Day 3 - Sun 18th May

St Louis, Mo to Lebanon, Mo.

As we had over 200 miles to do today, we tried to get off early.

We eventually set off at 10:40 and drove to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard at 6726 Chippewa, St Louis. This is a Route 66 institution!!!

We ordered Blueberry flavoured frozen custard. It was DELICIOUS!

Had Max’s top off all day.

Drove out of St Louis and through The Ozarks. This is an area of Missouri which is very beautiful. Rivers, mountains, trees, grass, cows or steers, horses and lots of dead raccoons on the roadside. In fact, just like home but without the dead raccoons.

Boley  ran over a turtle that was crossing the road. It was an accident coz he did swerve to try to avoid it. I didn’t see it as i was navigating but I did hear the crunch!

He also claims he ran over a bird, but I didn’t see that either.

I’m still having problems navigating. As there are often different alignments of older or newer stretches of R66, and coz the signs are not always reliable As some people drive west to east, (we are driving the traditional east to west way) you can end up going west to east on an older alignment coz you followed a sign. In other words, completely the opposite direction to the one you should be going.

Well I did this again today.

Forgot to mention that I did this yesterday in St Louis, 6 times on the same 1 mile stretch of interstate highway. We kept having to come off the highway, swing round in a dodgy neighbourhood and drive back in the opposite direction. Only for me to say “I think we are going in the wrong direction”. So we would come off at the next slip road, turn around in the aforementioned dodgy neighbourhood, rejoin the highway, only for me to say “I think we are going............” 

Boley was very patient.

The going was slow today as it was quite tricky navigating in places.

Called in at The Circle Inn Malt Shop in Bourbon for lunch.

This place is like a greasy spoon cafe, up in The Ozarks, with quite a few characters in it.

It was Sunday afternoon and there was one elderly, retired marine, killing flies. “Last year I killed nearly 500 and I recorded them on the calender. I had a bad month last month coz I only killed 4, but I already got 2 today!”

Then 2 hillbillies walked in, Joe & Nina, wearing stained vests and trackie bottoms. The waitress was called Britney. 

I know it sounds like I’m taking the p***, but again, they were all extremely friendly, very funny and helpful. The owner gave us a map, and Britney showed us a book with old photos of R66 buildings.

We drove through Cuba, which is a village famous for it’s murals. 4 miles further on, we stopped at a trading post with the world’s largest rocking chair in the front car park. 

We bumped into 4 Italians doing R66 and said that we had heard that they are on the route and asked them if they were from Italy!

Took some photos and decided to use the camcorder and go back to film the murals in Cuba. Boley left his sunglasses on the boot of the car when we drove off.  

So after we had filmed in Cuba, we returned to the rocking chair car park to look for them. The good news is that we found them. The bad news is that, Boley can’t wear them anymore, but Clive the orangutan can!

We had intended to drive to Springfield, Mo today, but by 6pm we arrived at Lebanon, 50 miles short of Springfield. We decided to stay at The Munger Moss Motel...It’s a R66 Institution. The owner, Ramona The Owner, was extremely helpful and informative about R66. Across the road is a bowling alley. 

Ramona The Owner said that we “could have room 66 which is the Michael Wallis room. He always stays there.” Not wanting to sound ignorant, I said “Great” and we checked in.

One wall in the room is covered with pictures of R66. On closer inspection you realise that they are magazine articles and covers from hard back books written by Michael Wallis on R66 and related Americana.We reckon he must have put them there himself (EGO!!) So we duly paid homage...............”We are not worthy........”.

Boley used his charm on Ramona. As you can see, he has his tongue in her ear.

She looked very good for 70, well within Boley’s range.

The motel is like something from the 50’s. You drive up to your room, there is a very large neon sign outside and it’s like staying in a Butlins chalet. The bathroom has a very nice pink suite with funny 50’s mixing taps. 

We had a couple of games at the bowling alley, ate chicken strips & tatie tats and had an early (12) night.

Mileage: 566

Roadkill score:

Boley: 2

Moggy:0