Day 5 - Slightly Off Track!

Paul Mullan
Sep 24, 2017
2 min read

It all started in Cuba... Illinois that is! Breakfast at Shelly's where the conversation amongst this group of Kiwis centred around the impending political battle back home.

We snuck around the corner past murals depicting much early political battles on another continent and stopped at the Amish Bakery store.

Cuba is home to about ten families who moved here to set up community ten years ago.

Things were hardly rocking in Fanning. You may remember Billy Connelly perched on high during his TV series on Route 66 but in reality you can't get there!

Pre Interstate highways the mother road had few areas where divided lanes carried the growing mountain of traffic across the nation and we travelled one of the earliest coming into Devil's Elbow originally cut through the rock in 1941.

The massive floods back in May meant the famous bike stop at Elbow Inn was all but washed away. They're still not open but hope to be within the month after a rebuild process inside that will see the entire floor replaced - its a tough enough game keeping the spirit alive on route 66 without mother nature weighing in.

Through Lebanon at their museum we spied a game of another kind. So popular was travelling '66' they even had a board game.

The Sonic Drive In is really a Park In!

That was lunch and we even had a taste of the past when the condiments were delivered on roller skates just like the old days... Imagine 40 hours a week on wheels!

We deviated off track as planned and down to Branson for the show SIX. The a cappella brothers are are good act and their colour coded Camaros were too tempting once again for our Mustangs.

All six of them joined in for a photo session at the end which was very special!

The Caltex boys all grabbed a photo op at the Auto and Farm Museum while the girls had a look around the Outlet Shopping mall - they didn't buy a thing but two of the boys were hastily working out whether a Camaro and a Chevelle for sale would fit easily into a 40 foot container.

We didn't see a paddle boat crossing the Mississippi yesterday but we boarded the Branson Belle to see a show, have dinner and cruise the huge reservoir that serves this holiday region.