It's a whole tiny world on the airplane, isn't it?
It's always that little tiny table there, a tiny computer.
Everyone's in the little crab seat, tiny food,
tiny utensils, tiny lick of bottles, tiny bathroom,
tiny sink, tiny mirror, tiny faucets.
So it's a small problem.
It's going to be a slight delay.
We're going to be a little late.
Then you get on the plane.
Pilots always got to come on the PA system,
give you his whole thing of what he's going to do.
Here's how I'm going to do it.
I'm going to take it up to $20,000.
And I'm going to make a left by Chicago.
And I'm going to go south, but we're all back there going,
yeah, fine.
End up where it says on the ticket, OK?
Can you do that?
Why bother him telling him what I'm doing?
Knock it on the cockpit door.
I'm having the P-nudge now.
Yeah, that's what we're doing back here.
I'm not going to have them all now.
I'm going to have a few.
I don't want to finish it because it's such a big bad.
Add 707 at WRJN Radio.
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It's 7-0-9 at WRJN Radio, I'm Don Rose, and I want to thank
for joining us today.
We're taking a trip this morning.
A few weeks ago, we took a trip down Route 66
with a state of Illinois.
We started downtown Chicago and made it down the entire state
on Route 66 to the Chain of Rocks Bridge,
and we stopped right there because on the other side
of the Chain of Rocks Bridge, it's Missouri.
And Elizabeth Olweg is with me this morning
from the Route 66 Association of Missouri.
We're going to talk about her leg of Route 66.
And good morning, Elizabeth, how are you?
Good morning, I am good today, how are you doing?
I am fine only because I love traveling, I love Route 66.
We didn't do any road trips because of COVID,
and we have to kick them up again.
I took a road trip to Florida, something
about my daughter getting married and how to get down to Florida.
So I took a road trip down there, and that's the last road trip
I took two years ago.
But I love traveling Route 66, and Missouri
is a great state to travel through.
It definitely is.
I think I might be a little biased,
but I think it's one of the best on the route with the most
to see, and we've got pretty much the majority
of the original route is intact.
So yeah, it's a great state.
If you want to take just a little weekend trip on the route,
it's a wonderful one to take.
Now I told people that when you get on Route 66,
it's a decommissioned road, so there's no money to rebuild it,
and it's just what it is.
It's not US 66 anymore.
It's historic route 66 now.
And it starts and stops, not so much through Missouri,
but there are portions where you just get on the interstate
and you travel to the next part of Route 66.
But most of it's intact.
You can use the travel.
Yeah, I'll tell you a story later on about one
of my Texas stories we had.
Now we were on the chain of Rocks Bridge.
I actually rode across the chain of Rocks Bridge
with our car, the Illinois Association got permission
for us to ride across, so we did back and forth.
And once you get into Missouri, you, well, tell us
when you get off the chain of Rocks Bridge,
you're in St. Louis.
So once you get, because that's your home base there.
Yes, and I'll tell you really quick,
this is just a little, not promotion necessarily,
but the Missouri side of Route 66 has been closed
for about a year and it's been advised
for a long time not to park over there.
But for the last year, it's been under a multi-million dollar
renovation by the Great Rivers Greenway
and it's being turned into a beautiful park over there.
And the grand reopening is going to be April 14th
at two o'clock.
Yeah, I heard the, when I took the trip over there,
now there were hundreds or about 100 cars
that went over when I was there.
But they said that side on the other side
of the chain of Rocks Bridge, a little danger is,
but now it's going to be a beautiful park and it's going
to be open and it's going to be family-oriented, right?
Yes, it's going to be beautiful and I'm very, very excited.
So let's talk about the first thing that's
maxis in the face when you enter Missouri is the arch.
Everyone's got to go to the arch, see our arch, right?
Yeah, it's going to be in the, further down in the distance.
It's not going to be there on the other side
of the chain of Rocks Bridge.
You'll have to go, yeah, if you want to get there
from the chain of Rocks Bridge, you got to go down
through the city and, but I personally don't mind.
I live in St. Louis, my whole life.
I'm a city dweller right now.
