Chain Of Rocks Bridge

For Spring Break this year we headed up to Missouri and did a little visit to Saint Louis. It's a great city to visit, especially for kids. Our boys got to run around the Science Museum and feed the goats at Grant's Farm. Our five year-old Elliott, who is still obsessed with cars, was amazed by all the antique vehicles at the National Transportation Museum. And I even found some time to take pictures, including a trip to the historic Chain Of Rocks Bridge.



The bridge over the Mississippi River was built in 1929, and it cost a grand total of five cents to cross when it opened. By 1936, it became the river crossing used by Route 66 as it made its way through St. Louis. The Route 66 history is commemorated on the bridge by a vintage motel sign, originally belonging to the 66 Auto Court in St. Louis. The motel was advertised as "St. Louis’s Finest Modern Auto Court." The motel closed in 1978 and no longer stands, the only lasting memory being this sign that still greets travelers retracing the path of the Mother Road.



The bridge is 5,323 feet long, and has a rather distinctive 30 degree bend in the middle. The sharp bend was added to make it easier for boats to navigate the river around the bridge supports, two water intake towers, and a series of shoals and rapids called the Chain of Rocks. From the bridge you get a good view of the rapids, and the two water towers. The first tower here was built in 1894, and was used to divert water from the river to a filtration plant. In the background, about 20 miles away, you can see the skyline of downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch.



As the city grew, along with the demand for more fresh drinking water, a second intake tower was built in 1915. It was large enough that it also contained living quarters for workers who maintained the towers and the pipes.



The Chain Of Rocks Bride closed in 1968, after a new bridge was built just upriver. And for awhile, the bridge sat abandoned. It was nearly torn down a few times, at one point the army wanted to demolish it for practice. The bridge did get used one time as a filming location for the classic movie Escape From New York:



In 1998 the bridge reopened as a pedestrian and bicycle crossing, and is now part of a massive trail system that runs for 300 miles along both sides of the river. It was peaceful and quiet on my visit (no cars with chandeliers or disco balls crashed through), with a nice breeze over the river and several groups of people either walking or biking across.

Chicago - The Bean

It was getting close to the time that Millennium Park opened up for the day, so I headed down Michigan Avenue. 



I got to the park just as the workers were opening the gates up for the day.



Then I finally arrived at The Bean, but there were already people there. Two influencers (or wannabe-influencers?) had set up a camera on a tripod, and were filming themselves walking back and forth in front of the sculpture. I patiently waited off to the side so I wouldn't get in their shot. But after a few minutes of them repeating the same walk (and then rushing back to the camera to see if it turned out), I went around to the side to get a few pictures.



The Bean is officially called Cloud Gate, and is a large outdoor sculpture by Anish Kapoor. It's an iconic and popular attraction, known for its highly polished stainless steel surface that reflects back the park, the sky, and the downtown skyline. It was designed to look seamless, like an elongated drop of liquid mercury (or perhaps a part of the T-1000 from Terminator 2).



The sculpture gets its nickname "The Bean" because it kinda looks like a bean (and not because it was named in honor of Mr. Bean, like I had hoped).





The Bean opened to the public in 2006, and quickly became a popular attraction and emblem of the city. Most of the souvenirs we saw featured the Bean somehow (and we did end up buying a fridge magnet shaped like the Bean before we left).  





It was time to head back to the hotel, but along the way I made a stop to say hello to the lions in front of the Art Institute.





And just across the street from the Art Institute, at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street, is the starting point of old Route 66. From here, the Route stretched over 2,400 miles to California.



In the distance you can see the Sears Tower (sorry Willis Tower). Stay tuned for some pictures from inside there (and also the Art Institute), coming soon....

Road Trip: Glenrio

Glenrio sits on the border between Texas and New Mexico, and was founded in 1903 as a stop along the Rock Island Railroad. Route 66 was routed through the town in the 1930s, resulting in several hotels, gas stations and diners being built. But in the 1970s, Glenrio was bypassed by the interstate. It steadily declined, and turned into a ghost town.

