Headed to Michigan to visit our friends Dan and Melissa and to go to
Stephanie’s skating competition in Wyandotte, MI. Left the pooch home with our petsitter for this trip; too far for the little dude. Stephanie is also testing for her bronze moves in the field.
Today is my last Friday of work before vacation – 2 weeks of it! We’re going to go to the official Last Roswell R2K New Beetle event – this is the annual New Beetle car show that Stephanie attends in Roswell, New Mexico. It’s the 10th Anniversary of the Volkswagen New Beetle, and Stephanie’s car Phoebe turned 10 this year. It’s also the last event of it’s kind, for the most part. It’s becoming harder for people to attend due to the economy and to the age of many of the cars, and putting on a car show is a big process to organize, and the folks who’ve made it such a fun event in the past are worn out.
I went with Stephanie on a very long version of this cross-country trek in 2007, and took in all of Route 66 along the way, traveling all the way to California over 17 days.
Slideshow of Route 66 Trip Photos
This year, we take off Tuesday morning, June 23rd, and meet the rest of the Eastern caravan around Memphis, Tennessee, then proceed on to Roswell over the rest of the week, arriving at the car show on the weekend.
Google Map of the Caravan Route
Since we’ve done this before, we have a pretty good sense of what we need, so we haven’t killed ourselves packing yet. We’ll do a lot of that over the weekend. I’ll post some photos here to my blog and make updates, but I don’t plan to upload all my photos of the trip like I did before. It took a long time and I did very little photo editing on that round, and this time I want to post fewer, but better photos. I’m really looking forward to the time off and spending time with Stephanie, and I’m salivating at the chance to take photos all day long, too.
We’ll also keep in touch via Facebook, and Stephanie will be on Twitter, and I’m setting my blog posts to update Twitter as well.
And as always, you can follow along on the whole trip via the All Pods Go to Roswell webcams, running continuously through the trip by our friend Lisa.
As you may know, Stephanie like to drive her New Beetle to Roswell, New Mexico in the summertime for a large New Beetle car show called Roswell2K. It’s been going on since 2000, and Stephanie usually joins a caravan of cars from the east coast to attend the show, and they drive together.
Stephanie’s friend Lisa has even rigged up a live webcam of the caravan in transit, which is pretty effing awsome to say the least. The last couple of years, though, Stephanie hasn’t been able to go (Shhhh, don’t tell that to Phoebe. She can’t tell time and thinks she’s been every year) due to our surgeries and to moving.
Next year, they’re having a Route 66 caravan. It’ll start in Chicago and follow old Route 66 to New Mexico, where it will break off and go to Roswell for the event. Then it will finish up the last leg of Route 66 and head home, I believe. We’re hoping, if all goes well, to join in next year.
I’m really excited by the idea. I got to drive part of Route 66 when I helped my friends move to Arizona 9 years ago, but we didn’t have much time to stop and gander at Roadside Attractions because we were driving a big, frickin’ uncooperative moving van. On this trip, they’re apparently building in some time to see sites, which should be fun.
I’m just now realizing that in all of the concern and activity around the house, I totally failed to mention that I’m on vacation for a week so we can drive out to my cousin’s wedding in Pittsburg, Kansas.
We’re taking 1-70 across Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri; and from there, we’re taking I-44 down through Joplin, Missouri and into south eastern Kansas, where Pittsburg is located.
Stephanie and I decided to plan a leisurely trip out there, so we can try to photograph some Big Things and visit other roadside attractions. Those who are going on road trips to or through the state of Arizona may consider staying a night or two in one of these hotels in Scottsdale AZ.
Here’s roughly the entertainment plan:
Effingham, Illinois – Giant Cross
Address: Pike Avenue, Effingham, IL
Madonna of the Trail
315 West Gallatin Street
Vandalia, IL
near brownstown
World’s Largest Catsup Bottle
800 South Morrison Avenue
Collinsville, IL
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Stay overnight in St. Louis and visit perhaps some of these attractions:
Big Shoe Made of Shoes
Address: 8300 Maryland Avenue, Clayton, MO
St. Louis Arch
Get a spectacular view of the St. Louis area from 630 feet up at the top of the Gateway Arch.
Anheuser-Busch Brewery
12th and Lynch Streets
Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis
4431 Lindell Blvd
St. Louis, Missouri – City Museum
St. Louis, MO Directions: 701 North 15th Street.
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On the road again:
Eureka, Missouri – Black Madonna Shrine
Black Madonna Shrine: Eureka, MO Directions: I-44 to Eureka Exit, turn left on Hwy W (Central Ave. N) and drive south to Hwy F-F to Shrine.
Buckhorn, Missouri – Giant Bowling Pin
North side of I-44, around the 153-154 mile marker.
Meramec Caverns – Stanton, Missouri
Three miles east of I-44 exit 230. Follow the signs. Impossible to miss.
Stubby Stonehenge
Rolla, Missouri
Precious Moments Chapel – Carthage, Missouri
4105 S. Chapel Rd., Carthage, MO
Springfield, Missouri – Big Fork
2155 W Chesterfield Blvd
Springfield, MO
Big Brutus the Giant Earth Mover
West Mineral, Kansas
Big Brutus: 6509 NW 60th St, West Mineral, KS
Six miles west of the junction of K 7 and K 102, then 1/2 mile south. Hours: Daily 9 am – 8 pm. Phone: 620-827-6177
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Here’s where we’re staying in Pittsburg:
Holiday Inn Express
4020 Parkview Drive
Pittsburg, Ks 66762-2398
United States
Hotel Reservations: 1 888 HOLIDAY (888 465 4329)
Hotel Front Desk: 1-620-231-8700
Hotel Fax: 1-620-230-0154
Email: hiexpress@cpol.net
Check-In Time: 3:00 PM
Check-Out Time: 12:00 PM
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On the way back, we’re thinking of driving north to Kansas City on I-69 instead, and then taking I-70 back east. That way we could possibly see:
Kansas City, Missouri – World’s Largest Shuttlecocks
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street.
Kansas City, Missouri – Sinclair dinosaur
Sinclair Station at I-35 and Antioch Road
World’s Largest Concrete Soccer Ball: Kansas City, MO
Directions: Western Missouri Soccer League fields.
Kansas City, Missouri – America’s only World War I museum
The Liberty Memorial and its 217-foot-tall Eternal Flame tower
Kansas City Children’s Museum – Muffler Man
Indian Springs Marketplace
4601 State Avenue, Ste. 92
Kansas City, KS 66102
Columbia, Missouri – Beetle Bailey Statue
On Conley Ave, in front of the Alumni Center on the University of Missouri campus.
Kingdom City, Missouri – Nostalgiaville, USA and Ozarkland
A shop full of 1950’s and 1960’s kitsch.
Ozarkland – SR 54 & I-70.
I had a really amazing weekend with my girlfriend in Virginia this weekend. I would have blogged about it earlier, but I spend a big chunk of time today getting the trip photos ready and unpacking my stuff. We had so much fun with the other beetle owners and sight-seeing, and the drive to Virginia was really incredible too, because the fall foliage was just beautiful. It was a picture-perfect weekend, and I couldn’t be luckier than to spend it with such a great girlfriend.
Stephanie and I are taking off in a few minutes on our trip to the car show… wish us luck!!