And, but yeah, if you want to go, if you want to get right
to the arch, you've got to cross the river further down
in Illinois into Missouri.
And that is going to be one of the first things
you'll see when you cross into Missouri.
And that is where many people want to go.
It's just the arch in St. Louis.
And then they want to go to Ted Drews and leave.
But there are so many other amazing things to see in St. Louis.
All right.
Well, you mentioned where I was going to mention him.
We went to a banquet for the Illinois Route 66
Association.
It was in Springfield, but we made the trip to Ted Drews
to have custard and hamburgers and stuff.
That's a real iconic place in the St. Louis area.
Ted Drews.
Yes, they are about ready.
Let's see, I think this year, if I'm not mistaken,
they are celebrating their 95th anniversary.
Yeah, and they have those concrete shakes
where they hold them upside down when they give them to you.
Yes, yeah, they are definitely an iconic place on the route.
And I never hear anybody say that they're disappointed
when they go there.
Yeah, we drove over the border.
We snuck into Missouri just to go to Ted Drews at night,
and then we'll snuck back into Illinois.
And you know, one of the fun things about going on trips
to on Route 66 are seeing the old motor courts
and the old hotels, the old motels, really, not hotels,
but motels on there.
There are a lot of them in your area.
And I'm looking through the book here that I have.
The other way the book I'm using is our Bible.
It's called Images of 66 by David Wickline.
Now, what's happened on the air with me?
And we talked about this book that he put together.
This is like the Bible of traveling Route 66.
And all these small little motels,
and I always suggest to people,
if you're going on a trip on Route 66,
don't stay at the big chain motels,
stay at the little mom and pops,
because that's the real experience of going on Route 66.
Would you not say?
Yeah, I would definitely recommend
if there are small little ones to stay at,
for sure, stay at those.
Unfortunately, in St. Louis, in the city,
there are really non-left.
There used to be an area called Motel Row,
which is right on the border,
as you're leaving St. Louis.
And that's where the historic Coral Court Motel was.
Yeah, quite right, yeah.
And right now, there are just a couple remaining.
I think there's maybe three left over there,
but they are not nightly motels.
They are weekly rentals at this point.
They are still fun to take pictures of,
as you're driving by,
so I would recommend stopping and taking a picture.
But unfortunately, you have to get out of St. Louis,
if you want to stay at a mom and pop motel.
Well, I'm looking at Mar-Baro, Missouri.
Where's that?
How far is that out?
That's it.
Now we're out of St. Louis.
Yes, and I don't want to leave St. Louis yet, but yeah,
that is, I mean, that's like 10 minutes out of the city.
That's not even, it's considered St. Louis.
I wouldn't even say county,
but it is right there in St. Louis.
It's down the road from Ted Cruz.
Okay, so we didn't want to leave St. Louis.
What are we missing there that we have to do?
Well, there's so many different alignments of Route 56
in St. Louis that people aren't even aware of.
Like I said, people go to the arch and they go to Ted Cruz,
and that's all they think about.
But another historic restaurant or food place we have
is the Crown Candy Kitchen that's in the northern part
of St. Louis.
And I'll remind folks because St. Louis gets such a bad route
from the media.
We are a perfectly type city if you use your common sense
like in any other city.
You will have a wonderful time here.
And Crown Candy Kitchen has been open
for more than 100 years in the same place
on the original Route 66.
And they've got the best milkshakes
and they're known for their BLTs
that have a pound of bacon on them.
And that's a great place to visit
on another alignment or area of 66.
You're going by the theater district
where we've got historic theaters.
We can see plays and our symphony is there.
Right off Route 66, we've got the city museum,
which is another incredible place
that's filled with old historic items
from places that have been torn down in the city
that they've repurposed.
And it's fabulous for kids and adults.
And we've got Forest Park, which is well known
that's where our zoo is, which is free
and it's one of the best in the world constantly voted.
And our history museum is right on Route 66.
That's where I work.
I think it's absolutely incredible.
And again, that is free.
We have something called the zoo museum district
and everything in that district,
which is our science center, the history museum, the zoo,
it's all free.
