Route 66 Redux

We stayed up entirely too late last night watching TV. After getting not quite enough sleep we checked out of the Blue Swallow and stopped at Del's Restaurant for breakfast. Chris had some pancakes and sausage and I had a ham & cheese omelet. Now, THAT'S food that will stick to your ribs, or at least to the inside of one's arteries.

We drove from Tucumcari to Santa Rosa, another town that has seen better days. Many of the old gas stations and motels are also closed, sitting vacant and showing the tolls of time and the New Mexico sun. We headed up to Santa Fe along the old 1930's alignment. The land went from open range and mesas covered with sagebrush to mountains over the next 90 miles. We both noticed the extreme apparent poverty in the homes and trailers that dotted the landscape in the villages we passed through or by. As we approached Santa Fe, the buildings all began being constructed of adobe. I don't mean just most of the buildings, I mean ALL of the buildings. It was hard to tell what was a shop, a government building, or a residence. All in all, Santa Fe was pretty, but the shops looked pretty pricey. We opted out of shopping and headed out for Albuquerque. long the old road from Santa Fe to Albuquerque once again poverty was very apparent. I saw a billboard that stated "New Mexico, #1 in Poverty, #1 in Nuclear Weapons---coincidence?" Not sure what it meant, but I guess both are true.

Central Avenue in Albuquerque is classic Route 66. Old motels line the boulevard. The neon is spectacular, like nothing I've seen before. We're staying at the El Vado Motel, a motel court built in 1939 of adobe ( go figure!). Each room has a carport to keep your car cool and protected from the New Mexico sun.

We looked for the Atomic Energy Museum today , but couldn't find it. Chris wanted to go see a movie tonight, the Blair Witch Project, but I told him it was too scary and I'd give him 10 buck if he'd wait & see it in Midland when we get back to Michigan. He reluctantly agreed.

For supper we ate at the Route 66 Diner here in Albuquerque. It had a retro theme, but one could tell a manufactured retro, unlike many of the authentic diners we've been in so far. The food was still good, however.

Tomorrow we will finish New Mexico and get to Arizona where we'll tour the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. We'll be staying in a Teepee tomorrow night, and from what I've read from people on the Route 66 Mailing list, there aren't phones there, so I won't be able to send or receive email. I'll update y'all when we get to Williams, AZ on Monday.

Doin' the route...

Tonight I'm writing from the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. This motel was built in 1948 and is a Route 66 classic. Until a couple of years ago it was owned and by a lady named Lillian Redmond who died last year. She was 90-something years old at the time. The motel has a neon sign with a blue swallow (bird) on it. The motel court itself is adobe painted pink and each room has a garage with a turquoise painted garage door. The inside of the rooms are also textured plaster with coved ceilings, but the ubiquitous cable TV is here. The bathroom is tiled in black and white ceramic with a large shower. All this for under 30 bucks!

We got up kind of late today in Amarillo and ate a continental breakfast (free) at the Big Texan Motel before leaving. As we traveled across the Texan panhandle the land became flatter and flatter until we were driving in a completely straight direction on completely flat land as far as the eye could see. We could even make out the curvature of the earth ever so slightly in the far distance. As we approached the New Mexico border, at about the last 10 miles the topography of the land began to change to some small undulating hills with flat topped mesas scattered over the landscape.

At the Texas-New Mexico border there is a ghost town named Glenrio. The town is completely deserted and straddles the border as it runs through the middle of town. The only activity was some dogs wandering through the deserted streets and the empty decaying gas stations and other buildings. Great pictures......Chris told me to knock off taking all the pictures.

Just west of Glenrio the route turns into a dirt road for the next 18 or so miles. As we drove through the ranch land we were once again aware of times past and how desolate this part of the country is. The road was muddy as it had rained the night before, and in spots the traction felt as if some Michigan slush was beneath the wheels of our car. Two roadrunners (birds) darted in front of our car....the first time either of us had seen this bird except on Warner Brothers cartoons with Wylie Coyote. They were smaller than I expected.