I've made a few stops here over the years. Glenrio was an interesting, and forlorn, little town. I was eager to make another stop as we drove by, but I was incredibly disappointed when we exited the freeway and drove through. Most of the old buildings in Glenrio are gone, either collapsed or torn down. And almost all of the few remaining buildings here were covered with graffiti.

It was a great reminder of why we should take pictures of old buildings. These old places can be lost or destroyed so easily, or ruined by vandalism and graffiti. It was depressing to see how much Glenrio had changed.

One of the most prominent buildings in Glenrio was an old motel, built in the 1950s. Depending on which direction you were traveling, the sign would say it was either the "First Motel in Texas" or the "Last Motel in Texas." The building still stands, but it's a shell of its former self. The roof is gone, and the walls are covered in graffiti. I didn't even bother getting a picture of it this time, the damage was so severe. This is a photo of the motel from 2010:



The ruins of a gas station was just down the road from the motel. But it is gone now. Here it was in 2010:



And then again in 2015:



The gas station was next door to the old post office, which was one of the last places to close in Glenrio. This was the view in 2010 along the divided highway, which was built back in the time when there was traffic in Glenrio. Now both of these buildings are gone. Now a weed dispensary sits here.



There is, luckily, at least one old building that has somehow managed to survive being torn down or covered with spray paint. It is the Little Juarez Cafe, which was built in 1952.





My son Elliott, who just turned four, is obsessed with cars. And also with the movie Cars. We were watching it the other day, as we often do, and I had to quickly pause it. There in the background, in a scene where Lightning McQueen and Mater were talking, was a building that looked awfully familiar. It turns out that Pixar based one of the buildings in Radiator Springs on this old diner in Glenrio. It is actually shown a few times in the movie, originally as the "Glen Rio Motel." In the epilogue here, it turns into a racing museum:

Road Trip: Tucumcari

Our next stop was Tucumcari, which has been a popular destination for travelers since the early days of Route 66. We were actually staying the night at one of the most iconic places on Route 66, the Blue Swallow Motel.



Which was a really neat place to stay. The motel opened in 1939, and it still contains a few original features. Each room has an attached garage, where travelers could park their cars for the night (modern cars don't really fit in them now). Each room still has a rotary phone that still works, and some of the furnishings have been in the rooms since the 1940s. But the rooms have also been modernized and renovated, with comfy mattresses and wifi.

After we checked in, I had some time to head out and get a few pictures of the other Route 66 buildings in Tucumcari. The town contains a large collection of vintage buildings that were built between 1930 and 1960. Many of them are still open, like the old Buckaroo Motel:



Tucumcari is known for its many vintage neon signs, dating back to the Route 66 era. Most of those signs are for motels or restaurants that no longer exist, and they stand as rusty and silent tributes to that bygone time. One of those signs is for the Ranch House Cafe, which opened in 1952. I stopped to get pictures here as it started to rain, so I retreated back to the car. But then I saw a rainbow form in the sky so I rushed out of the car to get a few pictures:







Across the street is this old gas station recently painted with a few Route 66 murals, with a towering wind turbine behind it.



I then hurried down the road to try to get pictures of the rainbow with as many Route 66 signs as I could before it faded away. This is the sign for the Westerner Drive Inn. It opened in 1949 and closed in 2000. The building was torn down, but the sign still remains.



I stopped at the Motel Safari, which opened in 1959. It is still open, and was renovated in the 2000s.



I passed by the Blue Swallow Motel again, with its distinctive neon sign.



And just down the road is the Teepee Curio Shop, which is another iconic Route 66 location. The shop originally opened as a gas station in the 1940s. But when the road was widened, the gas pumps had to be removed. So it changed to a curio shop. To make it stand out, the owners built a teepee on the front that you walk through to enter the store. The neon sign was added around the same time.









And just down the road is the old Palomino Motel, which is still open.



After that, it seemed like the rainbow started to fade away. Which was good timing, since it was dinner time. So we headed down to La Cita, a Mexican restaurant that has been along Route 66 for decades. To go in, you walk under a giant sombrero. As we parked, the rainbow reappeared, and was even more vibrant. So apparently the treasure at the end of a rainbow is....tacos?





