jennyandcindyusa-blog

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Yesterday (7/12) was a solid one. We woke up around 8, as per usual, only this time on 6hrs of sleep post-Thelma & Louise adventure. Totally worth it, but exhausted. What's new there? It's really only compounding. Our friend Kevin picked us up in Pasadena, a very generous move and one that allowed us to put off tire repair until today (most places were closed anyway,it was Sunday). He showed us a really terrific day around LA, starting with the Getty museum. While the museum itself held largely older works, we saw some Degas and Von Gogh that I enjoyed. The building and the surrounding views were probably the coolest parts, but more than anything it was just great to be with a friend. LA is a bit of a daunting city to tackle, so having a guide who was also just a super great guy was top notch. Mid-afternoon, we decided it was time for Cindy to have her first In-N-Out experience. My body fought this decision later on, but I have ~*no regrets*~. From In-N-Out we left to walk around Hollywood, see the stars, etc. We stopped in Amoeba music, a record store that I'm sure must have won numerous awards for it's size and quality, though I can't confirm with any real data. I'd seen their Haight-Ashbury location back 6 years ago or so, but only had time to ironically purchase a "I bought too many records at Amoeba Music" bumper sticker for my guitar case. This time, I was still a little pressed for time, but not so bad that I couldn't make out with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Late Registration, two albums I should have bought long ago. Snuck a patch in there too, for the 66 jacket. A little more shopping on the outskirts of Tourist Land and we got in the car for our *very long* drive to Getty Park. The traffic, caused by the Death Cab for Cutie concert on the way, didn't bother me at all. I've found myself odly bothered by things that don't matter at all, and also way more relaxed about things that used to bug me or make me tense. Kind of a weird personal shift, but I guess that's the traveling life taking its effect on me. Maybe. Some time later (I didn't keep track), we found a parking space and found our way up a trail. We took the dirt path instead of the Observatory in order to avoid *more* traffic and tourists. The climb, while not that difficult, was made a bit tricky by our lack of shoes with traction and/or proper clothes. That aside, we scrambled up some dusty rocks and looked out over the city. The sun was coming down right behind the Hollywood sign, but by the time we left we could see it clearly. We chilled on the top, as good conversation and company brought daylight to a close. We ended the night with some of Kevin's friends and a new card game. I'd tell you the name of it, but it's got about ten and I think I'd butcher them all anyway. The night was relaxing, and Cindy and I were clearly deteriorating into sleepy, goofy, giggly galz. A good time, all around.

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Behind again on these posts—day before yesterday (7/11) was ABSURD. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, but with a small hint of pleasantness hidden in each awful happening. OKAY, FIRST:

We left our hotel in Needles, CA basically on schedule, everything going alright. We drove about an hour on the route, stopped and took some cool sign pictures, etc etc. First minor misfortune: Cindy had left her new turquoise ring in the hotel. First minor pleasantness: Hotel staff had already noticed and called us, offered to mail it to us for a 6 or 7 buck handling charge. Not fab, but not awful.

We began driving into the desert, when suddenly we passed a bad car accident. While there were two cars, one clearly a car that had stopped to help the driver, Cindy wondered if we should stop to see if everyone was okay. We did, and were soon wrapped up in a 2-3hr debacle trying to help a young man from China who had swerved off the road and crashed his rental car into a sand dune. He didn’t speak very much English at all and was alone, a really terrible combination for someone driving through big stretches of desert. It seemed like the universe was telling us to stop, however, because Cindy could speak a little Mandarin to him and I had AAA. He was initially difficult to communicate with because he was on the phone and wouldn’t respond to our questions, and when he did, he responded incorrectly. He told us he was calling a tow truck when really he was on the phone with his insurance company, and so we waited around for a good 30m-45m before realizing he didn’t have anyone on the way. Thankfully, the other car held a German couple who were driving Rt 66 as well. Together, we navigated the situation, called AAA, and got a truck driver on the way. At this point, we had brain stormed countless scenarios, including one where we put the guy and all his stuff in our car and took him to LA with us, then landed on having the tow truck driver take him away to LA or wherever he was going. Now, an hour later, tow truck guy shows up. Multiple police have passed through at this point, both a kind one who was just driving by, and two very cranky guys who were clearly mad at the driver and also wanted us to move along. Cue more misfortunes: AAA gets there, says AAA doesn’t cover accident related tows, and that he had understood the car was just on the side of the road, not crashed up onto a huge sand dune. Oops, miscommunication in there somewhere, but cue positive twist as he said he’d still tow the guy, just not charge it to my AAA. PHEW.

