Day 3 miles driven: 563
Day 3 time on road: 12 hours and 10 minutes
Day 3 time on road: 12 hours and 10 minutes
It certainly doesn't seem like we spent over 12 hours in the car today! This bodes well for our monster drive tomorrow, from Pacific, MO (about 30 miles southwest of St. Louis) to Longmont, CO (about 30 miles north of Denver).
We left Emily & Nathan's in Ann Arbor, grateful for a good night's sleep, and took a quick loop around the University of Michigan's football stadium (having seen WVU's the day before, it seemed to make sense) and grabbed coffee and a bearclaw from a placed called Bearclaw's before getting on the road and heading South.
Pretty much all of our driving to this point had been on main highways, and since we had *only* 8 hours today, we decided to take at least one scenic route. Route 51 took us through farm-laden townships (tomorrow we are definitely stopping for fruit at a farm stand) and one particularly cute Main Street USA, in Dowagiac, Michigan.
South Bend, just over the border into Indiana, beckoned, but we resisted the urge to detour and keep up the blue and gold college tour so we could stay on the road. We were in Indiana for a long time, and didn't stop. Let's just leave it at that, so we don't get hate comments from any Indiana residents out there. After Indiana, we got into Illinois and corn country. And corn country's where we'll stay! Well, through tomorrow anyway.
At this point we were driving along what used to be Route 66. So, just like Jack Kerouac before us, we stopped at an "authentic" "rock 'n roll" restaurant called "That 50s Place" for lunch. Okay, it wasn't exactly 'On the Road,' or even 'American Graffiti,' but it did have some awesome decor.
Having entered the central time zone, we were pleased (and, embarrassingly, pretty surprised) to find out we'd gained an hour, so we used the time to head into Springfield. We did a quick loop around the downtown and Capitol area, where Lincoln was mentioned approximately every 5 feet, but Obama wasn't mentioned once (yet). Some quick Midwestern brews at a sports bar, and then we were back in the car for the final sprint into
We crossed the Mississippi River and before we'd even passed the sign at the Missouri state line, we'd seen the Arch and Busch Stadium - this state really knows how to show itself! (Get it? Because it's the "Show Me" state? Sorry, I just couldn't help it.).
We are staying the night with Ashley's high school friend Katie, her husband Jason, their incredibly sweet 2 1/2 year old James and 2 very cute cats. It's been an evening of homemade pizza (did you know that St. Louis-style pizza is made with a special cheese called Provelle, which is a combination of - we think - Provolone and Mozzarella and sold in slices, developed to be melty but not stringy?), a variety of St. Louis area beers and homebrew, and before we knew it, it's time to once again call it a night.
Not St. Louis pizza, but also delicious.
Tomorrow we do Kansas. It'll be long, and there will be corn, but this is why coffee, mixed CDs and drive-thrus were invented. Catch you again, from Mountain time!
We left Emily & Nathan's in Ann Arbor, grateful for a good night's sleep, and took a quick loop around the University of Michigan's football stadium (having seen WVU's the day before, it seemed to make sense) and grabbed coffee and a bearclaw from a placed called Bearclaw's before getting on the road and heading South.
Pretty much all of our driving to this point had been on main highways, and since we had *only* 8 hours today, we decided to take at least one scenic route. Route 51 took us through farm-laden townships (tomorrow we are definitely stopping for fruit at a farm stand) and one particularly cute Main Street USA, in Dowagiac, Michigan.
South Bend, just over the border into Indiana, beckoned, but we resisted the urge to detour and keep up the blue and gold college tour so we could stay on the road. We were in Indiana for a long time, and didn't stop. Let's just leave it at that, so we don't get hate comments from any Indiana residents out there. After Indiana, we got into Illinois and corn country. And corn country's where we'll stay! Well, through tomorrow anyway.
At this point we were driving along what used to be Route 66. So, just like Jack Kerouac before us, we stopped at an "authentic" "rock 'n roll" restaurant called "That 50s Place" for lunch. Okay, it wasn't exactly 'On the Road,' or even 'American Graffiti,' but it did have some awesome decor.
Having entered the central time zone, we were pleased (and, embarrassingly, pretty surprised) to find out we'd gained an hour, so we used the time to head into Springfield. We did a quick loop around the downtown and Capitol area, where Lincoln was mentioned approximately every 5 feet, but Obama wasn't mentioned once (yet). Some quick Midwestern brews at a sports bar, and then we were back in the car for the final sprint into
We crossed the Mississippi River and before we'd even passed the sign at the Missouri state line, we'd seen the Arch and Busch Stadium - this state really knows how to show itself! (Get it? Because it's the "Show Me" state? Sorry, I just couldn't help it.).
We are staying the night with Ashley's high school friend Katie, her husband Jason, their incredibly sweet 2 1/2 year old James and 2 very cute cats. It's been an evening of homemade pizza (did you know that St. Louis-style pizza is made with a special cheese called Provelle, which is a combination of - we think - Provolone and Mozzarella and sold in slices, developed to be melty but not stringy?), a variety of St. Louis area beers and homebrew, and before we knew it, it's time to once again call it a night.
Not St. Louis pizza, but also delicious.
Tomorrow we do Kansas. It'll be long, and there will be corn, but this is why coffee, mixed CDs and drive-thrus were invented. Catch you again, from Mountain time!
There maaaaaay be a song inviting you to "Get your kicks on route 66" on one of the mix CDs that one of your friends gave you as a parting gift. Pure speculation.
ReplyDeleteAshley's dream come true: Life-sized Betty Boop.
ReplyDeleteSeeing that bear claw makes it even more understandable why Waffle House was skipped. Good job.
It just occurred to me, do you think Lisa Simpson's hairstyle is supposed to be reminiscent of Betty Boop?!?!!
ReplyDelete