And yeah, there's just,
there's so many amazing things to do on Route 66
in St. Louis that people have no clue about.
Now, we're going to move down the route to Ellisville.
Is that the name of the town?
Are we right there?
Yeah, yes.
Do you know what's there in Ellisville
that we should know about?
Let's see, there's not really much there.
Okay.
Just one little like municipality
that you're going to drive through.
Well, you take me down Route 66.
You know the place better than I do.
I've traveled in many times to Missouri,
but I can't remember all the towns I stopped at.
I remember some of them.
But once you walk us down now,
once you take us down, right after the break,
I want you to take us down to Route 66 a little further
and we'll take a quick break.
We'll come right back and we're talking
to Elizabeth Olwig from the Route 66 Association of Missouri.
It's 719 WRJ and hometown radio refreshment.
Oh.
So you're scared to show on your fence.
Maybe I do understand.
I don't make a promise I can't keep.
About to be a real good friend.
About to be a real good friend.
In those big gray eyes, I see you.
I'm talking to Elizabeth Olwig this morning.
She is with the Route 66 Association of Missouri at 721
at WRJ and radio and as you travel down Route 66 in Missouri,
it's a real rural.
I mean, once you're at a St. Louis,
you're out of the big city and you come across these places
like the Garden Way Motel, which I've seen.
It's not used anymore.
You've got all these motel.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Yeah, that was unfortunately demolished in the fall.
Oh, it was.
Yeah, it was just falling down.
It was in getting, it was in really bad shape
and getting worse and worse.
And luckily its signs were salvaged.
So those are saved and those to be used in the future
for something.
Luckily, so.
All right, let's talk about the Merrimack Caverns.
Merrimack Caverns, you can see signs all through Illinois.
Merrimack Caverns, 300 miles.
Merrimack Caverns, 200 miles.
Merrimack.
It keeps coming up.
And this was a supposedly Jesse James's hideout,
but it's really fun to go through these caverns.
What do you tell us about those?
It is definitely fun to go visit Merrimack Caverns.
And yeah, they've got, I don't know,
I'm sure you've seen the paint of signs on the barns
in Illinois also.
Right, that's it.
On the rooftops, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I know they're in Oklahoma also,
but yes, Merrimack Caverns is definitely fun to visit.
And that they say is where bumper stickers originated also.
When you would visit there back in the 1920s,
they would have what was called bumper sign boys,
go out to your car and tie these signs
to the rear bumper of your car,
thanking you for visiting.
And it's said that that was the origination,
sorry, origin of bumper stickers.
So I love that story.
When I was a kid,
and we used to go traveling with my mom and dad
back in the early 60s,
used to go into a place.
And when you came out through a bumper stickers on your car,
today, people get aggravated
if you stuck a bumper sticker on their new car.
But that was just part of it.
They used to have somebody go through the parking lots
and slap them on.
They either put them on with wires or they stuck them on your car.
But that's when you had bumpers on the cars.
I mean, real bumpers.
Not that plastic stuff passing as bumpers today.
All right.
Once we get out of Merrimack Caverns,
you've got the Jesse James wax museum.
This, you know, Missouri is where the Jesse James
did all his dirty work.
And you can actually see his body in one of these places.
Another body is casket.
His original casket.
They dug him up and they put him in a new casket.
But they have all that stuff here.
Yeah.
So you have the Jesse James wax museum there,
right near Merrimack Caverns.
They made a whole cottage industry out of Jesse James.
Oh.
Now, let me think here.
I want to say, if I'm not mistaken,
have you looked that up recently?
I'm trying to remember if that is still open,
or if that one closed,
or if it was the toy museum that closed.
Oh, no.
I'm going through my old book here.
I don't know if it's still open or closed.
Okay.
Yeah.
There is a confusion in that area,
because there's so many places that have closed
in the last decade or so.
And some reopen and others just have stayed shut.
And it gets confusing to me.
It's tough to keep track.
Well, you got Cuba.
And I don't mean the country of Cuba.
I mean, the city of Cuba.
It's like the mural capital of America.
Every building's got murals on it.
That is a great, great town to stop at.
And like you said, it is considered mural city.
