First Officers Log: Day 4&5

Day 4: It’s Too Hot for This Early in the Morning


Woke up at 6:30 am cst, and I was so not having it today. Bringing this blog to y’all is taking away from my sleep because this computer takes two hours to do anything. Regardless it must be done so I will press on. Took my usual am shower while trying to figure out what day it was. Once again had the continental breakfast waffle! I really enjoy waffles, both the food and the person!

Once we’re done eating it was time to hit the road again. As we walk outside from the air-conditioned hotel the heat and humidity hits us like a wave crashing on top of you when you’re not ready for it. It’s too hot this morning so we ride to St. Louis with the top up. The ride through Missouri was nothing but straight roads and Farmland. Oh did I mention there were more hay bails!!!!

When we arrive into St. Louis you can see the Gateway Arch gleaming in the sun. We park the car and head out into the sunny streets of St Louis. It is unbearably hot out, around 102 degrees, 115 with the humidity. It’s about 9:00 pm now and its still 95 degrees out, just for a comparison. We stop for a quick picture outside the Capital building with the Arch in the background, and then It’s down the road to Busch Stadium for a Cardinals game. They played the Twins, and though I am a devote Yankee fan I say when in Rome root for the home team! Our seats were great, second tier (so we were out of the sun) behind home plate looking down the first base line. The game moved a little slow the first couple of inning’s but Pujols hit two home runs and brought in 4 runs. We sat next to this man in id say his 70’s (once again didn’t catch his name so well call him Bill) and his granddaughter Missy (I am just naming her based on well, its my story so ill call her what I want.). Bill was a big baseball fan so he and the Old Man got along well. They talked most of the game about sports knowledge (well Bill did mostly) I’ve just never been able to pick up myself. Missy sat there and said nothing.

The Cardinals won 5-3!

After the game it was off to the Gateway Arch again for more pictures and a trip up to the top. The line to get onto the tram to the top seemed to take forever and I became rather aggravated with the whole situation. You’d think since we were assigned a specific time that it would have been more efficient but alas it was not. The line took about 45 min and then we finally got on the tram. The ride up takes about 4 min and was a little freaky in my opinion. (I hate heights!) We get off at the top and walk up some stairs to look out the observation windows. The view was spectacular. The light came across the city making it look like it was engulfed by the light itself. (Sorry I am bad at describing an image, the view is posted below.)

For dinner we stop at “Skippy’s: Good Food For Good People.” We sit down in a room laid out with several kitchen tables, NASCAR car hood’s on the walls and of course a lot of RT. 66 art. There was also a vinyl Budweiser banner running the length of the wall. The crowd is something out of an episode of Dukes of Hazzard. We chat with Sally our waitress for a bit about the heat today and our trip thus far. She tells us about a guy who fell over the railing at Busch stadium yesterday due to heat exhaustion! I order the Walli fried fish and a Bud Light. The food was good but the entertainment for the evening was something far more befitting of this place. Its country karaoke night at Skippy’s and the whole town is there (all 30 of them.) It was one after the other of horrid country singing and gap tooth cowboys. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

So that’s about it for today. From here we ride down RT 66 from St Louis to the Munger Moss Motel!

I really hope I down get killed at this place.



Day 5: The Blue Whale


It was so hot last night, must have been in the 90’s with the humidity. Work up at 7:00 am cst today, after the longest nights sleep I've had thus far. On the way out I stop and talk to Ramona the owner of Munger Moss Motel along with her husband. The main office where she was perched up behind the desk was several decades of Rt 66 memorabilia including a bunch of old tin toy trucks. The place looks like it was plucked out of the late 50s and dropped right here in Missouri. Ramona tells me about the calls she has received from people and even newspapers since she bought the Motel several years back. “People call and say I heard you have remodeled the hotel." "No” Is what Ramona replies every time. “ We have fixed her up here and there to make it nice, but it’s the same as its always been.” The people usually loose interest at this point and kindly hang up, she tells me. I cant believe anyone would want to tear apart this piece of history. The Old Man and I loved it there, it was great stopping in a motel that is just how it was when Rt 66 opened up. It was a reminder of day passed. If you want new and remodeled say at a Super 8 people. This world is too preoccupied with destroying its past with cookie cutter crap from pottery barn! If you’re ever Lebanon, MO and want to have a real experience I recommend the Munger Moss Motel. There is a great old neon sign with a flashing arrow, and its across from a bowling alley right on Old Route 66.

Tell Ramona I say hi!

After we buy a few things from the gift shop its back on the road down towards Tulsa, OK. We have breakfast at Stake and Shake about an hour from the Motel. The food was good, though I felt like lunch there would have been better. From there is was down to Joplin, MO and then Galena, KS both old towns with a lot of old shops and rundown streets. I of course loved this and stopped to take a few pictures. The old painted signs still on the walls, and rusted trucks gave the whole place a certain charm. From there it was on to Commerce, OK to see the birthplace of Mickey Mantle. Pappy being the avid Yankee fan he is mad me photograph everything I saw. Surprisingly there wasn’t really anything around having anything to do with the famed Yankee, so we quickly moved on. Next it was the world’s largest Totem poll (our first world's biggest attraction) and a big blue whale made of wood and steel in the middle of a lake in Catoosa. The Whale was hard to find. The directions Pappy printed out didn’t say specifically where in Catoosa it was. I tried to Google it with no luck. We stopped at a gas station and asked a guy in his car outside if he knew where to find the whale. He did after an awkward hesitation to talk to us. Of course Pappy and I heard it differently and argued about it the whole way. I was right, which in our history never happens so I gloated a bit on that one.

After the whale we stopped to see The Will Rogers Museum. Which though not my cup of tea was pretty cool. Today was more laid back with less ground to cover, but this didn’t stop the Old Man from rushing me every chance he got. For the most part Oklahoma is a lot of road and hot sun, and has the most hay bails I’ve seen so far! Also I think I’m slowly dying of sun poisoning, due to the fact that this is the most I’ve been outside in 6 years. Its off to bed so im rested up for Texas tomorrow.

“I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.” Will Rogers


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