So this guy is still on the phone, talking to insurance, trying to figure out how to get where he’s going, talking to multiple officers, giving his information multiple times, worried as heck he’s going to get a ticket when really he just needs to get himself to a new car and back on the road. I was SO THANKFUL CINDY COULD TALK TO HIM because he would get fixated on things like what car rental company he was going to, if he could drive with the truck driver, if he was getting a ticket, etc. I felt awful that I couldn’t use my AAA to help him out as we were a good 200 miles from LA, but I was glad that we were at least able to get a tow truck to him. He was quite disoriented, quite unsure what to do, and it was so good Cindy could clear some things up for him—and us—and comfort him in the midst of an unfortunate situation.

After we got him situated, told him the tow guy was taking him to a car rental place, we exchanged numbers and got back on the road. Hilariously, a gas station was not more than a mile away, even though we previously thought we were in Bodunk Nowhere. CUE MORE MISFORTUNE: After a bathroom/water/Gatorade stop, we drove on, only to discover five minutes later that we had left a very expensive pair of sunglasses in the bathroom. We immediately turned around, but within the fifteen minutes we had been gone, someone had taken them. Searched the car, searched the bathroom, the whole store, asked the workers….nothing. BUMMER.

So on we go, with very kind Germans now added on Facebook, in the direction of LA. After such an awful time in the desert, hours behind schedule, we decide to hop on the interstate for a while and clear our heads. During this time, I had a lovely talk with my Grandpa. HAPPY 92ND BIRTHDAY, GRANDPA! On we go, through the mountains. I get off the phone and we stop for some gas, only to realize we have forgotten to book a hotel—we *never* forget to book our hotel. MORE MISFORTUNE.

We call and call and go through all of the places and quickly realize LA is both totally booked and generally twice as expensive as we are used to, /and/ not great on ratings or safety in a lot of places. CUE HAPPY SURPRISE: Cindy found a super quirky, cute, 4 star rated place in Pasadena where we could stay for under $90 a night, for all three nights. GOOD, BACK ON TRACK.

We drive on, stopping in a lil’ town to get some dinner, our first non-fast food meal since breakfast at La Posada. At dinner, we do some serious rearranging of plans, accounting for the fact that we are *exhausted* and even if we tried to push on to Santa Monica to finish the route that night, we wouldn’t enjoy it and we’d get back to our hotel at like, 10pm, 11pm. Not good. So we decide to get to Pasadena, make our way to LA to see our friend Kevin the next day, then when we’re on our own/he’s at work on Monday, to drive the route from Pasadena to Santa Monica and have a victory lap there at the pier. Cool, good, not perfect, but a much happier alternative.

On we go. Cindy’s driving, as I’m suddenly hit with total body exhaustion. Could have easily fallen asleep in the car, but wanted to stay up and help navigate, even if we were just on interstate. Good thing I did stay up, because about 40 minutes into our trek, we discovered we had low tire pressure. Okay, no big deal. We pull off, try to fix the problem, tires won’t fill with air, oh, because tire is FLAT.

This was our first car problem on the whole trip, but after the day we had just had, we were not amused. Thankfully, Auto Zone was still open and only 5 mile away. We put our hazards on, rumbled nervously on over, and got some help. After the customer service guy confirmed the tire was indeed flat, we called AAA (for the second time that day) and had someone come help us out. GOOD NEWS: AAA covers a free change of a flat tire to a spare, and can tow you if you don’t have a spare. We had a spare, and a nice man came out and changed our tire for us in under ten minutes. So good!

While spare tires are only recommended to be used for 25 miles, the AAA guy assured us that we could make it to our hotel 40 miles away if we kept the car going under 55mph. So on we went. Highway folk were surprisingly decent to us, even though I was sure they were going to honk and throw fits. ON WE GO, to the hotel…which is adorable, and in a really nice part of town, aaaaand only available to people 21+. Cindy and I are both 20.

Lady at the front desk takes pity on us, says we can stay, just not to be too rowdy. No rowdiness here ma’am, only the desire to fall into bed. We get settled, buy some *terrific* boba tea from the place next door, and *finally* watch Thelma and Louise. Which is a really weird movie, by the way, and both strangely empowering and also a really sad commentary on rape culture. For those who have seen it, what the heck was that ending????? Glad we watched it at (nearly) the end of the route as opposed to the beginning, because there were a ton of moments in there that could have spooked the heck out of an inexperienced driver. Fear not, however, your fearless road warriors (how many times can I slip that into a post) are neither criminals nor inexperienced, and LA calls us on today. Here’s hoping we have filled our quota of misfortunes for the trip and can just relax today. Send us posivibes, we could use ‘em! (Spoiler alert: LA was great, fixing the tire this morning, off to Santa Monica and THE BEACH)