I would definitely recommend going on,
like a mural tour.
It doesn't even have to be guided.
You can find all the murals by going to their visitor center
or online and just going through the town
and all of them have a description.
And they're so fun to visit.
And in Cuba also is the wagon wheel motel.
And that is the longest or the oldest
continuously operating motel on all of Route 66.
Yeah, I got a picture of it right here.
The wagon wheel motel, 1934.
In Cuba was formerly the wagon wheel cabin court
home of the wagon wheel cafe.
And yeah, it's been around since 1934.
And it's still still working.
Is there that down there?
No, that is still there.
I was there in the fall.
I just drove by there a couple months ago.
And yeah, I know people who stayed there last week.
And also in Cuba is a great little restaurant
that is in this beautiful old filling station.
And the restaurant is called We're On 66.
And yeah, it's in this beautiful old filling station.
And forgive me, but I am drawing a blank
a city original and I am embarrassed.
But the roof is the shingles are like multi colored.
Yeah, I'm looking at a picture of it now.
It's the Route 66 cafe.
It's in Cuba.
The cafe formerly known as Chandler's Cafe on Route 66.
Prior to that, the old 66 cafe.
Also Ross and Ruby's diner.
Gary and Terry Hughes are the proprietors since 1986.
You're right.
All the tiles are all different colors.
And so you're right.
It's an old filling station.
One of those old Phillips 66 type stations.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's one of the most beautiful buildings.
It's just gorgeous.
Yeah, I'm looking at it here.
And all those murals.
I was in Cuba.
Cuba, Missouri.
And it's just gorgeous.
Now we're going to enter Rala.
Rala, Missouri.
And this is, there's a couple of trading posts there.
And one, I've been to twice already.
It's the, they have the mule.
What's it?
I forget the name of it.
The mule trading post.
The mule trading post.
And there's also the totem pole one.
Yeah.
And I've been to both of them.
And I got a magic trick out of one of the trading posts.
And when I got married, we got, we sent away from multiple copies of this trick.
And we left it on all the tables for people to play with and see if they can figure it out.
And it came from that trading post.
When we went there, we've got a whole bunch of them.
Oh, fun.
That was the totem pole trading post.
Where you can get root 66 gas.
The actual brand of the gas is root 66.
You can't go wrong with that.
Yeah, that's the totem pole and the mule trading post.
And they're located in Rala, Missouri.
Is there a, is there a university in Rala, Missouri?
There is, let's see.
And which is it?
Oh goodness.
I am drawing a blank there too.
The only reason I say that is we used to have a college basketball team here in WRJ and play all the time.
And they occasionally went down to Rala, Missouri.
And, you know, I remember them live from Rala, Missouri tonight.
It's that college basketball.
Yeah.
And one of our association members, she used to work there.
And I can't think what it is.
Yeah.
If the totem pole trading post, we've got Tim Jones, the proprietor there.
And he is such a fun guy to go in and talk to.
You could just spend hours talking to him.
He's got so many great stories to hear.
Now, let me tell you something.
When you go into these places on Route 66 with rare exception, they love to talk about Route 66.
Oh, most definitely.
And it's so fun because they have so many great stories.
I think of all the people that they meet on their trips and everything that they're going to have to say.
And yeah, it's just wonderful.
A lot of people, too, just pull up and take a picture.
You know, the outside of a building.
But it makes your trip so much more memorable if you go in and talk to people.
Yeah, and there's one coming up and I'll tell you about it a little later on when we get to it.
He's no longer with us, but he was so great in signing my book and everything and writing things in it.
Giving us a tour of his gas station and the adjacent property.
We'll talk about the Munger Moss Motel.
We'll do all that stuff.
Coming up at just a moment.
It's Route 66 through Illinois through Missouri.
Excuse me.
Elizabeth Oleg.
Oleg from the University.
Where am I talking here?
Route 66, Missouri.
More coming up.
Ah, 735 at WRJN, hometown radio refresh, 99.9 FM, 98.1 FM and 1,400 AM.
What time to Elizabeth Oleg?
She is from the Illinois.
I keep saying Illinois.
