Gettin' Our Kicks on Route 66

 

Today Travalon and I hit the road about 9:30 this morning, and our first stop was the Shrine of Our Lady of the Highway, which is a Route 66 attraction. It's just a shrine in someone's yard, but they do have free rosaries, and I found a really cool one-decade one, maybe for deceased pets?

Our next stop was the Mother Jones Monument. This is where she was buried after dying at age 100, after a lifetime of fighting for the rights of others, like child miners. 

I would have loved to have known this lady!

Every Catholic should live by this motto!

Our next stop, yet another Route 66 attraction, Henry's Rabbit Ranch. The store wasn't open today, but there was lots to see outside.

Our next stop was Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, a very old Native site which I have blogged about before. It wasn't nearly as cold as it has been back home, so an outside walk was wonderful.

Then we went to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, but it was closed today. Here is the grotto.

We were going to check out another Route 66 attraction, the World's Largest Bottle of Catsup, but it would have taken another half hour of driving, and it was well after two and we hadn't eaten yet. We headed to St. Louis and went to the City Museum, which had been recommended by my boss. It just goes on forever! We had so much fun! Our only disappointment was that it began to rain, so we couldn't go on the outdoors elevated walkways. We had a quick lunch there of surprisingly tasty pizza, then we were off to explore. Here are some photos.

Fat Bear and the Fat Bear!

My Third Eye toque kind of glowed in the blacklight!

Niko in his natural environment:

On the fourth floor was an art studio, and I created this masterpiece:

Travalon didn't like his depiction of the Wolverhampton logo, so he threw it away and wouldn't let me post a photo on here.

This is a paddlefish with some big white catfish.

Here is a video of a fish that fills with water and then dumps out.

After that, we drove to our hotel, which has an amazing view of the Arch and the Old Cathedral, which was all lit up for Christmas Vigil Mass with the Bishop. It started at 5:00, and we got in just after that.

Just a few minutes later, the Arch was silver while the Cathedral was still golden.

Kathbert has been trying to help me help the poor, abandoned plant. I thought I would dig out the bulb, only it didn't have a bulb, just lots of roots. She suggested wrapping the roots in paper towels, so I did, and I put it in our ice bucket. It looks oddly contemporary and chic this way.

Between what the previous people did to it and what I'm doing to it, this plant will need a Christmas miracle to survive! 

Travalon and I went to swim in the pool, which was a very reasonable size and temperature, and then since there were two hot tubs, we tried both, natch. We'd had the place to ourselves, but as we were thinking of leaving, a bunch of people of various ages from child to twenties invaded, so that made our decision for us. We went down to the free buffet they have every evening for Happy Hour, so our Christmas Eve dinner was a random selection of what was left and what we would eat, so salad greens, macaroni and cheese, and chicken noodle soup, though I also did have baked beans. I now have the photos from yesterday on my computer, but we need to save some time to get to the late Mass at the Old Cathedral, so I'll try to post them tomorrow. 

Famous Hat