is by far the most creative one I have ever seen.  It was a push lawn mower welded to the front end of a bicycle.  This way you can mow the grass and get you exercise at the same time.  Why didn't I think of that?

A Simple Life

We had a restful night in Carthage, Missouri. It would have been easy to find a modern hotel with all the latest amenities.  However, we opted for a much simpler option to remind us of the times in the past when travelers only  worried about finding a roof over their heads.  But in Carthage there is a place called the Boots Court that was way ahead of its time because they offered something that few hotels had back then.  Their claim to fame was that they had A RADIO IN EVERY ROOM!