From the Missouri Route 66 association.
I got that tattooed on my brain.
I don't know what's going on in this morning.
You know, we're talking about a whole bunch of abandoned buildings when you travel the rural routes through Missouri on Route 66.
And we stopped buying a couple of them when we took their route.
But you got to be careful because they're abandoned buildings and they're falling down.
And you can look at them from a distance, but I got up close to one of them and I probably shouldn't have done that.
Nothing happened, but you know, they're falling down.
They're abandoned for a reason and they're not in great shapes.
I don't go walking through them, but I did peek inside.
And it's like 50 years ago or a 60 years ago somebody is left in the middle of the night because there were still the tables were there, the chairs were there.
The place was falling down.
It was a cabin falling down around.
It was an old cabin, what they called a motor courts, the court cabins.
And it was just in the middle just laying there falling apart and I'm looking at a picture of it now.
And it was kind of sad to see it.
Yeah, it definitely is.
And you've got to remember too that a lot of these, even though they're abandoned, they're still owned by somebody.
So you're on private property and you want to be careful about that.
If you hear a shotgun, lock and load.
No, I'm only can not scare in people.
But you know, you are on private property that is owned by somebody.
Just because they let it, you know, rot away.
It doesn't mean it's not owned by somebody.
You would tell them that some of these abandoned places are coming back.
Yes, one that's very, very exciting.
And I don't, I get paranoid about it because it's a passion of mine.
And I'm like, I don't want to tell too many people about this because I don't want anything to happen to it.
In the meantime, it's John's modern cabins with little Missouri.
Yes, I've been there.
Yes, yes.
And that's been abandoned since the 50s.
And there is one cabin left.
And the Missouri Route 66 Association went out and stabilized that back in 2018.
And it was just purchased, man, like a month ago, a month and a half ago, by the family who owns,
there's a motel right next door called Vernel.
I'm looking at the photo right now, yeah.
And the owner of that, the previous owner, he passed away not too long ago.
And his son and daughter-in-law, the good riches, they took ownership.
And then they purchased John's and they're planning on stabilizing and preserving the remaining cabins, restoring the sign that's there.
And turning the whole area in front of Vernel into an RV park and restoring the Vernel's motel,
and it's going to be amazing.
We're very excited about it.
And the cabins I told you I was sneaking a peek at with John's modern cabins.
Oh, okay.
Those were the cabins I was looking at.
They got pictures of me sneaking around here.
So if I ever get arrested, my wife's got the pictures.
But I'm looking at the picture of John modern cabins now.
And they are in total disrepair.
I mean, they've got a really, a lot of work on them.
Oh, yeah.
But yeah, I'm seeing chairs.
It's like somebody left in the middle of the night, 67 years ago, and that was it.
They just ran it.
Yeah, they just ran out.
It's kind of eerie to look at.
But yeah, that was the, that was the cabins, John's modern cabins.
So they're going to refurbish it and bring it back to life again, huh?
That's going to need.
I don't think there's any plans to like build new cabins.
I can't recall exactly, but they're definitely, they're planning on like covering up
the original cabin and preserving it.
So it's out of the weather.
And yeah, I'm very, very happy about that.
And this might deter some people from snooping around too much.
That land is covered in poison ivy.
And so, yeah, you don't want to go snooping around in the woods back there or looking too much,
because we were exploring when we were doing our work weekend there.
And I ended up covered head to toe, employees in ivy.
And it lasted for two months.
Or other.
That explains the itching.
All right.
Now, there is a very historic place.
When you're in Missouri, it's, it's called the Trail of Tears.
Now, this is, this is part of history here.
This is the Trail of Tears that the actual Cherokee Indians had their painful journey along
the trail from the southeast US into Oklahoma.
And you can actually see where that is there.
They built a wall, a stone wall.
And that was the actual Trail of Tears.
We were there where the Indians took it.
It's a very historic, you know, moment to be in that spot, right?
Where it all happened.
Yes, there's now, like you said, there's, it's called the Trail of Tears Memorial Garden.
And that was also like restored and refurbished back in 2018.
And 18 or 19.
