Directory of the Big Trip


The reverse chronological order of the trip entries has greaty confused a Phd endowed friend of mine. So here is a set of links to the trip

The begining of the trip

The trip started on Tuesday August 21 - with my first stop in Chicago at my cousin Kelly's house
"Visit with the Quinn Family" the archive still remains in reverser chronological order - so you have to scroll up from there.

The rest of the trip

This is the archive for the entire month of September - in reverse order - so scroll to the bottom to begin.

Blog Fatigue

I have read my fair share of dead blogs. It is easy to burn yourself out of the whole thing. Especially when i start spending more and more time formatting pictures for the dumb thing. I was planning on writing that I did not plan to spend time on the blog for a while - but then remembered about next week's Westys @ Watkins campout. A very fun weekend ahead! Drat!

Almost home





After a late start from Indiana – I made it though Ohio quickly enough. I spent a lot of time on the phone during the drive trying to give arrival estimates. I drove into New York State at 6:25 pm. Of course I did not really need a watch or a sign to know I arrived. Immediately on crossing the border, the road began its familiar New York song I had forgotten – thump – thump – ka thump thump – thump –ka thump.
New York being the progressive state that it is, encodes all of its roads with Braile. Just to let blind people know about the Shitty road they cannot see. But the scenery around Jamestown was beautiful. The sunset really made everything have a dramatic autumn look to it. I pulled into Dad's at 10:07.

Lost in Illinois

Of all the places in the country I have been on Route 66 – I would not have figured that Illinois would be the biggest challenge to following the route. But it was – twice I had to stop, turn around and back track a couple of miles after getting off track. I finally finished the route just south of Chicago and followed Route 80/90 into Indiana. I was tired of soup – So I stopped at a Target and picked up some Thai noodles, peanut sauce and cucumber to make for dinner. Much better than Chunky soup. The KOA in Great Bend was packed strangely enough. Until the front clerk mentioned the nearby Notre Dame football game – then it all made sense.

St. Louis - Gateway to the West






















I spent most of the day on the highway today. I wanted to get some afternoon pictures at the Gateway to the West in St. Louis. I managed to get around Friday rush hour traffic and made it downtown around 5:00pm to take some quick pics.

















































I think that of the whole Gateway, I liked the steps the best. A very tall and very wide set of steps facing east that take you from the lower street level to standing underneath the arch. Very dramatic.



I pulled into a KOA across the river in Granite City Ill.. I figured it would take me a bit to find Rt. 66 the next morning – but as luck would have it – the KOA sat right next to the Illinios Rt. 66. So I just took a left the next morning and was on my way.