Route 66 - Day Two (Farmersville, IL to Joplin, MO)

Good morning! We woke up and drove to Jubelt's Bakery in Litchfield for breakfast. It smelled good, bakery-wise, but the food wasn't great. So we chowed down, and took off to see a giant ketchup bottle. Or is it catsup?

From giant ketchup to giant mounds. Kahokia Mounds was okay, but it was just a lot of grassy mounds. On to St. Louis!

Okay, St. Louis was also okay, but it was just a lot of grassy mounds. Not really. It was a lot of buildings, and the Gateway Arch was nice, but we bypassed it, except for one thing: frozen custard!!!

The girls there were nice, and the one on the right recommended pumpkin pie frozen custard.

IT WAS AWESOME! Iv had an Oreo one, which was also good, but not as good as mine!

A lot of religious and country channels abound; some were one and the same. One lyric I remember while scanning through was "I make a lot of hay for a little pay".

We took a side trip to try to find a place called Devil's Elbow. Very elusive. Ivan wanted to see it simply because the name sounded cool, but I remember reading about it, and thinking, "There's nothing there." Even though I've said it many times after looking for it, I'll say it again: Iv, I told you so. It was basically a bridge over a river. But at least we drove on old 66 for a while, which was cool.

We then busted it to Meramec Caverns, which was a must-see for me on the trip (I only had three must-sees: Meramec, the Big Texan, and the Grand Canyon). If I were able to, and not as almost claustrophobic as I am acrophobic, I'd do some spelunking as a hobby.

Meramec was definitely worth it for me. For one, it was 15C when we walked in, which is a perfect temp for me. I run hot (take note, women, and hot post-op trannies), so it was very cool in there to walk around. We were led through a guided tour, which was good.

At one point, our tour guide mentioned that it takes about 100 years for 1 mm of stalactite to form. After the tour, we asked him a question that I whispered to Ivan at the time, to our amusement: had he'd ever gotten the challenge that since the world was only created 6 000 years ago, that would've been impossible? Ivan didn't think he would've had the question asked, whereas I was sure he had.

Sure enough, he's had it a few times from people. "Some people don't want to hear anything that refutes their beliefs," he said, "and some people just want to argue."

So I splashed some holy water on him and he screamed and melted.

From there, we drove mostly on old 66 to the end of the day, which was a slower trip, but also cool to do the original drive. We stopped for late lunch at the Circle Inn Malt Shop, where I was so distracted by old women smoking there, I forgot to order a malt. Damn, I love malts! They had okay chili, though, and cheap prices.

The town of Cuba was next: not really on my list, but should've been. A lot of really nice Route 66-related murals were all over buildings through this small town. We both enjoyed it.

The Incontinental Divide: while driving further, I thought I immediately lost control of bodily functions until I looked at Ivan, who was grinning, and realized he turned my seat warmer on without telling me.

So we drove and drove, and got to Joplin, MO, close to the Texas border. Iv wanted to watch a UFC fight that night, since there was a Croatian guy fighting, so we drove around town, looking for both a motel (we hadn't yet figured out the 'Points of Interest' option on the GPS) and a place that was showing UFC.

After stopping at three hotels, Ivan was about to lose it until we pulled into the Comfort Inn, where Tia, the desk clerk, was grabbing a smoke outside. She gave us a deal, and we stayed there. I am fairly convinced that she saved Iv from a coronary, and when I told her this while checking in, she gave me another discount. Thanks, Tia! The room was the nicest one we've stayed in up to Day 6, too, and was about $67 after tax, plus breakfast.

Third day without internet, until I jacked on to the Days Inn signal from next door. Hooray!