And they did some great work there.
They re-did.
There was this stone, like some meditation kind of building on the property.
And they refurbished that.
And I honestly don't know what the status of that is right now.
The gate is often closed.
There might be a phone number to call when you get there.
And someone might come and open it for you.
But that is also private property.
So if the gate is closed, I would not go in there.
You know, we're going to talk about Munger Moss, the motel in just a moment here.
But when you go to Devil's Elbow, it's a horrible name.
When you go to Devil's Elbow in Route 66 in Missouri, there's a bridge there.
And then you get the whole story about Devil's Elbow.
But there's also a little in there.
You know, the bikers like to go to travelers on Route 66.
And it was started by Emmett Moss and Nelly Munger.
And yeah, go ahead.
Well, that turned into the elbow in, like you said.
And that's a great little roadside biker bar kind of thing.
Yeah, it was nice.
Yeah.
And again, I feel awful continuing to say this.
They are actually closed for renovations, too.
Yeah, there was a horrible flood a few years back.
And the water went halfway up their building.
And there was, I mean, there was nothing they could do.
But clothes and, you know, they had to restore the building.
There was so much water damage.
And, you know, then COVID hit.
And it's, but it's going to be amazing when they are done.
I know our president, Roman Rich, was just out there probably last week,
installing this really cool sculpture he made right by the bridge.
It was made with pieces of the old bridge that he had welded
into this really neat piece of art.
And it's now out there by the end.
So yeah, if you drive by there, you've got to take a look out for that.
Now, we just talked about the Munger Moss people actually have a motel
that is still open.
And it's a great shape.
It's still open, right?
Yes, it is still open.
And that is another iconic motel.
Missouri is lucky.
We've got quite a few great historic motels in our state stand.
And by the way, we'll tell you, we couldn't stay there because it was during the daytime.
And we still had a long length to go before our stay.
But I would mind staying there at all.
We went to the, the managers room there.
And they have like a little museum set up in there with a lot of facts and so forth.
But they couldn't have been nicer to us.
They said, yeah, take a walk around.
You know, see the place and, you know, take a nap.
No, I didn't say that.
But just take a walk around.
And it was nice.
And I wish I could have stayed there.
But it was like, you know, one o'clock in the afternoon.
We still had another hundred miles or so to go.
But it was very nice.
We did have dinner right down the block there.
There was a catfish place.
Wouldn't have catfish.
But there was a nice restaurant there.
But yeah, the people in Munker Moss couldn't have been nicer to us.
Yeah.
And Ramona, the owner, she was just the loveliest, sweetest, sweetest woman.
And, yeah, sadly, she passed away last year, also.
Because her husband, you had mentioned passed away a couple years ago.
And we miss her so much.
She was just like the mother of root 60,
and the mother of root 66 in Missouri.
And so, yeah, she's greatly missed.
And her daughter is responsible for the motel right now.
And then we are also actually having a work day or work weekend at the beginning of May,
because we want to get that motel on the historic registry.
So.
Yeah, Munker Moss.
And they've such a beautiful sign when you go to one of these old-style road signs.
So you feel like you're stepping back in time.
Let's give me some of your favorite places I may not have gotten to here.
Well, here in Missouri, I,
and if you're wondering, like signage,
the Munker Moss has one of the best signs in Missouri.
Like you said, it is the epitome of a classic root 66 sign from back in the day.
A great place we haven't gotten to yet is Gary's gay parrita.
Okay, now stop right there because that was my next thing I was going to tell you.
We met him.
He's no longer with us.
I don't think he is.
Yeah, he's not.
We met him.
And he gave us a glossy of the of his gas station, signed it, talked to us.
I mean, this guy couldn't have been nicer.
So talk about the place.
He was such, such a wonderful person.
And I never got to meet him, but I have heard nothing but great things about him.
And I know Roman Reds, our president, he is like one of his absolute favorite people in the world.
And the association went out a few years back and painted this huge root 66 shields in front of his shop.
And yeah, his place, the gay parrita Sinclair station, it actually looks original,
but it's actually a replica of a station that had burned down many years ago.
