{"id":2637,"date":"2018-11-11T22:08:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T06:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/?p=2637"},"modified":"2019-03-02T13:12:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T21:12:41","slug":"route-66-day-11-st-louis-mo-pontiac-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/?p=2637","title":{"rendered":"Route 66 Day 11 St. Louis, Mo &#8211; Pontiac, Il"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Day 11 St. Louis, Mo &#8211; Pontiac, IL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Day-11-St-Louis-Pontiac.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nothing&nbsp; waking to a symphony of screeching, crunching , thumping, smashing, grinding sounds as the Hilton&#8217;s dumpsters were being heaved into a truck at 5:00 am below our room to get your day started. How did they know we were staying there?<\/p>\n<p>After breakfast we took a hike to the St. Louis Arch on the shore of the Mississippi River. Dang, that thing is gigantic!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>630&#8242; across the base<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0940.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>54&#8242; Wide at the bottom of the arch<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0922.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>630&#8242; Tall<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0923.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>For some reason Kathy didn&#8217;t have any interest in taking the gondola, elevator or what ever it is to the&nbsp; top of arch.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Mississippi River Queen<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0924.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Bridge over troubled waters<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0926.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Old Courthouse<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0938.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Time for rock-paper-scissors<\/strong><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0941.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>With rain in the forecast we checked out of the Hilton and worked our way around town until we found a way across the Mississippi to Illinois. Once there we went to the base of the old Chain of Rocks Bridge to check it out before picking up route 66 to continue our trek to Pontiac, Il.<br \/>\nJumped back in car only to have the steering wheel suddenly drop into my lap as the bracket holding the steering column to bottom of dash broke.&nbsp; Connecting with my inner redneck enabled me to strap the column up with a combination of tywraps and wire. Another example of my excellent field engineering skills.<\/p>\n<p>This segment of Rt. 66 doesn&#8217;t have as many of the roadside attractions as we&#8217;ve seen so far but it is still a great drive through beautiful country and a number of small towns that are pure Americana.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Nilwood, IL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0951.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0952.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0954.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Atlanta, IL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0955.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Big Weeny Dude<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0958.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0961.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Pontiac, IL<\/strong><br \/>\nWe arrived in Pontiac 4 hours after a snow flurry<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1950 Chevy Fleetline\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0966.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1950 Chevy Fleetline\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0962.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0967.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0969.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0970.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow we drive to Chicago and the end of our Route 66 journey.<\/p>\n<p>Kathy flies home on Sunday and I will begin the unsupervised journey home<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/?p=2565\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"57\" height=\"40\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/red-back-arrowa.jpg\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/?p=2678\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"57\" height=\"40\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/exocet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/red-next-arrow.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day 11 St. Louis, Mo &#8211; Pontiac, IL &nbsp; Nothing&nbsp; waking to a symphony of screeching, crunching , thumping, smashing, grinding sounds as the Hilton&#8217;s dumpsters were being heaved into a truck at 5:00 am below our room to get your day started. How did they know we were staying there? After breakfast we took [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-route-66"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2637"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3016,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions\/3016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}