My husband called this morning at 9:55 and woke us up. We . . . all of us . . . slept for 12 hours straight. I can't remember the last time that happened. Probably before I had kids! I still can't believe my kids slept that long, especially after sleeping so much in the car! Well, we had 5 minutes to get out by checkout time, and I think I did pretty good waking everyone up, getting everyone dressed, and getting everything packed up in 25 minutes. It was time to start our day, at 10:30!!! It was a beautiful day to start our daily explorations!
We went through some small towns and stopped in Gardner. The kids had fun arresting each other in the 2 cell jail and locking each other in. I loved the horse-drawn streetcar diner. They really fixed it up from the images I saw in our Ghost Towns book! This Coke house was across the street and I had to photograph it for my Mom, the ultimate Coke fan. Unfortunately, the beautiful day didn't last for long! We had to pull over shortly after our first stop because the rain came down even harder than it did yesterday. I didn't know that was possible, but holy cow. I'm not sure I've ever experienced rain coming down that hard and fast before. We had to sit there for quite awhile until we could see again.
Once we were able to drive again, we stopped in Dwight to see this beautifully restored gas station. The kids put a pin in their US map to show we had visited from Las Vegas. They had maps up from all over the world and so many pins! She said what was up was only since May when they took them down and started again. They also had a restored 100+-year-old fire engine. The kind you see in your childhood books. She told Riley to push down on one lever and it rang the fire bells. Then, of course, each kid had to try. . . multiple times.
From there we visited a windmill which was next to a lily pond and frogs jumping all over the place. We checked it all out for a little bit but then the thunder started again. Jade got it into her brain by this point in time that we were all going to perish in a tornado and refused to leave the car if there was any thunder.
In Odell, we wanted to experience the Underground Walkway. In the heyday of Route 66, the congestion though down was so bad - day & night - that the kids couldn't cross the street to get to school. Their solution? Build an underground pass. Kids were disappointed though to find that it has since been blocked off and filled back in. Bummer! We also stopped at another lovingly restored gas station and the kids bought 'Route Beer'. They've now decided that by the end of our Route 66 trip they will own the bottles in every flavor. We kept driving and went through some cool ghost towns and did some exploring.
In Pontiac, we added to our Cars character checklist and were able to see the VW bus that inspired the character of Fillmore. It was one of the homes of artist Bob Waldmire. We also explored his second home, a converted school bus. Talk about amazing, how this bus was transformed! We walked around the Route 66 Hall of Fame here.
In Lexington, we drove through Memory Lane filled with old signs.
For lunch, we stopped at a park with swinging bridges. They're like the bridges you can find at a park that move when you jump on them, but these ones were real!
I was disappointed to find that by the time we arrived in Funks Grove, they had closed one hour prior. I really wanted to watch the 'Sirup' making process and to buy some pure syrup. That's what we got I guess for overdoing it yesterday!
In Atalanta, the kids were awestruck by the giant Paul Bunyon and his hot dog. Across the street, the girls and I had fun on this giant rocking horse too!
As we passed through Lincoln, we had to stop and take pictures of one of the 'Top 10 Strangest Things on Route 66', a telephone booth on top of City Hall. The rumor is that it was there for weather watchers?!?! After I explained what a telephone booth was, the kids found it as hilarious as I did! We also found this iconic barn and had to stop for a photo.
We didn't plan on finding this old courthouse that Lincoln traveled to on his Judicial District, but we had to pull over when we saw it to learn more!
The Arch Bridge in Elkhart was tricky to find but worth the hunt. Last up for the day was this cool sign to different places in the world.
We wanted to stop at the Cozy Dog Drive-In for dinner but found it dark when we got there, and we were once again an hour late and they were already closed. Sad to say we gave up our authentic Route 66 menu and had Taco Bell for dinner.
We finally got to our hotel and discovered we were an hour late (seemed to be our motto today) to swim at the pool. To ward off tears with the kids I promised them pool time in the morning before we start our day.
We planned on seeing all the Lincoln sites today, but that will have to be moved to manana seeing as how late we were running today.
My tip for today!?! DON'T SLEEP IN!!
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