Route 66 Road Trip: Day One

I warned you it was coming...I have left on my Road Trip on Route 66, or mostly 66. Today I left LAX at 6:15, yes, that's AM to fly to St. Louis. It was surprisingly balmy 72 degrees when we landed. After picking up my future daughter-in-law's car (which is the reason for the trip)...we headed out.

Now I know the purpose of the trip was to get the car to California, and perhaps heading east over the Mississippi seems like the wrong direction...but I went to college on the bluffs of the River and wanted to show my friend around campus while we were in the neighborhood. And my college pub has the best shakes in the country, so we had to detour for that!!! The college was built at the turn of the century and Bernard Maybeck was the architect; giant stone Tudor mansions and a chapel that looks like it's right out of the New England countryside. Beautiful stop off.

Once we left the school, we headed south on the Great River Road which borders the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans.....not going that far this time. We followed the road for a few miles and noticed cars stopped on the right side. So, being tourists, we stopped too. Turns out that area is the winter home of the bald eagle and we were fortunate enough to see on sitting on a piece of deadwood in the river. Incredibly beautiful!

After another trip across the River, we drove through St. Louis and made numerous attempts to capture the Arch on our camera, not sure any of them came through. We were moving pretty fast. Then we headed south to Memphis! Birth place of Rock and Roll. We arrived on Beale Street at 10pm just when things started to get going. We found BB King's place and promptly ordered a couple of the BB Beer (when in Rome) and sat for the next few hours happily listening to the Blues.

The evening had it's share of characters...the chunky white boy who thought his hips were on swivels and felt it his personal duty to get EVERYONE dancing. Ugh! My friend did succumb to a local at one point and did get her hips swinging, and we were given travel advice by a woman in pearls who didn't seem to realize we couldn't hear a thing she said. But we were on Beale Street.....walkin in Memphis. Not a bad way to end the day!

More soon.