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Two days ago, (7/10), we woke up in La Posada, an absolutely stunning hotel. Unfortunately, Cindy and I woke up on opposite sides of the bed; She, one of bad luck, and I, one of joy and inspiration. She encountered small but frustrating issues such as button-based wardrobe malfunctions while I entered a thoughtful state of mind. We got up early and headed to our lovely breakfast in the Turquoise room, the hotel’s four and a half star restaurant. I tried prickly pear syrup for the first time, drank approximately 3 cups of coffee (on accident via “Can I top you up real quick?”) then discovered the hotel’s upstairs art gallery. Tina Mion, (http://www.tinamion.com/) the gallery’s subject, depicted American presidents and pop culture alongside autobiographical pieces in an surprisingly fresh manner. I felt her pieces were both relevant to my thesis and also strikingly designed—her strong colors and huge canvases moved something inside of me, something that couldn’t be noted, merely felt.

Walking around the premise, I felt calm wash over me for the first time in quite a while. The air was cool and the walking grounds sparsely populated. The sky was a pleasant blue, the clouds soft; I took some pictures and sat in a lovely orange wicker chair, letting my body relax. I could have easily sat there for hours, but our itinerary called me forward.

Our first stop on the route was the Meteor Crater, a stop we ended up skipping due to ridiculously overpriced ticket prices (More than the grand canyon, what?). Instead, we stopped three miles down the road in Two Guns, AZ: Our first ghost town experience. For the second time that day, I was inexplicably moved by a place. I quickly told Cindy I’d probably be a while there, as I was feeling incredibly drawn to it. As we moved through the space, I felt simultaneously grateful that it was broad daylight/early afternoon/totally safe, but also charged and ready to explore. There were multiple buildings that appeared to be old gas stations, general stores,  alongside two huge tower/concrete-like structures that held old paintings of cowboys and the like. One, Cindy noted, appeared to have been re-painted in order to bring out the old faded painting, unlike the first one. Very cool stuff.

The place was covered in graffiti, largely the kind that high schoolers would be doing—but it was good, surprisingly good.  Each building was filled with a different kind of wreckage; Nothing dangerous, but tiles, bits of ceiling, all sorts of junk, things clearly left behind by people coming out to hang there at night….I had something new to photograph in each space, at each turn, and I captured as much as I possibly could. I even took a few pieces of fallen tile, etc and put them in a bag in the car for a possible assemblage later on. Got some ideas a-brewin….>;-)

That space covered and experienced, we hit the road again, back on the route. We drove past the grand canyon (not enough time :( ) and through numerous small towns, many of which were one way streets, aka only option was to drive to end of town, turn around and head back. We drove through trees unlike those we’re used to in Virginia, through a new kind of Arizona unlike the mountainous sections we thought kept going. At one little town, I found a gift store with shield patches from each state along the route. I emptied my pockets and fixed the holes in my collection. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve got an old jean jacket I’m covering in patches and pins from the route. Already starting to feel a little like I’ve got bells and whistles on as I walk, but it’s been a cool project. Might stick it up on the wall and call it art, who knows.

After tiny town time, we landed in Seligman, AZ. Home to The Snow Cap, a seriously quirky ice cream and snack joint, and Angel, the man who made the first effort to conserve Historic Rt 66 and not let it turn into a dead place. While Angel was not in the store (He’s 88 and only comes in in the mornings), his employees told me his story and showed me around, then gave me some info so I could contact him later. So thankful for that, as it was a huge bummer to miss him. The Snow Cap was quite an experience though, a space filled with things I’d argue are installations.  E.g: a bathroom made to look like an outhouse, decked out in weird kitschy stuff, including a radio that is always playing old baseball game recordings, and a mirror right in front of the toilet so you have to face yourself as you do the deed. Hilarious meets weird meets a lil’ gross but laughably lighthearted.

On we pressed, through INCREDIBLE driving. We went through and up mountains, literally—we drove on winding roads that allowed for 15mph only, for the sake of not driving off the cliff—and we saw the sunset as we came down. All this while listening to our good buddy Mo’s mix of old hip-hop, which was frankly perfect for the drive. Windows down, as always, onward.

