Open mic night

Will you guys laugh at me if I bring along Grapes of Wrath and read relevant sections of it while we're on the road? I mean, it's cool, right? To read what Steinbeck wrote about those places as we're driving them? I'm not lame, right? Right???

Eccentric stops along the way

Yesterday, I stumbled onto a web site touting this book called Eccentric America. It highlights some of the quirkiest people and places in this fine country. I immediately went and bought it. I don't know how pure to the route we want to be, because some of these are not technically on the Mother Road. I'll bring the book along so we can decide as time allows.

1. Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfied, IL. This place documents the history of American funerals as well as maintaining a library of funeral practices worldwide. We can also learn all about Lincoln's funeral before going to see his tomb! But there are examples of post-mortem photography, so maybe this isn't the best stop. Website here.
2. World's largest catsup bottle in Collinsville, IL (near St. Louis). This isn't technically on Route 66, but I thought it would be a fun thing to go see. Website here.
3. The following might be a must-stop for me. It's the Precious Moments chapel complex in Carthage, MO. That's right ladies, a CHAPEL COMPLEX. The book has such enticing tidbits as "the chapel itself has 52 biblical murals, 30 stained glass windows, and bronze relief panels all done in the Precious Moments art style." Hee. There's also a Victorian Wedding Isle, honeymoon mansion, bridal cottage. Wow, how romantic! If you go to their website and look through the Wedding Island photos, the picture of the bridal bed is something else.
   
4. Totem Pole Park near Foyil, OK. We can climb up the largest pole on top of a giant turtle and gaze out onto the plains from the observation tower. There's also a Fiddle House that has 11 sides. Website wasn't up.
5. American International Rattlesnake Museum, Alburquerque, NM. In case we want the real truth about these fabulous reptiles. Website here.
6. Chilili, NM. It's a cemetery where dozens of tombstones are made of tin sheets mounted on marble pedestals. Probably not a must-see, but interesting nonetheless.
7. Tinkertown Museum, Sandia Park, NM (20 miles from Alburquerque). This guy carved an entire animated, miniature Western town. It's got a three-ring circus, parade, menagerie and side show. After building this, he put it in a building constructed entirely of 50,000 recycled bottles. Website here.
8. International Banana Club, Hesperia CA (a few miles off Route 66). Another guy (the Top Banana) has been collecting all things banana for over 30 years. There are 17,000 items, including sofas and clothing. Sounds intriguing! Website here.
   

Sara, you might already know about a lot of these with all your research, and there were other entries for places you already have listed for us to stop. That's my contribution to the book/research part of all this!

Itinerary for my Mom!

My beloved mother requested an itinerary for the trip, so I'm introducing her to the wonderful world of blogs. Plus, now we have this all on one page.

Saturday, June 3: Hopefully the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri (no official Web site)

Sunday, June 4: Lincoln Motor Court, Chandler, Oklahoma. No Web site…here, here and here are some pictures!

Monday, June 5: The Big Texan, Amarillo, Texas

Tuesday, June 6: Silver Saddle Motel, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Wednesday, June 7: Wigwam Motel, Holbrook, Arizona

Thursday, June 8: Hill Top Motel, Kingman, Arizona

Friday, June 9: Wigwam Motel, Rialto, California

Saturday, June 10: Viceroy Hotel, Santa Monica, California (we got an amazing deal on this--God bless Sara's online friends!)

Mom: Click on the blue words and you'll find web sites for the hotels. Also, Sara posted some images at the bottom of the blog. The image with this post shows our makeshift map of plans (courtesy of Sara).

Evening meal on June 2

Hey everyone:

I don't remember if we've talked about this at all, but I've really really wanted to go to Rick Bayless' restaurant in Chicago for some time. He has this Mexican cooking show on PBS and I have all his cookbooks. What's our schedule for that night?

Frontera Grill is more casual and *cough* cheap. Here's the menu.

Is this appropriate to blog about? I'm just excited to have a place to blog this stuff. We should create profiles!

Jennfier