Photo Journal - The Last Entry

Well, we're all back home again in Indiana. The last two days were somewhat of a whirlwind with not as many photos being taken, so I've combined them into a single post. Friday morning, we crossed the border into the final state containing Route 66, Illinois. Our big stop for the day was in Springfield to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. After that, we journeyed on to Chicago where we celebrated Steph's birthday.

Today, after catching breakfast, we found the somewhat anti-climactic official Eastern end of Route 66 and had originally planned to ride on the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier. Just as we rode on the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier on the first day, we thought this would be a cool way to come full circle. Unfortunately, the Chicago weather was not being cooperative, so we ended up just heading home.

Photo highlights are below:

All of us pose for a group portrait with the Lincoln family in front of the White House at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

A recreation of Lincoln's boyhood cabin

Jess and Steph are always gawking over the military men!




The main rotunda of the museum

This was one of my favorite parts of the museum. You get to go into the library, and "ghosts" take you through much of the history of Lincoln's life and presidency.

This year marks Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. Happy Birthday, Abe!

The library is actually a separate building across the street from the museum.

The outside of the museum. This is probably one of the best museums I've ever been to.

The final sign in my quest to collect photos of the Route 66 signs in all states.

This is the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago - the official eastern end of Route 66. As you can see, it was partially closed due to a special event. We didn't see any marker indicating it as the end point (or starting point). It was really quite anti-climactic.

The Ferris wheel at Navy Pier that we didn't ride because of the weather.

Making our way back through the streets of Chicago trying to get back to Indianapolis

The Sears Tower through the fog and rain

The dreary Chicago skyline through the rain-spotted window of the mini-van.

Back home again...

Well, that's pretty much the end. While I'm exhausted and really excited to have some alone time over the next several days, I must say this was a fantastic trip. I got to experience so many things that I've never seen before. And while there were some times we had to adapt to stay on schedule, there is something to be said for taking things slowly and just taking in the details. I think the line from the movie Cars said it best:

"Well, the road didn't cut through the land like that interstate. It moved with the land. It rose. It fell. It curved. Cars didn't drive on it to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time."

Indeed, I had a great time!

Quick Summary

Eight days on the road

From L.A. to Chicago  

Many adventures

Touched the Pacific

Amazed by the Grand Canyon

Tagged Cadillac Ranch

Slept in a Wigwam

Went to top of Gateway Arch

Helped push a limo

I love my comrades

But glad to be home tonight

Yes, we are still friends

On a break.

We are home now, and appreciating the cars, beds, bathrooms and closets we have all to ourselves. You may be wondering if we are still friends. The answer, as far as I know, is yes. 

We did, however, decide on a little break from one another this week. So outside our normal activities (church and small group), we'll be enjoying some alone time for the next few days!

Happy Birthday to Me

Not only were we nearing the end of our journey on Friday, but we were also celebrating my 29th birthday. The celebration began shortly after midnight with a hilarious little song and dance performance in our hotel room in St. Louis... 

On Friday morning we drove to Springfield, IL, where we had lunch with some of Jessica's friends. Then we did Mark's thing - visited the Lincoln museum. It was a pretty interesting place, and the exhibits were really well done. 

After a couple of hours there, we - you guessed it - drove more. We arrived in Chicago around 7pm. My fab friends had a great birthday evening planned. First we had dinner at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba (yum!), and then we went to the late show at Second City. There was much laughter. Overall, a great birthday!

Journey to the Top of the Arch

Yesterday, we made it to St. Louis, MO and decided to take in a trip to the top of the Gateway Arch. If you've never had the privilege of making the trip to the top, here's a little video of what the experience is like:

Photo Journal Day 6: Thursday

Day six started in Oklahoma, briefly passed through Kansas, and ended up in Missouri. One of the most anticipated features was the giant blue whale. Something that we didn't expect, but definitely stopped to see was the "world's largest rocking chair." Finally, we ended our trek today in St. Louis, MO with a visit to the Gateway Arch.

Photo highlights below:

These "twin" bridges are apparently famous for not being identical. Can you spot the differences?

After driving right by the first time, we finally found the giant blue whale!

This used to be part of a small swim park that closed down in the late 1980's.

Meg preparing to navigate us through the short 13 miles of Route 66 in Kansas.



Crossing into state number six!

The "Marsh Arch Rainbow Bridge at Brush Creek" is no longer driveable, but was preserved as part of the original route through Kansas.

These markers are all along the historic Route 66, keeping us on track! My goal is to capture one from each of the eight states.

Crossing the border into state number seven!

Steph takes on the navigator role as we begin our trek into Missouri.

It's not everyday you see the "World's Largest Rocking Chair."

We passed the 2000 mile mark on our trip across the country!

Steph and Jess at the base of the North end of the Gateway Arch.

The view looking West toward St. Louis from the top of the Gateway Arch

The five of us at the top of the Gateway Arch

One final shot of the Gateway Arch as dusk settles in

That should do it for today. Tomorrow, we make the journey to Chicago, with a stop at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, IL. Until then...