The next stretch of mountains drove us through some weird lil’ towns smack dab in the mountains and nothingness, on to faster mileages and longer stretches. We finished Mo’s mix and went on to Good Kid Mad City, an album that any hip-hop head knows is an important one. We quickly discovered that our lil’ honda fit actually has an AMAZING stereo, as we blared Kendrick and knew that for once, we weren’t disturbing anyone. The album, which I associate with my first year of college and the time I truly got into hip-hop, took on a new powerful sound that I had never experienced. It was euphoric, and the road to California growing short. With Needles, CA as our sleeping destination, we pulled into town under thirty minutes later. We filled our tank with $4+/gal gas (yikes) and headed to sleep, satisfied after a day of driving ONLY on the route.

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Today (7/9) I am very tired. Spending the night at Caitlin’s last night was wonderful, but I ended up 2-3hrs shorter on sleep than I’d have liked. I’m averaging seven hours a night, which definitely isn’t bad, but the lack of naps and even car dozing definitely leaves me exhausted at the end of each day.

Albuquerque was really a lovely surprise. While I had really no idea what it was like, I was excited to find it was both filled with modern design and classic Rt. 66 signage. Unfortunately, the main drag is SO filled with 66 motels and restaurants that I couldn’t possibly stop to photograph all of them, and I was driving so I couldn’t get shots through the window. We have plans to visit Caitlin again in about a week, however, and during that time I plan to catch some more pics. I could see myself staying there a week and not running out of things to do, easily.

Two breakfast burritos and some coffee later, we hit the open road…going in the wrong direction. 20-30 minutes after THAT, we got turned around, gave the same terrific boulevard another look from the car window, and left town.

We spent the majority of the day just driving, enjoy the New Mexico landscape. We were still shocked by it, and frankly have been responding pretty strongly to it for the last couple of days. Still no well-articulated thoughts about it, just a lot of “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW”s. We did, however, stop at a bunch of Native American trading posts and jewelry stores. We quickly discovered that certain places sold pieces for exuberant amounts of money (like, hundreds of dollars for earrings and thousands for rugs), while others were quite reasonable. It was important to us that whatever we got would be something we understood the meaning behind, and something for ourselves, not for the sake of being flashy. While a few of our stops had been a little rough as the store owners were pretty visibly jaded, we were pleasantly surprised when a Navajo woman who does all her own beading for her store greeted us with a smile on her face and a readiness to talk and tell us all about the pieces.  We must have spent an hour in just her store, chatting with her about how her mother taught her how to work on jewelry and about the reservation in general. She was so full of life, and very patient with us as we spent forever deliberating on which rug or ring to get.  I bought a pair of turquoise bear claw earrings to replace a pair I had lost about a year ago. As we left her store, I felt glad to have something to remember her by, a much more meaningful replacement to my earlier pair of earrings.

Our day only continued to brighten as we headed to the Painted Desert. With only an hour before closing, and about thirty minutes before sunset, we hauled through numerous viewpoints. At one of the many stops, a woman approached us and asked where in Virginia we were from. Turns out she’s from Virginia too! Virginia road warriors ~*unite*~.

The Painted Desert only put us more in awe of the South West. Try as we might to fight it, we’ve been won over. It’s gorgeous out here. Surprisingly cold, too—We had a truly hilarious moment where we pulled a wrong turn in search of “The Perfect Sunset”, ended up in a *still beautiful* section totally alone, decided we could continue on no more, ripped our shorts off and pulled on pretty much every sweater and pair of pants we had brought with us. As the sun came down over the mountains, I put on “America” by Simon and Garfunkel, knowing good and well that any cliché-ness of the moment would disappear in the fact that the moment was *perfect*.

We drove a couple of hours on to Winslow where we would spend the night in La Posada, a refreshing change from Best Westerns and Holiday Inns. Beautifully lit up at night, La Posada welcomed our tired, happy souls in, and gave us the promise of an exciting day to come. Since leaving on this trip, I can honestly say I don’t know how many times I’ve looked over at Cindy with a huge grin on my face and declared “I’m really happy”, but rest assured, I’m doing alright.

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Today (7/8) has been arguably just as good if not better than yesterday. I am so thankful for how our trip turned around since the first day. While I can only imagine how incredible this trip would be if it were entirely on the route, we are still spending hours driving it each day and not making our way with much haste until about 5-7pm every night.

