Roadtrippin

We just checked into our hotel for the night in Lebanon, MO which is just outside of Uranus, MO.

Since I last posted we’ve covered a lot of ground. We attempted to get another passport stamp in St. Louis, but they forgot to mention that the place is only open Monday-Friday. We got to see the arch on our drive through town so it wasn’t a complete waste of time. Right on the outskirts of St. Louis, I found an amazing restaurant named The Tavern. I found it on yelp. Our meal was delicious and every server in the place made it a point to congratulate us on our honeymoon. They even gave us a free dessert. I wish I lived closer so I could go back again!

After dinner we stopped for gas again. We were down to 1/8 of a tank so we put 19.769 gallons of Mobile gas in for a total of $59.68. Gas was only $3.019 which is the cheapest we’ve paid so far.

Once we had gas, we were off to find Eddie’s new home in Bourbon, MO. We found the water tower labeled Bourbon, but didn’t find any actual bourbon in the town. Not even a bar! Needless to say, we’re not moving there. From bourbonless bourbon, MO we made our way to Uranus.

Uranus was so much fun! I could have stayed there all night staring at the neon lights and the silly signs and memorabilia. So far, this might be my favorite spot on Route 66. I especially loved how everything the workers said had to do with Uranus. It was a barrel of laughs.

It was a lot easier to follow the old Route 66 today. I think we finally figured it out. Tomorrow will be the rest of MO and all of Oklahoma.

On a side note- there is a cricket in our car. I saw him right as I closed the door. I haven’t heard him or seen him yet, but I know he’s there. It should make for a fun ride tomorrow.

Goodnight all.

We started off the day with a nice breakfast at our hotel. We left around 9:30am to get gas. We had 14201 miles and 1/4 tank of gas. Filled up at a Shell station for $3.479 per gallon. The car took 16.676 gallons for $58.02.

After filling up, we drove over to the Illinois Route 66 Museum and Visitors Center. We took some cool pictures and bought official Route 66 passports at the gift shop. It’s basically like a scavenger hunt. You find all the places in the passport and get a stamp and some places give you a free gift, ie. pin, sticker, postcard, etc.

After getting the stamp from the museum, I realized we missed getting the first stamp in the book at a place we stopped at last night. OF COURSE we had to go back!! It was only an hour in the wrong direction, but I got my stamp.

We went on to get 2 more stamps, take pics with a giant Abe Lincoln rail splitter and a giant Paul Bunyan with a hotdog. Unfortunately we missed seeing the worlds 2nd largest rocking chair because we’re on our way to St. Louis, MO. There’s a stamp there and the place closes at 5. Our gps says we’ll be there at 4:42. I’m pretty bummed that we will only get one additional stamp in MO as all the other locations are closed Sundays &/or Mondays.

I drove all morning and Eddie has taken over now. I’m not sure where we’ll stop tonight, but I know after St. Louis we’re heading to Bourbon, MO and Uranus, MO. Who wouldn’t stop there, right?!

Enjoy some pics and I’ll post more tonight.

We arrived in Chicago around 6pm. It may have been 7pm, but we couldn’t figure out what time it was because of the time zone change. The first place we tried to go was Lou Malnati’s pizza but our GPS had other plans. Two years ago we were in Chicago and had the same problem, but we’re both stubborn and kept trying to follow the gps. Due to the tall buildings, the gps has a delay. It tells you to turn a few minutes AFTER you’re supposed to turn. Then it reroutes you and starts all over again. Luckily traffic wasn’t that bad as we drove aimlessly around the city. Eventually we made it to Lou’s. After the standard one hour wait, we were seated and devoured our pizza!

We left the pizza place around 8pm or 9pm (depending on who’s phone you looked at) and began our search for the beginning of Route 66 sign. We found it. For such a historical, iconic route, we were surprised at how small the sign was. As soon as we passed the sign, I admitted to Eddie that after all the research I had been doing, I had no clue where to go next.

For those of you who don’t know, Route 66 was decommissioned in 1984. A few years prior, parts of the route began being replaced by interstate highways. This can make it especially challenging to figure out where the heck the actual road is or was! After several wrong turns and wrong ways on the highway, we actually figured it out! It turned into a 3 hour scenic drive scavenger hunt through half the state of Illinois. It’s sad to see how run down and dilapidated some of the historic buildings are. If it weren’t for the help of a Route 66 app I found, we probably would have passed by half of the places we saw thinking they were abandoned buildings.

Throughout this adventure we learned a few things:

1. If a person can actually find the Route 66 signs and stay on the road without getting lost, they deserve a medal. It is hard and discouraging.

2. If one wanted to see all of the listed tourist stops on the entire route, (IL – CA) it would probably take 2 months. It is all backroads with random turns. At one point we encountered a sign that told us the next turn for Route 66 was either right OR left. Rock, paper, scissors helped us out there.