Tucumcari Mountain loomed in the distance as we left San Jon and headed to our destination for tonight. The town of Tucumcari has long been a stop on the itinerary of the Route 66 traveler. It boasted "2000 Motel Rooms" and "Tucumcari Tonight" on billboards scattered in both directions from the town along the route. The town has a new Route 66 sculpture/memorial at their "convention center". The sign there said "Welcome Rattlers Reunion" What does THAT mean?", we wondered. Turns out that's the high school mascot here....the Tucumcari Rattlers. Because we got here early in the day we had time to explore the town. The area appears very economically depressed. Most of the homes are poorly maintained with lots of junk and old vehicles, etc in the yards. A majority of the homes are made of adobe-like material. Landscaping is pretty much nonexistent. Tucumcari's had better days, I think.

We ate supper at a genuine Tex-Mex/Mexican restaurant called La Cita. Delicious food. Chris had the enchiladas, I had a tostada-type dish called Chalupa.

Tonight after it gets dark we're going to drive down Tucumcari Blvd. to look at the neon signs. There are old neon signs on most of the motels and restaurants along the "strip." It's another thing the town is known for along the route.

Tomorrow it's off to Albuquerque via Santa Fe........a bit of a longer drive than today. We passed the 1/2 way point today (Yes, another picture, Chris!). 1339 miles to go.

Yeeeeeeeeeee-hawwww!

Hi Y'all. Chris & I arrived in Amarillo late this afternoon after driving from Clinton, OK. Sadly, we had to say good-bye to the Elvis room,

Across the road from our motel was the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. It is only a couple of years old, and follows the development and use of the road from the 20's through 70's when it was finally decommissioned. It was really well done and had lots of great old signs, photos, and old cars there. We spent almost an hour there, much to Chris' dismay....he doesn't like museums. After leaving there, we finished following the rest of the Oklahoma route. In Elk City, about 20 miles past Clinton is another Route 66 museum called the "National Route 66 Museum" Chris was sleeping by this time, so I went through it on my own. It was nearly as nice as the OKLAHOMA museum in Clinton.

At the Oklahoma-Texas border there is a ghost town, called Texola. Lots of old abandoned buildings. Took more pictures. Chris is getting tired of my photography. Tough.

As we drove into the Texas panhandle we noticed the land beginning to change. It got gradually flatter, and all of a sudden we realized it.......no trees.....just miles and miles of prairie.......

We drove through a couple of torrential downpours. No tornadoes though. I told Chris that I could outrun one if we saw it.

Tonight we're staying at the Big Texan Motel. We ate at the Big Texan Steak Ranch....absolutely great food. They have a deal where if you eat an entire 72 oz steak in an hour or less along with all the trimmings, ie salad, potato, etc. We passed on that deal and just got "normal" size steaks.

This motel has a pool shaped like the state of Texas. We're going to go swimming a little later.
Right now we're watching Lethal Weapon 4 on HBO. It's pretty good.

Tomorrow we pass the 1/2 way point in Vega, Texas.....and then on to New Mexico!

Today the air was so thick with humidity that when I first took my camera out of the car to take a picture, it instantly fogged up. Evidently, it rained overnight, but it had stopped by morning. We stayed in Claremore, Oklahoma as I said yesterday. We went to the area of the Will Rogers museum looking for a statue of him (Will Rogers, that is) in order to take a picture. Well we took a picture of a statue of a guy, but I'm pretty sure it's NOT Will Rogers. Oh well, I'll label it "not Will Rogers". We passed on the Will Rogers museum because we wanted to get going on the road, and Chris wasn't interested in learning more about Will. I told him he will need to write a paper on Will Rogers next year in school. He says, no, he still wants to write a paper on the Times Beach Government Conspiracy thing he's convinced is going on.

The drive through Tulsa was pretty dull, though we saw lots of old motels, gas stations, and other vacant buildings sitting empty, slowly deteriorating.

After Tulsa, we were able to follow a number of short sections of original 1920's route. These sections would wind away from the more "modern" route through farmlands and countryside, over old rusted bridges with trees sometimes forming tunnels over the road. Once again we noticed the 45 degree curbs along these sections. The difference in Oklahoma is that the old concrete roads have an almost orangish-red color. This no doubt comes from the fact that the dirt here in Okie-land is RED....no kiddin'.....RED!!! I've never seen anything like it.

We even traveled down a section of Route 66 that was the route for only 2 years--1925 & 26 that was dirt.....not gravel.....just red dirt.....cool.