We slowly made our way through Shamrock and Amarillo, stopping at some tiny towns filled with huge, ridiculous signage and preserved gas stations, buildings, and motels. My favorite part about seeing huge signs, like the Cactus Motel above, is feeling as if I’ve come to greet a friendly giant. Each sign presides over its space, whether it be motel or café, abandoned or still in business, protecting the land and welcoming travelers to stop and stay a while. I feel comforted when I see another, as they are each clear representations of an artist’s hand, a carpenter’s nail, or a metal worker’s perfectly pointed corner. I see care in each sign, not tackiness. I have a lot of thoughts about these signs and giants to work out, but just some musings. J

Lunch time was the BIG TEXAN steak ranch, a restaurant that basically takes everything you know or think you know about Texas and turns up the exaggerate-o-meter 30000%. While I felt the familiar Texas vibes I knew and lived back in high school, it was definitely absurd. The walk to the bathroom was lined with holographic old-timey photos that turned into ghosts/skeletons as you walked by. Really weird stuff. Our lunch was decent, nothing special, but my sweet tea and brisket sandwich got me excited for having the *real* deal when we’re back in Austin in a week or so. 

Before we went to our next planned stop, we dropped in a few antique stores and found some really amazing stuff, including a princess phone which I am 98% positive will make it’s way into one of my final pieces. It’s clear and you can see all the little bits and pieces on the inside, which are all fun neon colors. We spent too much money, but the stuff is good, so eh. 

A few photos and some confusing EZ directions later, we were at the Cadillac Ranch.  An attraction that was overrun by pink spay praint, mud, and spray can trash, it wasn’t quite the experience I had hoped for. None the less, we used the plethora of leftover spray cans to make our mark, and had fun seeing all the people who came through. Young kids were taking their shoes off, standing in the mud to get some paint on the back of the cars. Really wild stuff.

Our last stop before hitting interstate was the Midpoint, which is exactly what it sounds like, the midpoint of our journey. We went through some really heavy rain getting there, and unfortunately showed up right after the “best gift shop on route 66” had closed L That being said, the little Tow-Mater replica outside was cute, and we caught a rainbow over a motel sign next door.

The interstate was a really comforting choice after all that rain, as the 66 roads got pretty tricky to drive on.  While I worried we wouldn’t see much of New Mexico from the interstate, our eyes were not disappointed. I’m pretty sure we drove for a good hour just saying “Oh my God. OHMY-“ on repeat. With the windows down, wind whipping the hats off our heads, and Animal Collective blasting, we passed through shockingly gorgeous land, new territory for both Cindy and me. The clouds were so dark, and the sky would peek through in unexpected places in hues of pink, teal, and baby yellow.

We rode on, headed for Albuquerque where we would stay with my childhood best friend Caitlin. I’ve always wanted to see her where she goes to school, but as I’m at UVA during the year and have been at camp or running around the world/states, it’s been hard to find a time for it. We got there late, and she had work in the morning, but we still had a good couple of hours chatting and just being comfortable together. It really is always so good to see her, kind of feels like coming home. J As I finish typing this, I’m sitting in her bed, using every last minute of wifi I can before we head out again. Hopefully I can get today’s (7/9) post out tonight, or tomorrow, but stay tuned fam. Even if I’m not posting on time, I’m alive, and very well.  

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Another two posts being written from the road. Looks like that’s the best way to do it really, write yesterday’s from the road the following day, but we’ll see. Still figuring this out.

Yesterday (7/7) was a huge day. We woke up in Catoosa, headed out to the blue whale to play a bit of catch up. We were greeted by a huge blue concrete (? Plaster? Wood?) whale and a friendly white slide into the lake. I danced around the cute little whale picnic set up like a giddy little kid, in my happy place, surrounded by slightly faded primary colors. The whale itself was a lot of fun—we didn’t slide down into the lake, but we did climb up into the whale’s secret(ish) chamber where we signed our name alongside other road warriors. After buying a goofy patch for my route 66 jean jacket—which, by the way, will probably end up having $200 worth of patches and pins on it, yikes???—and talking to the sweet, chatty store owner, we learned that the creator of the Blue Whale was a famous animal man in Catoosa who had begun construction on the whale for his wife at age 60. There are pictures of him with snakes, and a woman that we *think* is her (store owner did not confirm) with crocodiles. Like, right there with them, Steve Erwin style. Needless to say, it was a cool place, with a cool story, made and maintained by some quirky people.

After the Blue Whale, we were on track to go see The Rock Café, owned by Dawn Welch, the inspiration for Sally from Cars. While Dawn was out of town, we still got the famous Jaegerschnitzle and Spaetzle, a breaded pork cutlet covered in mushroom and bacon gravy with a side of macaroni covered in the same. It looked pretty rough, but it was good! Guy Fieri had visited and enjoyed it, which is both hilarious and awesome to me. From there we went on to our most important stop of the day,  Chandler, OK, where we met and visited with Jerry McClanahan, the author/illustrator of our EZ 66 Guide, aka our sole navigator on this journey.

