ROUTE 66 to ST LOUIS

Here it is, June 21, and we are five days from our arrival in Santa Cruz, and I have to catch you up with what has happened since Dwight, IL. I have an abundance of pictorial content warehoused in my IPhoto storage. It would be wonderful to share these pictures with you but the cyber nerd hidden within my laptop is still on strike. Therefore this might be more wordy than I think you would enjoy, but here goes.

We drove southwest down I55 periodically exiting to drive on the original Route 66 which is no longer identified on AAA maps. Along that route we stopped in Springfield,IL, to visit Lincoln's home just prior to his election to the Presidency. We have some wonderful pictures of a great restoration of his neighborhood. Trust me! After our visit to Springfield, we continued down I55/66 to visit the HQ of Budweiser in St. Louis. What impressed me the most is that one out of two beers sold in the USA is a Budweiser product. The tour of Budweiser was very interesting and the magnitude of the brewery equipment makes you understand why two million kegs leave every week. Once again, I have photographic evidence of said tour. Trust me!

The next day we drove across the entire state of Missouri to Kansas City. Upon our arrival we visited the only WWI museum in existence in the USA. It was very impressive and we had the benefit of having a Woodie member/spouse who hosted us at the museum. Once again we had the gracious Patel family hosting us at Microtel. Here a Patel, there a Patel, everywhere a Patel. When the music stops, check into a Micropatel.

The next day, Friday, June 12, we visited the V/Twin Harley Davidson manufacturing plant outside Kansas City. We were disappointed that the assembly line tour was shut down due to model changeover. The gift shop/museum was impressive.

We left Kansas City on I29 to Nebraska Highway 2 to Lincoln for Culver Ice Cream Cruiser Night. Marie and I at this time split from the caravan and made contact with Stan and Dorothy Matzke in Bennet, NE (population 150) about 12 miles east of downtown Lincoln. Dorothy is the sister of our good friend in Atlanta, Katharine Dahl. Stan and Dorothy are allegedly retired working fulltime as nut, pecans and walnuts, farmers on 80 beautiful acres. They are the hardest working retirees we know. We spent two restful days with them and they gave us a wonderful tour of their groves. In addition, we saw a local theatre presentation of The Producers. Woodie events centered around an unbelievable three hour tour of Bill Smith's automobile memorabilia collection. Bill is the founder of Speedway Auto Parts. You could have done brain surgery anywhere in the building housing the collection. The array of collectibles ranged from car-themed toys up to original winners of the Indianapolis 500. Ed, our tour guide, was a retired Southwest airline pilot who also raced sprint cars with most of the local and national legends represented in the museum. He was as knowledgeable as any person could have been. He added a personal touch to our visit. Thanks, ED!

Next, on to the Badlands.