And you wouldn't know unless you knew because it's just classic.
And his daughter and her husband, George and Barbara actually own it now.
And, you know, the jeans run in the family because they are the nicest people also.
They want to sit and talk to you and have watermelon and ice cream.
And they're just great.
Well, you know, it's funny in the book here.
Are you trying to kicks on root 66 Gary and he signed it to Don and Terry.
That's my wife.
He gave us a big glossy picture and he took photos of us.
You know, he said, I was going to take a picture.
I'm going to take a picture of you in front of the gas pumps and all that.
You just run into so many sweet, nice people on root 66.
And by the way, it's not only the people who have businesses, you run into people from all other countries who come to America just to go on root 66.
It's one of the, we spoke to some people from Germany.
They were on bikes.
They rent their bikes here or bring them over their motorcycles.
And they come over and this is the trip you plan for for a lifetime to come over to America and to root 66.
And here it is right in our backyard.
And nobody very few people take advantage of it.
Yeah, it's, it's amazing.
Like the entire root is like this.
Like you said, people just take advantage.
They don't realize that's something that bothers me about St. Louis.
It's like I said, we've got so much amazing stuff here.
And our city doesn't even think about it.
I'm trying so hard to work on that.
And yeah, especially with the centennial coming up and they don't bat an eye.
But yeah, so many people that live here don't realize that root 66 is right there in their backyard.
And there's so much history.
And so then you have these people from overseas.
It's like somebody from here in the US planning an amazing trip to Europe.
And they're over there planning this amazing trip to root 66.
You know, I had a friend of mine, Rod Lancer,
who was one of the founders of Summerfest in Milwaukee, the big music festival.
And he formed a tour of Milwaukee.
And he took my parents an eye on a test run.
He said, the worst tourists are the people in their own hometown.
Because they don't know what they've never been to any of the highlights.
And that's true.
I've never been to the Statue of Liberty and I live there.
Only when did the Empire State Building when I was an adult?
Because it was always there.
Hey, Elizabeth, hold in there.
Elizabeth, all we get is she is from the root 66 Association of Missouri.
We're taking a trip down root 66.
More to come here at WRJN, hometown radio refreshed.
A civic media station stay where you are.
We're traveling down root 66 in Missouri, making our way to Santa Monica.
A Santa Monica peer word all comes to an end.
You know, we look at the interstate today and how fast it travels.
But, you know, back in the day, I mean, this was the only way to travel.
If you wanted to get across America, it was root 66.
You had to go out west and there was no other way to travel it.
And sometimes it was slow going because a lot of these roads were one lane on each side.
Some were dirt roads.
And, you know, we look at the interstate today and we don't think about anything being that rough, but it was at one time.
And when you travel to Missouri, you can actually see where they use dynamite to blow through mountains to form this road.
And it's beautiful to look at today.
You can actually see where they drill down to put the dynamite in there to blow it open.
But, you know, before that, it was tough going.
If you wanted to go to California, it was rough before the interstates.
Now, I will tell people that when you travel root 66, the interstate is just a stone's throw away from root 66.
You're always, you're basically traveling alongside the interstate highway when you travel root 66.
And not that far away from it.
So if you have to get off root 66 and get on the interstate, you can do it.
We miss Springfield, Missouri.
Yes, that is considered the birthplace of root 66.
So, yeah, you can't miss Springfield, for sure.
Let's talk about it.
Yeah.
Okay.
There's one of my, another great hotel in Springfield or two great hotels are in Springfield when I'm missing one.
Yeah, we've got one that was just renovated a couple years back is the Rockwood Motor Court.
And that's, yeah, a lady named Phyllis Ferguson.
She greeted that and it is just a beautiful place.
It's got a few little brick cabins and this great suite that would used to be an old filling station.
And that's a really fun one to stay at.
And then there's also the rail haven.
And that, man, I'm trying to remember what year that was built, but that one is very old also.
And it's got fun themed rooms there as well.
That's a great place to stay.
But there's, yeah, a lot of historic buildings in Springfield.
There's this beautiful shrine mosque there.
And then they've got, it's always mispronounced this name.