3. Teamwork is key. Alone, Eddie and I would have given up on this journey as soon as we realized what it entailed. But, together, we figured it out and had a blast in the process.

We’re now checked into our hotel for the night. The first place on the list for tomorrow is The Route 66 museum in Pontiac, IL so we can come up with a new strategy to figure out how we’re going to follow this route.

On a side note- there’s tons of flying insects in IL. I got pretty bitten up today. I also read the news report about the massive grasshopper invasion that we’ll be enjoying in Las Vegas next week. I’m slowly gaining a new appreciation for the CT bugs who don’t swarm you as much.

More tomorrow.

I drove for about 6 hours. We stopped at a rest stop in West Unity, OH about 20 mins away from the border of Indiana. We had about 3/8 of a tank of gas and the odometer read 13899. We filled up the tank at a Sunoco for $3.429 per gallon, spending $66.07 for 19.268 gallons. My car says our average speed is 68 and we’re getting 20.6 miles per gallon which is pretty good for a giant Tahoe!

We passed through Norwalk, OH and thought about home for a minute. It was probably the quickest we’ve passed through Norwalk without the traffic – LOL!

Eddie has taken over the driving now and we just crossed into Indiana. We started our drive this morning with a long conversation about cars. The past 3 hours we’ve been listening to an audio book that my dad gave us before we left. The book is called From the Buick 8 by Stephen King. I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to follow an audio book or would care to, but we are both completely engrossed in the story. We’re 3 hours in to the 13.5 hour story. Once again my dad came through with an awesome idea that I attempted to pass on because I thought it’d be stupid. One of these days I’ll learn to listen to my dad without complaining.

We’re both starving, but we’re holding out for Chicago’s Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza. We should be there around 6:00pm est. Then, onto the official beginning of our trip- the start of Route 66.

We were pretty beat last night. We checked into a Quality Inn in Bellefonte, PA. I’m a Choice Hotels Reward member and have been saving up my points for this trip. I use their app and do a search by location to find us rooms on our route. Due to exhaustion, I didn’t check out the yelp reviews before booking this particular hotel. It was pretty outdated and the ac was very loud. Despite that, it was near a large truck stop in a populated area with many gas stations, was well lit and included free breakfast. Those are the most important things to look for, right?!

We enjoyed our free breakfast and got ready to hit the road again. We had about 5/8 of a tank of gas left so we filled up before getting back on I-80. For those of you keeping track of the mileage and/or cost of gas for this trip, we spent $54.97 on 15.105 gallons of gas at at Shell station. Their gas was pretty pricy at $3.639 which was after my Shell rewards! We’re getting back on the road with 13520 miles; we only drove 274 miles yesterday. We’ll make up for that today as our goal is to drive roughly 567 miles/8 & 1/2 hours to Chicago to the start of Route 66.

It’s 8:45am and I’m going to take the first shift of driving so I’ll check back in later in the day! Hope you all have a great day!

It’s 10:45pm and we’re both exhausted. It’s amazing how tiring sitting in traffic can be!

We stopped in East Shroudsberg, PA and had a wonderful dinner at a place called Garlic Prime Steak. All of the yelp reviews were on point and I’m glad we found it.

I’m not sure how many of you have driven through the state of PA, but it’s number 1 on my list of the most boring states to drive through. There’s nothing to look at and it’s LONG!! We’re probably about halfway through the state but we’ve had enough driving for tonight. We’re staying at a hotel in Bellefonte, PA and we’ll hit the road again in the morning. We’re putting in about 9 hours tomorrow. The goal is to eat some deep dish pizza in Chicago and get to the beginning of Route 66.

Signing off for tonight. Goodnight❤️

The reason we are taking 3 weeks for this trip is because we’ve been driving for 2 & 1/2 hours and we still haven’t made it over the George Washington Bridge. 😱

Whoever thinks they can pack for a 3 week road trip, load the car and get on the road at a decent time is CRAZY!! I tried and I failed!

We pulled out of the driveway at 3pm with a full tank of gas, 13,246 miles on the car and about half the house loaded in the back seat. While I know we’re going to spend a TON of time on the road, I’m mostly concerned about the traffic on I-95. At this point all I want to do is get out of CT!

Let the games begin!

With just 10 hours remaining until I head out on my three-week cross-country road trip honeymoon, I decided to create a blog to document my travels.

Eddie and I were married on November 3, 2018. We have been anxiously waiting for the day to arrive to leave for this honeymoon. We have spent over a year planning the details. We will be driving to Chicago, IL and following the iconic Route 66 all the way to the Santa Monica Pier.

I will be posting pictures along the way. But first, I need to finish packing!