I headed out later that night to try to get some shots of the neon signs. Luckily I didn't have to go far to get pictures of the Blue Swallow Motel sign.







And one last shot of the Teepee Curio Shop and its neon sign, taken before I headed back to our room for the night.

Road Trip: Cuervo

Sadly, we were nearing the end of our road trip. We packed up the car and left Durango, driving back into New Mexico. We drove through Albuquerque (resisting the urge to stop and visit Los Pollos Hermanos), and then started heading east on I-40.

In New Mexico, I-40 runs along the same path that Route 66 used to take. The freeway exits now lead to small towns that were once bustling stops for drivers traversing the Mother Road. One of those small towns is Cuervo, which is now nothing more than a ghost town. The town was established in 1901 as a stop along a railroad route that connected Texas to California. When Route 66 passed through Cuervo, the town grew and added a few gas stations, churches, hotels and schools. The town's population would peak at around 300 people.

Most Route 66 cities began to decline when they were bypassed by I-40. But in Cuervo, the interstate was built right through the middle of town, dissecting it in half. Cuervo's population dwindled, and most of the buildings were abandoned. They still stand, in view of the constant stream of indifferent traffic that speeds by on the freeway.

I've been through Cuervo three times before, on road trips in 2007, 2010 and 2015. I looked back at what I wrote on this blog about those visits, and there was one word that was used to describe Cuervo in each of those posts: creepy. There is a weird vibe in the town, like you're being watched or that something nefarious is lurking around nearby.

Here's a shot of Cuervo from 2007, of the odd collection of junk left behind in an abandoned house.



In 2010, we stopped and went inside the old abandoned school:



And in 2015, I peeked inside this abandoned house: 



There is an old catholic church in Cuervo, which was built during World War I. Somehow it's still in decent shape (the roof looks like it was replaced recently). I quickly got out to take a few pictures:





Right next to the church is an abandoned house (it's the one in the photo from 2007 that had the random hairdresser chair). I've taken lots of pictures of that house in the past, like this one from 2015:



But I didn't take any pictures this time. The old house was completely covered with graffiti and vandalism. It seemed like the entire shell of the old house was covered with spray paint. I got an uneasy feeling about it, and didn't want to linger too long. So I hurried back to the car, and then headed onto the freeway. We quickly put Cuervo in the rearview mirror, joining the rest of the traffic on the freeway that passes apathetically through the remains of this sad old town.

Springfield, Missouri

A few weeks ago I took Jonah up to Missouri so we could visit Silver Dollar City so we could celebrate a successful end of the first grade. I have an Aunt who lives in Springfield, so we stayed with her over the weekend, and got to see some sights. Springfield is home to the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, which is right by the Bass Pro Shops Headquarters. We went through the aquarium, which contains 1.5 million gallons of water and has over 35,000 fish, birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians on display. It is really neat, but expensive. The ticket price cost an arm and a leg (and a fin?).

I tried taking pictures with the camera but most of them didn't turn out. I managed to get this shot of guy, not sure if it's a croc or a gator.



And then there was the jellyfish room...



Springfield is also known as the birthplace of Route 66. Way back in the 1920s, the course of Route 66 was mapped out at a hotel in Springfield. The Mother Road passed through Springfield, and you can still find lots of old buildings that travelers would have driven by back in the olden days. One of those places is the old Shamrock Court Motel, which was built in 1927. Sadly it's closed and empty now (but up for sale).







Down the road is a park that has a reproduction of a sign for Red's Giant Hamburg, a restaurant on Route 66 that has operated for decades. The restaurant was a staple on Route 66, but closed in 1984. But a few years ago, it was reopened and features the same recipes as the original. We ate there and it was pretty tasty! Apparently it was called Giant Hamburg because there wasn't enough room on the sign to fit all of "hamburger."



And one last shot from Springfield - we stopped to get gas at this station, which was right by some old silos. They had some neat vines growing on them so I ran out with the infrared camera for a quick picture....