In Arcadia we stopped at the "Round Barn". The story is that this is the only round barn in Oklahoma. The guy staffing at the barn was "Butch." He was a guy probably in his early 60's who lived next door to the barn. He was full of stories about the restoration of the structure which had taken place several years ago. On one wall in the lower level of the barn there were many pictures of round barns from around the United States and the world, actually. I told him I was from Michigan, and he said there's one round barn in Michigan that he's been trying to get a picture of for years.....guess where.......EVART!!!!! Yep, less than 20 miles from home. I told Butch I'd get him a picture of that barn as soon as possible after I get home. Upstairs, he said that's where the man died......yep, died going round and round trying to find a corner. (It was a not-too-funny joke) They hold dances, wedding receptions, and other functions in the upstairs round room. There were some T-Shirts for sale that had been dyed with that red Oklahoma dirt......on the back they said "older than dirt". I was going to get one for Cindy, but my better judgment prevailed, knowing how sensitive she is about her age, so I passed. I bought a couple of postcards and gave Butch the money, and he said he'd give me my tax back, and he put a "wooden nickel" in my hand, along with a card with a picture of the barn and his address on it. All in all, a great guy. Chris wasn't too impressed with the round barn, but the talk with Butch made it all worthwhile.

As we continued through Oklahoma we continued finding old alignments, or routes, of the highway. Oklahoma City was a major pain to navigate through. I had wanted to see the Murrah Building memorial, but after fighting my way through traffic trying to follow inaccurate directions from 2 different sources, I gave up.

After Oklahoma City, it was on to Yukon, hometown of Garth Brooks....didn't see Garth. Yukon was otherwise not interesting.

In El Reno we were going to stay in the Big 8 Motel which was featured in the movie Rain Man. Unfortunately, the Arab owners changed the name of the motel to the Deluxe Inn and said there is "no more Rain Man room" (speak this with an arabic accent) Thank goodness we had canceled this reservation, because this place was now a MAJOR dive.

From El Reno it was on along more old, old road.....like a step in time back to the 30's or 40's along miles and miles of old portland concrete....still orange.

In Hydro, Oklahoma we stopped a a Route 66 landmark....Lucille's Historic Route 66. Lucille Hamon is an 86 year old woman who has owned this small store/gas station on Route 66 for 57 years. She's well known along the route and has had numerous articles written about here in different publications. Though in ill health, she still runs the store all by herself. It looked closed at first, but as we began to pull away, Lucille came out from her house behind the store and unlocked. We then spent over 45 minutes talking with her about her store, her life on the route, and our travels. She was wonderful to talk to....she's going to be inducted into the Route 66 Hall of Fame at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma. We bought a couple of pops, and some postcards, a bumper sticker, and a T-shirt. She autographed a postcard, the bumper sticker, and a magazine put out by the Oklahoma Route 66 Association that has a picture of her store in it. I then took a picture of her with her arm around Chris, and another with her in front of her store.

People like Butch and Lucille and the Henry's are what makes this road special. It's not a rush, fast food world out here, but a road very much alive with people who care about what they're doing and take the time to talk to people. In each of the places today we signed the guest books and looked through who else had signed, seeing signatures from people from Denmark to California to France to New York.

After leaving Lucille's, we headed on into Clinton, Oklahoma where we checked in to the Tradewinds Motel, room 215.......why room 215 you ask? Because THAT's the room where Elvis stayed on several occasions when he passed through this way. This room is unbelievable. It's decorated in cheesy 1960's kitsch----red velvet bedspread on the king sized bed, a large curved black Naugahyde couch/seat where Chris is currently sleeping, and white French provincial-styled furniture. Even the curtains are red velvet. (say the following like Elvis) Thank ya, thank ya very much! I am the kang!

Tonight I took Chris to his very first drive-in movie. The theater was showing Deep Blue Sea, a new "Jaws"-like movie about sharks eatin' people. The air was hot, humid and hung in the car like a blanket. It was really warm, and the rental car couldn't be started to turn on the A/C because the headlights come on automatically.....bad drive-in etiquette. Instead of the old drive-in speakers, we tuned into a special frequency on the FM radio and heard the soundtrack in FM stereo surround sound! Drove back to the motel along old 66 again, this time in the dark doin' 65 mph. Quite an experience. Didn't pass one car the whole 15 miles.

Tomorrow it's the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, then on to Texas with a stop in Amarillo for the night.

It was another beautiful day weather-wise along Route 66 today. We've really been lucky in that its been sunny every day. We may be getting some rain tomorrow.

