hartnup.net: R66 : August 1st 2000: South Illinois

South Illinois

We set off from Lincoln, straight down Route 66, in search of breakfast. In the end we settled for a burger in Springfield, Illinois' state capital. There's meant to be quite a few big 66 sights in Springfield, but roadworks made it very difficult to navigate through, not to mention the fact that there are several different Route 66 alignments through Springfield.

For our sightseeing pleasure, we settled on the State Capitol Building; pretty grand stuff.

On the way out of Springfield, we filled up on petrol. $15 for a full tank. The locals are complaining about it, and there's us used to paying over £50.

After that we got back on the old road. In Lichfield, we stumbled on a Wal-Mart.

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Honestly, this is exciting stuff. We needed stuff from Wal-Mart.

A cool box
A water bottle (for when we get to the desert)
Some T-Shirts
A watch for me
Sun screen
Some washing liquid, for when we need to go to a laund[ette|omat].

Disaster! We've brought the minidisc player, and a wide selection of minidiscs, some of which we recorded specially, along with one of those adapter which plugs into your car cassette player. Naturally, the car has a CD player, so the minidisc is useless. We looked in Wal-Mart for a device which produces an FM broadcast, so you can tune your car's radio into the minidisc, without success. But no luck. So we bought a CD: Music from and inspired by the Powerpuff Girls! Genius. It's got Bis and Frank Black on it, so you can probably imagine the tone.

Wal-Mart's size beggars belief. I thought I'd seen big supermarkets before, but this dwarfs the hypermarchets of France. The wine section isn't as good, but the fishing section appears to be excellent. And you wouldn't believe the range of baseball caps.

We bought some Hinckley Spring bottled water. In Lichfield. Something of an East-Midlands/Staffordshire vibe then.

In Lichfield, the signs send you in two directions: you have to choose between the 1926-1940 (ish) alignment, or the 1940-1975 (ish, again) alignment. We opted for the newer alignment, mostly because we sped past the turning.

Near Mount Olive, we came upon Henry's Rabbit Ranch. An enthusiastic couple run a great information centre and souvenir shop here. They showed us photographs and asked us about stuff we should have seen in Springfield and beyond. "Did you see the drive-in movie theatre?". No, we hadn't: it turned out we'd missed the drive-in and the Ariston Cafe in Lichfield, and cobbled roads on the old alignment. We have to see the drive-in, so we turned heel and head back for Lichfield.

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On the old alignment (one block from the newer one), there's the Ariston: it's in all the books because it's old, it's good, and the proprietor is a big Route 66 enthusiast. We went in and got a coffee, and before long he was asking us about our plans and giving us useful advice: like where the drive-in is (about a mile down the road).

We spent half an hour or so driving aimlessly around Lichfield (it's not big) looking for the "66 Motel" recommended in the Route 66 Dining and Lodging guide, but without luck, so we checked into the Super 8 Motel, a clean, soulless chain motel. It's cheap though, and after much messing around, the phone worked so we could upload the web pages.

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Not hungry, we went straight to the drive-in at 8:00, but because that's what you do, we bought a hot dog and a corn dog, and some popcorn, and a drink.

The film was Chicken Run: really very English stuff. At the snack bar, Debbie asked when the film started: "I dunno... when it gets dark". It's a great way to watch a film, but we had the nasty choice between drowning in our own sweat in the hot car, or being bitten to death by insects. We went for the middle ground, and left the windows open a crack.

A while into the film, some guy knocked on my window and said "Your foot is on the brake". Ooops, I suppose several people had to put up with my brake lights flickering on and off as I fidgeted. The car's power has to be on, because the audio comes over a low-power radio station.

Tomorrow I want breakfast at the Ariston. And then I want to drive the old route to Mount Olive and see these cobbled surfaces. 'night.