Ol' man river

So we have arrived at the Ol' Man River, and it is an impressive sight as it runs through downtown St Louis forming the state border here between Missouri and Illinois.

The route for the day is here:

Apart from the twists and turns at the beginning and the end a very direct 300 miles of driving, a nice rest after the rushing around of the last two days.

Leaving Chicago

Knockout's Song: Leaving Chicago, seems very right for this morning, as this is what we are doing.

Given the experience of driving in to Chicago at 3 in the afternoon, we decided that, polite as Chicago drivers are, we didn't want to drive through rush-hour traffic. I got up at 3 and Drew at 5 and after a shower and a couple of cups of coffee we packed and rang the Valet company for our car to be returned and left the luxury of our suite at 6.00. The very efficient valet service had the car ready for us once we had walked down to the Hard Rock Hotel on the next corner (they can’t leave cars at the kerb on the busy road outside our suites so we have to walk the few yards and around the corner on to East South Water Street to pick it up).

We packed the luggage into the car and set off at 6.15, we started by spending 2.5 miles in the lower roads of Chicago, the advantage for the drive is that these lower roads don’t have pedestrians trying to cross, so can move much faster than the upper roads might.

We came above ground and joined the I290 which led into the I90 which subsequently became the I55 and we were out of the centre of Chicago, though it was another 40 miles before we had actually escaped for the suburbs and the traffic started calming down.

I had driven for this section of the journey and now with free road ahead it was time for Drew to take his turn .

Breakfast

We left the Interstate at a place called Diamond, Illinois and headed to the Whistle Stop Cafe and Family Restaurant or as Drew would have it – a repository for grits and breakfast gravy!! <<Co-pilot's note: have you seen that gravy, it blobs at me, uck.>> Well they did do meals which included these items but we were able to choose differently. Drew opted for a Western Skillet which was peppers, onions, potatoes, ham covered with cheese, all this grilled, and then two eggs over easy on top. I was intrigued by 2 eggs, chops and American fries, and indeed it did mean two Pork Chops, the first time I had ever had them for breakfast. It was delicious and washed down with plenty of coffee was just what we needed after our early start.

We carried on the I55 which for this part of the state follows the line of the old Route 66. Illinois is called ‘The Prairie State’ and for hundreds of miles that’s what it is Prairie with Corn and the occasional farm to see. We stopped for a coffee and loo break at Main Street, McLean. We had previously passed Shirley, so travelling this way you get Shirley McLean which tickled us a bit.

We then passed Lincoln’s birthplace, but weren't tempted by the Heritage Museum the town offered.

At 10.30 an accident on the I55 brought the traffic to a standstill with Fire-engines, police and paramedics all passing by on the grassy central divide of the two carriageways. We got through the hold up (two smashed vehicles, no harmed people) at 11.20 and carried down our route. About 10 miles further on we came across another accident, this had clearly happened earlier as most of the damage had been cleared away, though the two cars were much more crumpled than in the first accident.

We continued past Springfield, Illinois, the town where my Sister, Brother-in-Law and I stopped when we did Route 66 back in 2000. Drew could have come with us then, but we had only been together for four months and he hadn't bought in to the culture of holidays, I think I've trained him up now, so here we are 15 years later taking a similar route to the one we did then.

Lunch

We stopped at Litchfield at 12.25 for lunch and travelled along old Route 66 to a diner called Jublet's Bakery and Restaurant. There Drew had a Cheese Burger and I had a California Club Sandwich. The latter was served on grilled sourdough and include baked ham,, roast turkey, Swiss cheese and thousand island dressing, a refreshing and pleasant taste. Both were served with steak fries and what we would call a dill pickle, but which this place refers to as a Kosher Pickle.

We left Jublet's and filled up with Petrol and headed back on the I55 towards St Louis at 1.15 ready for the road.

St Louis

Getting near a town it was my turn to drive, and I'm glad I did as the road got busy towards St. Louis (note: St Louis is spoken like Morse's friend not like the French King). We crossed over the Ol' Man River, the Mississippi, into Missouri Drew's seventh new state on this holiday. The St Louis Arch appeared to our right as we navigated through the traffic.

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express, Downtown St Louis at 2.30 and checked in.This is another very large room, we seem to have been very lucky this holiday, or maybe I'm I good selector of places - I suspect evidence supports the former not the latter :-)

After settling in to the hotel, time for me to relax and upload some photos from earlier days - with the great wi-fi speed at the hotel I was able to catch-up. Drew went down to the Fitness Centre in the hotel for exercise. 

At about 7 we headed into the centre of St Louis, as it was a 40 minutes walk from the hotel to the Arch (a large area is included in downtown) we decided to get a taxi. We wanted to start with the most iconic of St Louis' locations - the Arch - or to give it its full name the Gateway Arch. Well it was closed, not only the Arch itself, but they are doing major work on the State Park that surrounds it, so no views of the Mississippi from the top of the Arch for us.


After taking the best shots we could of the Arch we walked up into the shopping/business district of the City. This include two huge convention centres, St Louis location is great at brining people from East and West + North and South to events here - you could say the Llandrindod of the USA, but that would be too unkind!!

We walked to what seems to be the town centre, a park with a small lake, called the Kiener Plaza and beyond that the old courthouse, Drew got some great shots of the courthouse with the Arch beyond.

We walked a little further and came to a busy part of town. This was because the St Louis Cardinals were playing the San Francisco Giants at the Busch Stadium, which is only three blocks away from the old courthouse and the park. Just to note this is Baseball we are talking about and I probably know as much about this sport as I do soccer. No maybe more as at least once I year I end up hearing the 'World Series' as it is played overnight UK time and broadcast on Radio Five Live.

We were accosted by ticket touts as we walked to and from the stadium, but I think we looked vacant enough for them not to pursue it any further.

We walked back to the Kiener Park and found a local restaurant called Calico's, the Baseball match was playing on every TV in the restaurant/bar, so we watched a bit while we were eating.

Drew began with a Calico's Caesar, this Caesar Salad had  chilled romaine lettuce tossed with a home-made caesar sauce and fresh made croutons that Drew said were delicious.

I opted for the Asiago Cheese Dip which was served with lightly toasted pita bread cut into triangles. Garlic, cheese and tasty bread, a definite success for me.

For mains Drew opted for a 12" St Louis Style pizza on which he had pepperoni, jalapeños and onions.

I went for the Spaghetti with Meatballs, the flavour, rich in oregano and tomato, was really excellent, it was so good that I didn't end up wearing any, being too focussed on eating it. The whole meal was perfect for us and the venue really friendly and local.

We got a taxi back to the hotel and I was in bed by 11.00. Tired, but please to have got to St Louis and walked beside the Ol' Man River.