It was raining pretty hard by the time we got to his little gallery, right next door to his house. A 60-some year old guy, Jerry was very warm and welcoming to us for the two hours we stayed to chat. I spoke to him about the Route, about the way it had changed over time, about his book, about the kind of people who make the journey, etc. I spoke to him about my thesis, about Rt 66 as an American emblem, as a right of passage, as (in his words) a symbol for freedom. He signed our book, the three prints we left with, and gave us advice about detours, must-sees, and perspective to adopt for the trip. He told us to slow down, to savor it, but also to come back! He was wonderful, a smart, passionate, dedicated artist who had made it his life’s work to paint, write, and research about what he loves. He releases new editions of his EZ guide frequently in order to update travelers when the road changes, closes, or has disappeared altogether.  Between editions, he posts updates on his website so that NO ROAD WARRIOR SHALL BE LOST. It was the coolest thing, listening to this guy talk, soaking in his art, work, and the spirit of the route.

With our eyes set on Texas, we made one last stop on the route before switching to interstate. Pops, a restaurant and store that is home to over 600 different flavors of soda, quickly raided our pockets and landed us in well-designed sugar comas.  One last glance towards the huge soda pop bottle outside of the store, and we were on our way. Shamrock bound! Homeward bound! TEXAS!

We spent the night in a quaint, ridiculously cheap “Route 66 Inn” that got good ratings but was still quiet, and with rooms you drive straight up to in a little strip building. It was just around the corner from the Conoco Art Deco gas station, lit up nice and pretty in neon. As it’s been restored, it actually looks quite lovely and makes a nice landmark for the small section of Shamrock we experienced. The funniest part about the stop, however, were the Tesla electric car chargers in the parking lot behind the station. Old becomes new meets super new? Electricity fun for all? (??????)

We hauled our valuables into the hotel room, spent an hour fine tuning our plans for pretty much the rest of the trip, and once more, fell into bed, happy to be at the end of another adventure filled day.  

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

On to today! Also writing this from the road. Exciting news that comes with that statement is that today is the first day Cindy started driving! For those of you who don’t know, we’re driving a stick shift and Cindy had to learn for the express purpose of this trip because this car is the only one we had available. She’s been such a trooper throughout the whole thing, working diligently to learn so she can help with the driving as we make our way to Santa Monica. While she’s practiced a lot, I was hesitant to throw her right in to Chicago city driving or anything like that, so I’ve done all the driving so far. Today, however, we switched places and she’s been killing it, basically got it down pat. I love driving, more than many things, but I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until I got to take a break in the passenger’s seat.

We headed out of our hotel and headed on to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, a St. Louis staple since 1929. I got the Lemon Custard Concrete, which was shockingly good. I think I’ve got this mentality that we’ll have pretty good food wherever we stop on the route, but the modern day consumer part of me that is brainwashed to follow brands is hesitant to expect too much from funky looking places. The route has proved me wrong already, between Ted Drewes and Tubby’s Diner which we stopped at later on for dinner. I took a picture of our waitress at Tubby’s, a bubbly character with dull purple-pink hair teased up kind of like Pebbles from the Flintstones, but she didn’t think she looked good in photos so I promised her I wouldn’t post it. Sweet lady though, really.

After Ted Drewes, Cindy took the wheel and we started driving with no more specific destinations for the day. As is becoming glaringly evident, the route will give even when you don’t ask. We ran into a couple of really great sections, including a Jesse James Wax Museum and “Uranus” (Uranus???? Was that the actual name of the place or just a joke? Not really sure) Missouri, a sort of strip mall of Route 66 stuff. We drove on absolutely beautiful stretches of road and saw plenty of strange things from the car, but continued on till the road ran out at one point and we considered it fate to switch to highway. We took the highway to Tubby’s, however, where our quirky waitress served us really shockingly good food. The place looked a little old, not a place I’d really consider stopping on a normal basis, but our “Rt66 Dining and Lodging” guide insisted it was excellent and worth the trouble.

