Route 66-Day One

Before I get into the many stories of the weirdest places I have ever been let me preface this by saying, I am in no means a writer as you will see nor do I claim to be a photographer either, although I do love taking pictures and I am glad that I have captured some amazing memories to share with you here. This was not a vacation although it kind of was for me. My boyfriend Andy and I had the opportunity to travel to the west coast for a job that he absolutely kicks ass at , and although he was a busy bee the entire time, on his laptop and cell phone with multiple hour long conference calls, we were still able to squeeze a little adventure in on our road trip. I had first heard about Route 66 as most of you had, it was a memory, the first road to the west, the mother road. Full of random road side attractions, which back in their glory days were filled with milk shakes, hamburgers and BBQ. For the old timers I passed along the way this road brought back memories of their youth and even though most of the stops are run down and abandoned now there is a certain nostalgia that lingers in the air. And if you close your eyes tight enough and block out the noise of our technologically advanced world, you can smell root beer and motor oil and hear the sounds of the 20's on to the 50's. It really is quite a magical place if you give it the chance to be.

We started our journey in Chicago, which is where we were living. It was a rather late start in the day, Andy was on a conference call and we were tired from the day before which included packing and movers and saying goodbye yet again to good friends we had met along the way. We stopped in the capitol of Illinois, Springfield at a place called "The Cozy Dog Drive In", which claims to be the home of the corn dog. Although it isn't located in it's original building it is right next door. This may have been a mistake for us, as my expectations were high and Chicago's Hot Doug's and Wiener Circle had spoiled me on the delicious gourmet wild game dogs and the all too famous Char Dog. There was a table of several older women exclaiming that they had never had a Cozy Dog, as I passed by they smiled at me, excited no doubt to see a young person take interest in the road. If I forgot to mention it and if you don't already know, Andy and I have three dogs, yes that's right three wonderful dogs. Each one has it's own personality, but all three are wonderful dogs. Of course they accompanied us on our road trip and as we ate at The Cozy Dog, we sat at a window next to Andy's jeep and let them watch. Which I am sure they did not enjoy. Here are some pictures from our first Route 66 stop.

                       

We decided to camp for the night there in Springfield, which offers a whole host of quirky route 66 attractions, we however were beat from the week before and Andy had a lot of work to catch up on. We found a campground called Riverside campgrounds. It isn't entirely secluded from the outside world by any means, but it is nestled in the woods and the campsites are fairly large and private. Camping there only cost us ten dollars, whereas staying in a hotel room would have run anywhere from a hundred to three, just depending. Pet deposits are extremely high and with three dogs, well you can imagine. We had the tent set up before night fall and Andy steadily responded to work emails and phone calls. By the time the sky turned black and speckled silver with stars that we haven't been able to see in Chicago, we were able to relax in our seven dollar camping chairs and kick back with a nice fire, a few beers , the pooches and some great conversation. At one point the dogs were unusually concentrated on a dark area beside of the tent. Andy shined the flashlight on the area and it was a large beautiful cat that at that point and time I was convinced was some sort of  Serval African wildcat hybrid. I am still not entirely convinced that it wasn't. It was the biggest "house cat" I had seen and when it stretched you could see the legs were abnormally long. We put the dogs away in the tent and continued to stare this guy down. The poor cat probably thought we were idiots, but appreciated the light we were shining on it so that it could more thoroughly clean itself. It was the calmest creature I had seen in awhile and it was just putting on a show for us. I snapped several photos but I was shaking so bad with excitement that they didn't turn out very well. When the little guy was finished he nonchalantly hopped down and ran off. But when he ran away it wasn't like a normal house cat, it was more like a jack rabbit sprinting , his hind legs were the source of his speed. Now you may ask, can I say with confidence that this was some sort of hybrid wildcat, and the answer to that is no. I have googled countless pictures and while the shape of their legs and ears were the same, the couple of beers I had may have exaggerated my opinion. You be the judge, here are some more pictures from day one on Route 66, this wasn't the most exciting day as it was a late start and all, stay tuned for Route 66 day two!

Thanks again for reading, and I will hopefully have day two up by tonight or tomorrow! Til we meet again.