We were planning on going just under 200 miles today, but because of the lack of stops today, we got to our reserved motel at 3 in the afternoon, so we decided to go on to make tomorrow less of a long drive. Instead of staying at Boot's Motel in Carthage, Missouri, we're at Motel Claremore in Claremore, OK, birthplace of Will Rogers. When Cindy set up my reservations along the way (what a sweet, sweet woman and loving wife she is, too, by the way) the old guy at Boot's Motel said we were "lucky" to get a room there because there were going to be fifty to sixty thousand "Vietnamese" in town that day. Well, I don't know where he got his information, but when we drove through, I sure didn't see groups of Vietnamese there....maybe I wasn't in the right part of Carthage, but as small as the town was, I think it would be pretty hard to hide that many orientals in southwestern Missouri.

Anyway, it's just as well we didn't stay at the old Boot's Motel, because it looked as though it had better days.

Earlier in the day, we stopped at Route 66 Motors in Rolla, Missouri. It is a shop with lots of old metal signs, gasoline station memorabilia, and some old cars for sale to boot. Chris fell in love with a 1971 black Mercury Cougar convertible for a mere $ 5950.00. It appeared to be in almost mint condition, and he couldn't understand WHY we couldn't buy it!!!! I did get him some black fuzzy dice, however.

We took a wrong turn going out of Rolla and ended going about 15 miles down the wrong road. When I finally figured out things didn't look right, we turned around and got back on track. I didn't even lose my temper......amazing.....this road must have magical soothing powers.

Some of the old road had curbs on it poured in the 30's. the purpose of the 45 degree angled curbs was to push the car back on the road should it start to go off the road. Unfortunately, with the cars of the day, most of the time it just served to tip the cars over. It was like going back in time driving down some of the old road through arches of trees covering the road. In many stretches, we were the only car around. We saw many abandoned gas stations, motels, and shops......we even explored on foot one set of old abandoned and deteriorating cabins.

Just past Waynesville, Missouri, we passed an abandoned old store called "Hough's Market". Needless to say, we stopped to take some pictures of the place. Chris & I thought it was weird.........Waynesville then Hough Market........get it? (For those of you who don't know, my dad's name is Wayne)

We drove on two sections of old old Route 66 that were only paved 9 feet across. The government didn't have enough money to pave a full two lane road in this part of Oklahoma, so it paved the narrow portion. It was really amazing finding that old unmarked portion of the route.

We also saw the LARGEST TOTEM POLE IN THE WORLD tonight in Foyil, Oklahoma. It is 90 feet tall. It was made in 1948 by a native American, Ed Galloway who was trying to preserve his native American ancestry in this way. I tried taking a picture from the base and Chris said I should get down on the ground for a better picture. So here I am, lying flat on my back at the base of the totem pole looking like an idiot.....got the picture, but then Chris just burst out laughing saying he was only putting me on about getting on the ground....the jerk!

The battle of the CD's in the car between Chris and I continues to heat up....me wanting to listen to things like Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones, versus his desire to hear Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Stained, and the like. I'll tell you, some of the bands he listens to really need to chill out a little.......they really seem a little too excitable!

So far we've been really happy with our rented Grand Am. It's run flawlessly, and seems to be getting pretty good mileage. It's comfortable, quiet, and the A/C continues to work great.

Tomorrow it's off to explore more of Oklahoma....we'll be going through Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and ending up in Clinton, Oklahoma.

Til then....

Hi, Y'all!

We're resting in the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri tonight. It's been another great day on the road. This motel doesn't have a phone in the room, so I can't send this email until tomorrow night.....sorry.

After sleeping in again, we checked out of the 66 Motor Court and drove about a mile to the Route 66 Cafe. It's an old restaurant on the old route....been there since the 30's. The parking lot was full of pickups (interpreted as locals) so it looked like it must be good. We weren't disappointed. Though old and fairly barren inside, we were greeted by a waitress with bright red lipstick who waited on us like we were kings. We each ordered a stack of pancakes with a side of sausage. Chris and I are seeing who can have the highest cholesterol by the end of the trip.....I'm sure I'll win. There was a woman behind us chain smoking sitting at a video poker machine while the ceiling fans slowly churned the smoke.

Leaving at about 9:30 am, we headed down between high walls of corn along old railroad tracks and old, abandoned roadway slowly being reclaimed by the earth, grass poking up from the cracks at the seams in the portland cement and from each side.

