Get Your Kicks...

on I-44?

Sometime ago Karen and Susie decided that an I-44 trip between Rolla and St. Louis needed to be made. Each of us spend a significant amount of time traveling up and down this historic corridor yet never take time to get off the interstate and see the unique sites along the way. Some of the sites we visited are historic Route 66 sites, while others are new sites vying for road trippers to stop and take a picture (and make a purchase): A Saturday in June turned out to be a picture perfect day for us to take our mini-trip. We started early and spent the entire day seeing these fun and sometimes bizarre sites...enjoy :)

Starting Out

Stop #1: Cookin From Scratch; why? to take a picture with the El Ramino Rooster...obviously...oh and to buy some Amish candy

Rooster, Susie, Karen and Mary

Stop #2: Mule Trading Post; why? to take a picture with the giant hillbilly...(recurring theme here)

Karen 

Mary

Susie

Stop #3: Vacuum Cleaner Museum; Here we time traveled to the early 1900's and followed the progression and development of every housewives honey, the vacuum. (See below if you don't believe that the vacuum is the housewife's honey...)

Karen apparently overjoyed at the prospect of vacuum cleaners...who wouldn't be?

Stop #4: Fanning Route 66 Outpost; After the stimulating vacuum cleaner museum we needed to take a break...so we headed to the "world's largest rocking chair." Out in the middle of Missouri sits a large metal rocking chair, it isn't far off Hwy.44 so if you find yourself needing to see this creation it won't be a long detour. While we were taking pictures of the chair and snooping around the general store we happened upon a Route 66 motorcycle tour...they were from Sweden. Nothing quite explains United States history like Route 66 (and rocking chairs). 

Fanning Route 66 Outpost

Karen

Mary

Susie

Oh and in case you are wondering...there is only one day a year when visitors can sit on the rocking chair. This year it is Saturday, August 4th.

Stop #5: Jesse James Wax Museum; Quite possibly the weirdest stop on our I-44 tour...at least in my humble opinion. If you are going to visit some historic Route 66 sites, I would encourage you to visit this museum, it reminded me of stops on family road trips. You know the kind where you would stop once and then have a memory for a lifetime...(I file those memories in my mind under quaint summer strangeness.) 

Unfortunately we have no photos of the inside of the museum...the wax figures are closely monitored by a charming and kooky clerk...if you are lucky he will tell you a few stories and play his banjo. We were lucky enough to hear a story about a celebrity (a man that can rotate his legs so he walks backwards--apparently he was on a late night show, which according to his wife made him a celebrity) and a story that involved Superman, Batman, the Green Lantern, a convertible, and a ham (an Italian t.v. show was touring America).

Stop #6 and our Final Stop: Meramec Caverns; Meramec Caverns is home to Missouri's largest commercial cave. If you have never been to a cave this is a good one to start with. The paths are easy to walk on and there is no ducking or crouching necessary. The only challenging part is a set of steps, and if you don't want to go up the stairs to see what is called the "wine" room you can wait for the group. This would be a perfect Missouri summer outing as the cave stays nice and cool around 60 degrees.

Visiting the cave was the perfect end to our Route 66, I mean I-44 tour, we met up with the Swedish motorcycle group again along with several Asian families and Mennonites. This historic stop is not only a fun place to cool off, but it is a perfect spot to people watch and realize how the United States is really for everyone! Something we should all remember this 4th of July...Happy Independence Day!