It’s cool, the Route is slowly teaching me to try places I’d normally pass on, to ask people questions, to be a little braver and to be more patient with myself. Yesterday wasn’t fun there at the end, but today has shown great improvement. I was initially feeling like I wasn’t doing Route 66 properly if I was driving on the highway for even an hour a day, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that Route 66 is not only alive and well, but if I stopped for every Route 66 thing I saw, every restored gas station, or quirky café, I would be crawling across the states. I have to make some choices, but even when we’re just driving through the towns and not stopping, I’m seeing so much. It feels like time traveling, in a lot of ways—whenever we hop back on the interstate it’s like returning to reality for a bit after moving slowly through this strange limbo land that feels like a faded version of 1950s towns and back roads. I kind of feel like I’m seeing “The True America” and yet that I’m in a whole other country at the same time. It’s just a different world, and a really cool one, frankly. I don’t know that I’d wish America was like this everywhere, forever, but there are a lot of charms to this culture, this living museum, this way of life. Lots more to see—tomorrow will be a really important day as we’ll be meeting Jerry Callahan, the author and illustrator of the turn by turn guide book that is guiding us every step of this trip. He loves having people visit his studio, so we gave him a call and set up a meeting! He seems like he’ll be a lot of fun—he said “It’s gonna be a wet one tomorrow! 100% chance of rain! Hope you’ve got your umbrella!”

  �

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Writing this one from the road. Things got pretty stressful yesterday; we got out late, I didn’t realize that Henry’s Rabbit Ranch was closed (Sunday, of course it was closed), and I had calculated the entire journey by interstate mileage, not actual route 66 mileage. Yikes.

We started out well—while moving late, we got to Lou Mitchell’s and had a great breakfast with a wonderful server, Audrey. She asked us if we were driving through or what our story was, and when I told her about the project, she said “Oh, I’ve got some things for you”. She came back with pamphlets, the story of Lou Mitchell’s, and a whole row of stickers. Needless to say, we tipped her well, and I left with a Lou Mitchell’s snapback. It’s funny, a friend of mine (shouts out Ana Moh) had just asked me if I had bought any new hats—I used to be somewhat known for my hats—and I thought to myself “Oh, that phase has kind of passed”. I now have *two* new hats. But more about that in today’s post. I’d just combine them here but I like the idea of having them all separate, daily memories. Perhaps that’s silly. BUT, anyway, got the hat, got the gear, got on the road! While we knew we’d have to skip Henry’s Rabbit Ranch, one of the stops I was most excited for, we still had the Gemini Giant to look forward to at the Launching Pad Diner. We saw him as soon as we crossed over into Wilmington, a very strange, space age greeter for his town.  The rest of the day after that was mostly driving on the route and just experiencing what that was like, what sort of thing we were getting ourselves into. We drove through a bunch of tiny towns, on old country roads, alongside the interstate and the railroad—all sorts of driving, kind of like a sampler of types of roads in a way.  The highlight of yesterday was pretty much what you all must expect I’m doing this entire trip: Driving long stretches of the route just watching the beautiful countryside and listening to The Who with the windows down.  In a lot of ways, I enjoy driving the route more than seeing the “attractions” because the road just follows such beautiful parts of the states, and takes you through towns you’d never see otherwise. Good to have that reminder that the states aren’t just cities and suburbia, but rather a huge collection of small towns and cities with their own people living their own lives.

We ended up having to switch to the interstate for the last two hours or so of the drive, as we were going too slow and would have ended up at our hotel way too late. We hit St. Louis probably around 11pm, exhausted and stressed about how the day had gone. While there were some really incredible stretches, once we realized my miscalculation on timing, we realized we might not be able to see all of the things on the schedule, or all of the things we want to see. Nothing huge went wrong, but it was definitely an unfortunate surprise. I just had to remind myself that it’s only the first day, and that there’s time to recalculate and change perspective on some things. We’re still seeing so much—It’s really incredible how much of Route 66 is out there, alive and thriving.

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Posting this a day late because the 4th in Chicago was truly exhausting. I actually originally wrote this on the Metra train ride back to our hotel from the city, but when Cindy and I sprung up so as not to miss our stop, the post got deleted. BUMMER.

That being said, the day was a memorable one. I can’t imagine any of these days won’t be, really, but maybe my optimism will be proved wrong (Please, world, don’t do that, I’m having a fine sunshine-y time over here thank you very much). Hard to believe the trip “hasn’t even started yet”—we hit 66 today (the 5th) so all this has just been build up in a way. Feels like the mini-trip before the trip, the gear-up trip, the “Let’s do two long days of driving and have a prize of a day in Chicago before you REALLY do the thing” trip. Not that the trip NEEDS to be divided as such, but that’s how it’s sectioning itself in my head. Kind of like this whole experience is a long movie or play that has several acts.

Act 1: Getting There (In Which Cindy and Jenny Make Their Way to Chicago)

Act 2: The Route (In Which Jenny and Cindy Time Travel by way of Driving Route 660),

Act 3: Seeing Friends and Exploring (In Which Jenny and Cindy Make Extended Stops in Several Towns to See Several Friends).