As we were heading through Staunton, Illinois, we came upon Henry's Rabbit Ranch. Since it had a Route 66 seal on the sign, we decided to check it out. There we met Rich and Linda Henry, two of the nicest people I've met. Linda talked to Chris and I about their weekend trip to Michigan this last weekend...they drove from 260 miles south of Chicago from their home in Staunton up to Michigan, along the west Michigan shore, through the U.P., and down through Wisconsin back to their home from Friday afternoon, arriving back home Sunday night. Talk about a road trip. We talked about Mackinac Island....they didn't have time to go there since they were rushed for time....no kiddin'. We asked where the rabbits were. Not RABBITS the animals, but Rabbits the VW's. They have over 30 VW Rabbits around their place in various stages of repair and disrepair. Rich likes to work on VW Rabbit Diesels. After we checked out the Route 66 souvenir shop and had our picture taken in front of the old gas pumps in front of their store, they took us into their pole barn and showed us their collection of cars, old coke machines, and various other types of old stuff. There was a 72 Corvette in one corner, two old 1930's trucks along another wall, a Yamaha Route 66 edition motorcycle, a 63 Buick, and about 8 VW Rabbits---a convertible, a special edition, one with over 350 thousand miles, etc. Chris had purchased a VW license plate in the souvenir shop and told the Henry's that he liked VW's. They told Chris if he ever bought one, they'd like him like to bring down & show them. As I signed the guest book, I noticed the last entry in the book was July 16th. I hope the Henry's make it in their business. They're great people.

After leaving Staunton, our next goal was the now abandoned Chain of Rocks bridge. It used to carry the Route 66 traffic across the Mississippi. It's been out of use since the mid 60's. It's now closed except on weekends when they allow bicycle traffic across it. It's unique in that it has a 45 degree bend right in the middle of the bridge. Looking at how narrow it is, I can see why they didn't use it longer as a two lane bridge.

On to St. Louis. We stopped at the Gateway Arch and walked to its base. The tram to the top had a 2 1/2 hour wait, so we passed on that.

Following the old route out of St. Louis was moderately easy due to the Historic Route 66 signs. We next stopped at Ted Drewe's which is a frozen custard stand that's long been a famous Route 66 landmark. We each got a "Concrete" which for lack of better description, is kind of like a "Blizzard". Delicious. While there, a little kid, about 3 years old or so, ran under my feet and my knee kind of hit him and he kind of fell down, crying. I apologized profusely, but Chris just rubbed in my clumsiness the rest of the day. Poor lil kid.

As we followed the route on out of St. Louis, we passed Times Beach, a community that was completely evacuated in the early 80's because of dioxin contamination in the soil. We tried to get into the area, but the whole town is fenced off and gated with armed guards and government type people. We saw lots of unmarked white and black Suburbans and SUV's. Chris is convinced the people in the town were all killed after failed biological experiments. I told him once later in the day there was a black Suburban following us....you shoulda seen him jump!!! :)

We toured Meramac Caverns........a cave's a cave.......still interesting.......and a cool 60 degrees.

The Wagon Wheel Motel where we're staying tonight is run by an elderly couple. They must be in their 80's. The office is actually their living room. The motel is made of cottages made of Missouri cut limestone rocks. No phone, but there is cable TV.

Tomorrow we will be in Missouri all day, through the Ozarks. The scenery is much more varied here than in Illinois, where it was all flat farmland. Now we're in rolling dark green hills.

Later, dudes.

We slept in until about 9 am today, because we were both shot. After showering and packing up, we had to get the motel manager to get the lovebirds to move their double parked car. He tried to tell me the car wasn't for a registered guest, but once I described them, the maid knew which room to try.

We ate breakfast at Lou Mitchell's. It is this wonderful restaurant/bakery near the start of Route 66 that's been around for over 75 years. This old woman was walking along the line of waiting customer's with a basket of freshly made donut holes with powdered sugar, telling anyone who would listen about the history of the restaurant and about Lou Mitchell who's been dead for a few years, but actually worked at the restaurant into his late 80's. The food was fresh and delicious, and Chris said it's the first time he's ever had a waitress call him "Hon."

After breakfast, it was off on the "Route." Route 66 through Illinois we found is very well marked with Historic Route 66 signs. We had a couple of maps and sources for directions, but the signs were actually the best way to follow the old road. We ended up driving less than 8 miles of freeway out of over 250 miles today. We became adept at seeing old traces of even older road than we were driving on either running parallel to or angling away from the current "old road". There was almost no traffic on our trip today once we left the Chicago area. Though the road was the freeway frontage road for part of the today and we could see the freeway traffic less then 100 yards away, it somehow felt like a better way to travel alone on the two lane at our own pace.

