A good night’s sleep interrupted only by Deborah scratching at her mosquito bites. A free breakfast buffet of yoghurt, cereal and waffles, which was as good as it gets for free.
We didn’t unpack our bikes last night, apart for all our electronics for the nightly recharging ritual, which Deborah has down to a fine art now, so packing this morning was a doddle.
On exiting the motel we got chatting to Sue, Carol and George, touring Missouri on their vacation in a Mercedes SUV, but with George wearing a Harley t-shirt and glint in his eye. As a parting gesture, we were both given an apple for second breakfast.
The road out of St Clair continued to flank I-44, but whereas the Interstate was relatively flat, Route 66 continued to impersonate a crazy rollercoaster.
Passing through Stanton without realising it, we stopped at Oak Grove Village for Deborah to freeze her brain again. After having a short chat and photoshoot with Donna, on vacation with her husband Doug from Illinois, we hit the road again all juiced up are ready to go.
The route fell into a pattern for much of the day, a with a big climb and big descent, followed by a town or service area. We passed through Sullivan, St Cloud, Bourbon and Cuba, ticking off another 20 miles, without anything of note, with the exception of our first Trump sign and our first Christmas tree.
Just when I was starting to nod off we entered Fanning to the sight of the second largest rocking chair in the world. Not as impressive as the largest one I suppose, which is apparently (according to Google) back in Illinois, but at least it was an excuse to get off the bikes and take a photograph or three.
Halfway between Fanning and our planned destination for the day was St James, which was a tempting Plan B destination, but it was such an exciting town we were through it before we even realised we had entered it. Back to Plan A then.
We arrived in Rolla shortly before 6pm, checking in the cheapest hotel in town, which also happened to be the first one we came to upon entering Rola, a Super 8 Motel. It looks like it is still being built from the outside and a bit shabby on the inside, but another hotel we don’t feel guilty about taking our bikes into the room.
Hungry, we headed half a mile down the street to the first food joint that might have something veggie on the menu, passing Steak ‘n Shake, Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, and Buffalo Wild Wings to get there. Twenty minutes late with two Domino pizzas in hand we headed back to the hotel to slob out for the night and plan tomorrow. Lebanon, 65 miles and 3,000 feet of climb being the Plan A, but that will depend on a good night’s sleep.
Shower now followed by an early night with the prospect of cold pizza for breakfast. Yummy!
Catching up on past posts and thoroughly enjoying your blog. Forgot you are not meat eaters. This can be challenging in some areas of the U.S. as I think you are finding.
Wish I could help on the cash front. I can wire/transfer some from my US bank account if you need help. WhatsApp me or Skype….
Take care.
JC
Thanks John. Yup, there appears to be meat in everything and veggie options are very limited, but we are managing. The cash is more frustrating than a problem. Having opened a USD account and transferring a heap of cash into it for the specific purpose of this trip, with a single currency exchange and no transaction charges, I now can’t access the cash and instead am being forced to use my GBP account and taking a second hit on transaction charges and exchange rates. I’ll hopefully recoup the lossed from HSBC when i get back to the UK as they are certainly not living up to the promises made on their Premier account. Cheers.
Hi Bob,
Crazy with the cash flow. Banks have a lot to answer for. Not seen any posts for a few days hope all is well.
I’m still in Qatar and trying to pay my static Caravan insurance but cannot pay over the phone as it wont work, they can’t phone me as Qatar is blocking their numbers, yet I’ve been with the same insurers for 5 years and although I have accepted the renewal they will not cover my caravan insurance until I have paid.
Anyway Route 66 looks a bit run down nowadays which is a real shame. The people look very helpful but I expect many of them have lost their lively hoods with the decline of 66.
Hope the mosquitos back off as they can really spoil your days and nights. Looking forward to your next blog keep cycling and have a puncture free week.
It’s not an ideal solution, but the cash is now sorted. Three days in the country to get my card lines when I was being careful must be a record. They could have shipped a new card to me if they knew where I was staying, but as I don’t even know that…
Yup, we are meeting some great people, but I don’t think Route 66 will be around as more than a memory and a few old relics for much longer, which is one of the reasons for doing it.