Tuesday morning and we wake up around 6am, we're getting there! We decided to look at our route today whilst enjoying the comfort of the huge luxury bed and discover the journey to Springfield, Missouri is around 200 miles... 100 less than yesterday so we figured around 6-8 hours driving time. With that in mind we visited the gym for a half an hour work out, had a delicious breakfast then headed into downtown St Louis.
Stepping out the hotel I realised the temperature had dropped (68 degrees) and it was a good job I had taken Jo's advice about bringing the jumper! We headed to Chestnut Street out towards the river - the Mississippi (M.I. Double S. I. Double S. I. Double P. I.) along to the Arch Museum that resembled a smaller Capitol building, then a detour to Walnut Street to reach the arch. It's a huge silver mirrored structure that arches 603 feet above the ground. You can go to the top, and if we had time we would have done, however we needed to 'hit the road'. We made time to walk to the rivers edge where the paddle steamers were sat ready for their 10.30 cruise. I wanted to touch the river but remembered the story of how the toxic river from Chicago had been forced down to the Mississippi and thought better of it! The amount of tree debris along the banks and pontoons was immense. Wouldn't want to go swimming in there, you'd find yourself avoiding all sorts!
Now being a sports fan I wanted to revisit the Cardinals stadium (baseball) that we had driven past last night. It was all lit up and looked spectacular in the dark, but equally as fantastic in the light. I managed to peek through and see the pitchers mound and the batting area clearly and was strangely fascinated by it all. If I lived in the USA, I would definitely attend Major League Baseball games. As a kid I liked the New York Yankees, but I realise now that's like an American supporting Man Utd. So I've widened my field of support a wee bit and have a number of teams, in each American sport I like to like. The San Francisco 49ers for example. It was getting late so we hotfooted it back to the hotel through the city park taking in the local art projects, before having our car returned by the valet, and checked out.

We had already decided that we wanted to revisit an old part of the route from yesterday as it was late and we were too exhausted to visit the Chain of Rocks bridge yesterday. Firstly we got lost coming out of St Louis, then couldn't get off the right turning for fuel, then got lost again... Great start to our drive and a journey that should have taken an hour became a lot longer, but we soldiered on in true British spirt.
Getting 'gas' was interesting and to fill the car with fuel you have to prepay the cashier, state how much you want, pay then fill up...it cuts off if you exceed what you say but charges less if you don't reach it... Press a button then fuel... Keeping an eye on the price of course, cheap!

In order to get to the Chain of Rocks bridge, you had to Cross the chain of rocks canal. A dubious looking bridge spanned the canal which only 19 vehicles max were allowed at a time!

The old Route 66 chain of rocks bridge was an immense structure. 1.0 miles from Illinois shore to Missouri and back again... The Mississippi was wide and splits into sections downstream before joining back together before St Louis. Pedestrians and cyclists only on the bridge, it's long been out of vehicle use, however in the 1930s this was the main route between the two states. The Missouri and Illinois state line in the middle was donated by two Route 66 signs back to back.

Having done the old road into St Louis yesterday we decided to pick up the I44 past St Louis and pick up the old route after to continue our journey. I've come to the conclusion that driving on the Interstate is not nearly as fun as pootling down Route 66! At one stage there were seven lanes, cars and trucks overtaking, undertaking in ALL lanes and it's just a kinda close your eyes and hope for the best! Took the best part of an hour to get back on track from the Chain of Rocks bridge. But we were soon back in the comfort and safety of the old road again.

One of the things on our list to do today was visit the Meramec Caverns, a short detour from Stanton. These caverns boast the third largest stalagmite, and the hiding place for the outlaw, Jesse James and the James Gang. (Jo's question -who exactly was Jesse James and didn't Cher sing about him?) They were pretty amazing caves, and we've seen a few in New Zealand, Cuba, South America, Ireland, Derbyshire, and these were pretty spectacular. Sitting at about 60 degrees which I learnt this morning was very cold, they had a network of caverns that hosted a collection of shimmering, growing stalactites and stalagmites... If you want to know how to remember which go which way, always remember that tights (tites) come down! The largest stalagmite was dead on one side and had large iron oxide (rust) formations, where the water had been drawn away by the other half that was ever increasing. Whilst there I watched trickles of water cascade down the structure and over into the pool of water collected into a pond at the bottom. Nature is quite simply marvellous! Our tour guide Lee shared with us the secrets of the caverns, a studying anthropologist, very knowledgable and was the same fella who showed Billy Connolly and crew around for his TV documentary on Route 66.

We had a very quick bite to eat, a BLT toasted sandwich, the choices being very limited for a healthy option, before back in Sandy once more. Next into a town called Cuba, where a plethora of murals was offered along the roadside buildings. Then Fanning where we were treated to the worlds largest rocking chair? Don't know why!!
Then onto The Devils Elbow bridge in Devils Elbow the place! Quick photo stop and leg stretch, and about now we realised we should have left earlier in the day.

The next 60 miles was mainly through tree lined undulating road, of varying quality surfaces. It was beautiful to see the light fade, twisting and turning down the old Route 66 in twilight, then the contrast of arriving into Springfield in the dark with all the neon lights glittering, distracting your attention from your direction... Story of my life!! We arrived at the Best Western Rail Haven, looks amazing... There's a full concert in swing for some Norwegian bikers on Harley's and it's 9.15pm... I wonder if they would give me a spin on their bike in the morning? We grabbed dinner in a chain called RibCrib, well take out actually! We just made it before the 10pm close! Ribs, corn and Okra for me, Chicken, fries & corn for Jo.

After thinking we had loads of time due to the short distance, we were perhaps a little too relaxed with our departure time this morning, along with the 80mile detour in the wrong direction to visit the bridge... But it was worth it, watching the light fade, soaking the atmosphere of the journey, country music on the radio, gorgeous smells as we travelled through towns, arriving to yet another stop. Tomorrow on to Oklahoma City.

Day: 4
Total Miles driven: 605.8
States Crossed: 1.5 (if you don't count crossing in and out of Missouri & Illinois this morning)
License Plates Checked: 8 (Illinois, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Virginia, Maryland)