We traveled through the capital of Illinois, past the state capitol building along the 1926 alignment of the road. We arrived at our Litchfield about 6 pm, pretty well shot. We were going to go see a movie at the drive-in here in town, but even Chris was too tired for that tonight. I didn't fight with him about going to bed early. We ate supper at another Route 66 famous location, the Ariston cafe. Chris gave it a 6 out of 10 rating....which might have been a little generous.

The 66 Motor Court where we're staying tonight could be called "authentic", but "seedy" might be a little more descriptive. Chris was most upset there wasn't a door on the bathroom, just a folding type thingy that doesn't latch. Yeah, the wallpaper might be peeling from the walls and the dark brown paneling an orange shag carpeting a little dated, but hey, it's only 33 bucks a night and it's the only motel on the old road here in Litchfield. The air conditioning works well...I think I have the room cooled down to about 60. Cindy...you'd love it, I know.

Tomorrow it's off to St. Looey, the Gateway Arch, and the Missouri Ozarks. It'll be good to see some hills after the flatness of Illinois.

After getting up too late and some last minute packing, Chris & I finally hit the road about 8:30 instead of the 7:00 I had hoped for. The trip to Chicago was uneventful until we hit I-94 just west of downtown where it turned into a parking lot. For the next hour we were pretty much as a slow crawl and standstill. The Aurora was missing badly, and the "check engine" light came on, and I kept watching the temperature gauge as it crept toward the red line. I must say though, I DIDN'T LOSE IT!!!!! Good for me. Chris can verify this.

We found the "Economy Parking" lot a long way away from O'Hare and picked a spot for the Aurora. We had noticed the National Car Rental place was just a few blocks up the street, so we decided to walk. Once again, we underestimated the distance to the office, but after the 6 hour ride, the walk felt good....even the in 95 degree heat (yeah, right!). We picked up a white Grand Am. Chris was dismayed to see it didn't have a CD player, but we rigged one up with a power and cassette adapter so now we can listen to Limp Bizkit and Snot and Godsmack for the next two weeks (I'm serious, those are really CD's he has). I was able to get him to listen to some Steve Dahl in Chicago. He's a talk radio/comedian and he was on an extended phone call with his wife. Steve's wife was ragging on him about how he didn't do anything around the house and how he was always grumpy, and how he wasn't spending enough time with her or the family, and how he was spending money just on the things he wanted, etc. Chris said, "Deja Vu". I wonder what he meant by that......

Anyway, the trip downtown was much faster. We were able to get in the express lanes of the freeway and see all the poor suckers waiting at a dead stop.

Next stop was our place of lodging for the night in downtown Chicago....the world famous "Ohio House." It was run by an Arab with an attitude. He was none too friendly and none too helpful. But we were able to get our room. Kinda seedy, but OK. The A/C worked, THANK GOD!!! We ate supper at the Hard Rock Cafe, then took off for the Tom Petty Concert. I got a LITTLE lost, but found the place in plenty of time. He was playing at an outdoor venue called the "New World Music Theater about 30 miles south of Chicago. The warmup band was Lucinda Williams. Chris & I both thought she sucked. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were absolutely great, though. They played for almost 2 1/2 hours. In spite of the seating at the amphitheater, I was surprised to see everyone stand up through the whole show. Got my toe-toes a little tired....but there we were, dancin' & jammin'. Great show.

Got back to our hotel about midnight, only to find NO PARKING PLACES AVAILABLE. The Arab guy said...."sorry for your luck" (say with an Arabic accent) in so many words. I double parked and notice a young couple crawling all over each other. The woman obviously had her car there along with the guy. Well anyway, my car was blocking her car, and they both came and sat on the lip of the trunk until almost 1:30.....I stayed in the car, because I couldn't leave it double parked. Chris went up and went to bed....the louse.....didn't care if his dad had to spend the night in the car. FINALLY, the two lovebirds asked me to let them out, so I did & immediately took her parking place....only to find her blocking ME in the next am, by the way.

I had to pound on the window to wake Chris up to let me in, but finally hit the sack about 2:00 am Chicago time.......long day.......great concert.

We start Route 66 tomorrow am.