Maybe Act 3 will subdivide itself, and perhaps Act 2 as well, but that will have to reveal itself in time.  

July 4th was a lovely closing to Act 1. We spent the day pretty much exactly as planned, save some Metra navigation that took away a bit of our museum time. It was refreshingly not a big deal, however—even though we spent an hour, maybe an hour and a half driving to different Metra stops, figuring out parking, being confused about tickets and direction, once we actually got on, it was pretty straight forward and it felt good to have figured it out. The Metra is neat. It’s got two levels in each train car and has kind of a feel of the metro mixed with an Amtrak train. Once we hit the city, we spent the next four hours in The Art Institute. I feel like I only saw about a quarter of the museum, but what I saw was incredible, especially Nighthawks and American Gothic. Nighthawks felt especially relevant, here with Americana on the mind, and the colors were shockingly vibrant. Much greener in person, and also more hauntingly empty. Post museum time, we headed to the Millennium Park for typical tourist stuff, like the bean! It always makes me so happy to see public works, especially ones that people enjoy so much. I just love the idea that a whole community/city got behind the idea of putting a big ol’ piece of art in a public space. Gives me hope in the arts to know that that support is there, even if not for every piece nor every artist.

Post-bean time, we parted ways with Mo. Really sad to see him off, but so thankful for our time together. He really brought an extra spark of energy and life to Act 1 of this journey. :’) We were conveniently pretty close to the BEGIN: Route 66 sign, so we headed there next and got a lady to take our picture with it. The only thing left for us to do was eat some deep dish pizza (thx to Cindy for getting us a recommendation for Lou Malnati’s, place was CHOICE) and see some fireworks over Lake Michigan. Throw in a little Salsa Festival, a lot of dead heads, and a big ol’ “GO USA” projected on some city buildings, and you’ve got our Fourth of July. Really good stuff.

Now that we’ve seen one body of water, we’re off to see the next. Santa Monica, we’re coming for you—but we’ve got a lot to see on the way. Here’s to closing Act 1 and beginning Act 2; May our days be filled with Americana quirk and our travels safe.  Always musing, always pushing on.

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Day two, really really incredible day. We set out for Columbus Ohio thinking we’d get a quick lunch with our friend Mo then get back on the road. We got to our arranged lunch spot, a huge indoor market that housed all sorts of different foods, from pizza to Indian to macaroons and bubble tea. What we didn’t know was that our “quick stop” would turn into a spontaneous “why don’t you come with us” adventure as we somehow convinced him to join us on our trek to Chicago. An hour and a half later, we had rejiggered the car to fit Mo and his two bags in the backseat, and we were off! 

We stopped in Indiana for dinner and encountered “The Mug”, a natural BBQ/burger type joint right across from a gorgeous green park with a playground and plenty of picnic seating. The Mug proved to be just as good as “Steve G”, a man who swore to any and all Yelp readers that the pork tenderloin was the “best in the state of Indiana” and that “If you find a better one, let me know. We’ll go together and I’ll personally pay 30% of yours”, then listed his email...Steve G, you didn’t let us down. The Mug delivered. 

After dinner, we roamed around the park a bit and just relaxed before heading on to Chicago. The road was long and we got to our hotel a little later tonight, but the conversation was terrific and the added travel companion was such a wonderful surprise. The time change is giving us an extra hour or so so we’ll recoup. Chicago on the fourth of July tomorrow--Art Institute all day, and deep dish pizza for dinner. The three of us get to spend the rest of the day together before Cindy and I really start the Route on Sunday and Mo returns to MCAT studies. I’m excited to see Chicago for the first time! Should be a lovely way to usher in the next huge portion of our trip. Thanks for cheering us on, we’re thinking of you all! 

[jennyandcindyusa-blog]

Today’s our first day on the road, one of three before we actually hit the route. Route 66 begins in Chicago, so we’ve got two days of driving there, then a full day in the city for the 4th. Little did we know, the 50th anniversary Grateful Dead show is this weekend…should make for an interesting and appropriately Americana experience.

Today’s drive was about 6 hours–not bad, but we’re a little stiff and sore and surprisingly tired. We had a beautiful winding drive through West Virginia and saw just a bit of Ohio before we stopped in Athens. A cute college town, home to “Casa Nueva” where we stopped for live music, quesadillas, and conversations with the locals. Everyone is really friendly, and it’s a cool combination of folks. Definitely college kids who stuck around for the summer + townies (can you call them that if they’re not from Charlottesville?), but a sizable crowd and still felt warm and lively. We meant to watch Thelma and Louise tonight, but we’re falling asleep…until tomorrow!