It's like the, you see, Gillois Theater.
And that was built in 1926.
And that's beautiful.
It's got this lovely neon.
Oh, what's the entrance to a theater called the Presidium?
My mind is off this morning.
I don't know what's going on.
I'll take your time.
Yeah.
Yeah, the beautiful, beautiful frontage, right?
When you're walking into a theater, what are you walking under there?
The Presidium.
Is that what it's called?
Yeah.
Okay.
I think so.
Okay.
Yeah.
Now, this is not to be confused in Springfield, Illinois.
So it's not to be confused where the Simpsons lived on their TV show in Springfield.
No, for sure not.
It could be in the, so many Springfields around the country.
So there's a Springfield, Illinois in Route 66.
And there's a Springfield, Missouri.
And I remember taking some of these photos like the rest, rest having court, all these old
courts.
People don't realize there was, you know, the people look at motels today or hotels.
But people stayed at little tiny cabins.
And in Racine here, if you travel, what road is it?
When you're traveling down Sheridan Road in Racine, you could see a lot of these motor courts
that are still here before the interstate Sheridan Road was the way you got to Chicago.
I mean, you didn't have the interstate.
And so you have these motor courts along the way.
And they're still there.
And they're still used.
People still stay there because they kept them up and they're in great condition.
And you get such a personal experience when you stay there.
It's not a big, you know, corporate place.
There's such a warm feeling when you go into the little, the little mom and pop motor courts.
Let's back up a second here to, oh, by the way, I can't forget this.
Carthage, Missouri.
Yeah, Carthage is going to be when you're leaving Springfield.
Right.
You'll hit, yeah, you'll hit Carthage.
And yeah, that's another great town.
And that's got the, another motel that was just renovated not too long ago.
Was the boots court?
Yes, I'm looking at the picture of it now.
The boots.
Yeah, now it's not the baits motel.
It's the boots motel.
We don't want to confuse with Norman baits.
It's the boots motel.
That's still a name, which is you're staying at the boots motel.
Isn't that when Norman baits was?
No, you're talking about the baits motel.
That's not.
But when we went to Carthage, we went to the driving movie.
The Route 66 driving theater in Carthage, which was a driving movie.
It became a junkyard where they just, you know, junkyard.
And then the guys who had the junkyard got the junk out and brought back the movie theater
again.
They built a new screen.
And they show movies and we went to go see a double feature at the Carthage driving.
It was fun doing that.
Yeah.
There, if I'm not mistaken, it is the last driving on the route with 66 in the name.
Yeah.
And they're celebrating their 76th anniversary of this fall by the leaves.
And there's going to be a celebration down there.
I was informed about that a few weeks ago.
I don't have details on it.
Yeah, that's going to be happening this fall.
So that's exciting.
And fortunately, they had a crummy movie playing the night we went.
It was the other guys with Mark Wahlberg and forget who else was in it.
It was a crummy film.
But it was nice going to a drive and going to the concession stands again.
But yeah, we just happened to hit a bad night when they had bad movies playing.
But I remember the other picture was dinner for something or other.
And it was just terrible also.
So that's when you hit the end of the road and you enter Kansas.
Now, you guys are lucky.
How many miles of route 66 you have in Missouri?
I can't remember off the top of my head.
Yeah.
But I want to mention like one more thing here.
We've got just outside of Joplin.
There's red oak too.
Are you familiar with that?
No, but I did see the picture here.
Yeah, that's a great little place.
And it's just, it's basically a town that the town of red oak was basically picked up and relocated.
And now it is red oak too.
And an artist named Moldavis is responsible for creating that.
And it's its own little community.
It's a little bit off the route.
But it's still considered part of Route 66.
And yeah.
We have to end it there because we're about to enter Kansas.
And that's not your problem that somebody else is problem.
Elizabeth Olig from the Route 66 Association of Missouri.
Thanks for joining me this morning.
Hold on a second, okay?
Don't go near her.
Stay right there.
Don't move.
I'm Don Rosen.
We'll do it again tomorrow morning 6 a.m.
Brighten early.
Hopefully with no snow.
We'll see what happens.
Thank you.