Thursday Recap

Ok, so today could be summed up like this:

We drove. A lot.

We stopped at a big blue whale on the side of the road:

We drove more.

We stopped at the world's largest rocking chair.

We drove even more.

We finally arrived at our destination - St. Louis - around 7pm. It was a long day of driving, but we'll be happy we did it tomorrow and Saturday. After arriving at the hotel (another great Priceline find - thanks, dad, for playing travel agent this afternoon!), we walked over to the arch and went up to the top. I'm guessing that Mark is upstairs editing some video to post later, as I am sitting in the lobby typing. We went over to Laclede's Landing for dinner, and now we are back and playing catch-up on email, facebook, school, and the blog.

It's hard to believe our adventure will only last two more days... but I must say, I won't really miss sharing a bathroom with four people. :)

Oklahoma City: A Pleasant Surprise

On Wednesday morning, we drove from Amarillo to Oklahoma City. We drove through crazy rain and lightning (good job, Jordan!). The only thing I was looking forward to about Oklahoma City was seeing our friends, the Jordans. But I found that I really enjoyed the area. After meeting up with Adaryll, Jen, Elias and Elena, our first stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Hands down, this is the most amazing memorial ever. It is beautifully designed and not only honors those who were killed in 1995, but also survivors and rescue workers. More on that later...

Jordan, Elias, Meg, Elena, Steph

It started sprinkling again while we were at the memorial, and soon it was pretty much pouring down rain. (Oops. Flip flops were not a good choice.) We ended up waiting under a shelter for a trolley and after what seemed like forever, it finally came to pick us up. We headed to Bricktown, a fun area that includes a canal, baseball stadium, restaurants, shops, etc. (much like Indy). We had dinner at Coach's, a restaurant that overlooks the ballpark. 

Adaryll, Elias, Meg, Jess, Jordan, Mark, Steph, Elena, Jen

After dinner we had a good catch-up chat with Adaryll, then went back to Bricktown for a drink at Toby Keith's bar. I really kind of fell in love with Bricktown. Out of all the cities we've visited, this is probably the only one in which I could see myself living. (Don't worry, I'm not packing my bags anytime soon, although I did decide I could work at the Sonic headquarters and live in a great little condo above a Starbucks on the canal.)

I wanted to see the memorial at night, when it's lit up, so Jordan, Mark and I walked back to it after Toby Keith's. I am definitely glad we went back. The memorial has a chair for each person who was killed that day, and at night, the chairs light up. You can see the name of the person the chair represents. There are larger chairs for adults, and smaller ones for the children who were killed. The chairs are arranged in nine rows, representing the nine floors of the building, and each person's chair is in the row corresponding to the floor in which they were on when the bomb went off. In front of the chairs is a reflecting pool, so when you walk to the other side you see the reflection of the lit chairs. I don't think my explanation is coming anywhere near to doing it justice, but I really was just in awe of the whole thing. If you're ever in the area, be sure to visit!

Thanks, Oklahoma. I didn't realize you had so much to offer.

Photo Journal Day 5: Wednesday

Today we blew out of Texas and into Oklahoma through torrential rains. Because of the weather, we didn't stop to get photos of a whole lot of places, and we were pretty sure the day would be a complete wash. However, we did get in a few things, and ultimately, we were pleasantly surprised by our ultimate destination of Oklahoma City, OK.

Photo highlights are below:

Jess navigates us through the remaining portion of Texas.

Just before crossing the Oklahoma border, we stopped at the "Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere."

Additionally, there were several other depictions of Jesus carrying the cross. This is my attempt at getting an artsy photo despite the dreary skies.




This is the famous leaning water tower!

At one point, we attempted to find the ruins of Jericho, TX. This took us on a dirt road. We never really did find them (or if we did, they were very small) and ended up turning around.

This stretch of the road is still the original Portland Concrete!

(See what I mean about light on pictures today?)

This old Conoco gas station reminded me of one of the buildings depicted in the movie Cars.

(That movie inspired this trip!)

The elusive "Welcome to Oklahoma" sign. We were well into Oklahoma before we found one of these! This one was at a gas station.

On our way to the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which is four blocks from our hotel.

The entrance arch into the memorial.

The illuminated chairs - one for every person who perished in the bombing.

The pictures don't quite do this memorial justice. It really is a solemn, yet beautiful memorial.

There are nine rows of chairs, one row for each floor of the building.

Two giant archways frame the memorial on each end. This represents the minute just prior to the bombing, when the city still had it's innocence.

At the other end, this represents the minute immediately following the blast, when the city was forever changed.

All things considered, I found Oklahoma City and the memorial to be the highlights of my day. Not only is the memorial very well done, but the city itself reminds me a lot of Indianapolis, in that it has a pretty decent nightlife, it's pretty close together, and there's even a canal running through it. It only serves as a reminder that we'll be back home soon.

Thanks for following us on this journey!