Day 4 – Crossing the Mississippi. St. Louis to Rolla. The first pictures are on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. First, the site on the river where Lewis and Clark set out on their historic journey to the Pacific through the Louisiana Territory. This is where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers meet. I had seen the Mississippi close up twice before – in New Orleans and at Clinton, Iowa. It astounds me each time (and again this time) how big that river is.
The next pictures are of the historic Chain of Rocks Bridge north of St. Louis where Route 66 once crossed over to the Show Me State, Missouri. First, the bridge to the island on which the bridge is situated, and then two pictures of the old bridge. I don’t think that motel on road to the bridge – the Bates Motel, if you ask me – has seen a customer in a few decades but it looked to be accepting guests. No thanks. These days there are no cars Chain of Rocks Bridge: it is open to bikers and walkers only.
I crossed over to Missouri on less historic I-270 just up river. The Show Me State.
I did not stop off in St. Louis. With a few exceptions the plan is to avoid bigger cities on the drive. (Tulsa will be one of those exceptions.) Instead, I stayed on the interstate around the perimeter of the city until I could find a good point to rejoin Route 66 away from the city.
Once I got on the road and out in the countryside I sensed it was very different from what I had experienced in Illinois. Much more rustic, a little scruffier, but with its own beauty. It was definitely not the prairie anymore. It felt like the Ozarks. Well, there was a reason for that: it is the Ozarks. There was no welcoming arch with the tip-off but I figured it out anyway.
Cuba, Missouri, gets the award for the best murals. It also is the home of Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q. I had the St. Louis ribs. Six different bar-b-q sauces on the table, all store made. There was some serious rib consumption going on there at Hick’s as far as I could tell. Fantastic.
There was a very pretty stretch of Route 66 in St. James near Rolla unlike anything I had seen to that point on the drive – a divided section of the old road with a tree lined media strip complete with walkway. It felt more like a boulevard than an old highway.
As I arrived neared Rolla and the hotel I saw my first Route 66 trading post. Yay! That’s Carl behind the counter in the picture – he and his wife Zelda own the place.
The last shot is the sun setting along Route 66 on the outskirts of Rolla.
Another fine day.
