Last week we made our way from Oklahoma City to St Louis, working our way backwards through the Route 66 song. While we didn't stay in Joplin, MO, we did stop and eat at a Braum's there on Rangeline Rd. My Grandma informed me that my Great-great grandparents had a farm on Rangeline Rd. in Joplin, MO way back when and that she used to go visit them when she lived in neighboring Kansas. There were no traces of any farms on Rangeline Rd. when we drove through - it has been well incorporated into the town. So we stopped and had our last Braum's ice cream of the trip to commemorate the ancestral link.
We did stay in Broken Arrow, OK and Springfield, MO on the way up to St Louis. Broken Arrow, which is a suburb of Tulsa, might sound like an odd choice, but it marked the point where our cross-country trip intersected my cousin Eli's cross-country Drum Corps International (DCI) tour. We had never been to a DCI event and we were blown away. This is as close as it gets to professional marching band. Seven teams each took the field for 10-15 minutes each to do their routine - each with an overwhelming amount of intricacy in music and movement. Imagine if Cirque du Soleil did a marching band performance - that's what DCI is. At one point, one of the band member was spun around in a wheel around the field, trumpets blared as they rotated back and forth on the wheels and Eli's team's performance incorporated a lot of cool snake imagery, the theme to mark the band's 50th anniversary.
It was Mae's first experience with a marching band and she seemed into it. She was not a dan of the ear muffs though.
We were amazed by the turnout - there must have been 5000 people there. Eli's band, the Santa Clara Vanguard, will be competing for the grand championship in early August in front of an expected 30,000 people. Bryn was excited to have discovered another sub-culture.
Our next atop after Broken Arrow was Springfield, MO. I was working during the trip so we stayed put in the mornings and then drove in the evenings.this scheduled left little time for exploring our surroundings. But in Springfield, I got to relive my days of traveling with Grandma & Grandpa by staying in a Best Western. This wasn't just any BW, though - Elvis had stayed there in 1956. His room had been decked out in chrome Cadillac fenders and went for a significant per night premium, so we opted for a normal room, but Mae and I posed for a picture outside.
She seemed to be pretty into the cultural history significance of the moment.
This hotel was also cool because 1) they offered s'mores, which we indulged, and 2) the owner of the hotel had kept all of the old signs. The first was the original sign back from the Elvis days. In the tradition of route 66 marketing gimmicks, the hotel's name comes from the split rail fence around it - not it's proximity to any rail station. I wonder how many disappointed travelers the name attracted over the years.
At some point in the 70s, it became part of the Best Western chain. As a kid, I remember associating motels that advertised this sign outside as being older, less nice and, most importantly, pool-less.
But if it sported this new, rebranded sign outside, you knew you were in for a much more exclusive hospitality experience.
And Best Western has been keeping up with the times, as you can see with this newest branding. I appreciate this new logo's use of the classy "BW" initials. Just a reminder of yet another point that the hotel chain shares in common with me: initials. The marquis board is very effective at advertising the hotel's Elvis heritage.
Finally, Thursday evening, we made it to St Louis, gateway to the east from our perspective. Similar to Phoenix, our visit to St Louis coincided with a record heat wave. It made doing anything outside kind of miserable, but the neighborhood my aunt and uncle live in has nice trees that provide lots of shade. This was a weekend for hanging out with family, anyways. It was good to have a little reunion in St Louis during our trip.
Mae meeting Uncle Phillip
We still managed some sight-seeing though: this is the old downtown courthouse where the Dred Scott case was heard.
And of course, we made it to the arch
And up into the top of the arch. For those who haven't been to the St Louis arch, it's a fun ride up in a little 1960s era, Jetsons style pod train. It wasn't very windy the day we went up, but apparently the arch can start swaying a few inches when the wind picks up. My Uncle Phillip encouraged us to rally all of the other tourists to run back and forth in unison across the viewing platform in an effort to rock the arch like a boat. We didn't do that, though.
Mae's first trip across the Mississippi river was in St Louis!
And, Mae's first independent swing ride was also in St Louis. It was a weekend of many firsts.
WHEEEE!!!
We did stay in Broken Arrow, OK and Springfield, MO on the way up to St Louis. Broken Arrow, which is a suburb of Tulsa, might sound like an odd choice, but it marked the point where our cross-country trip intersected my cousin Eli's cross-country Drum Corps International (DCI) tour. We had never been to a DCI event and we were blown away. This is as close as it gets to professional marching band. Seven teams each took the field for 10-15 minutes each to do their routine - each with an overwhelming amount of intricacy in music and movement. Imagine if Cirque du Soleil did a marching band performance - that's what DCI is. At one point, one of the band member was spun around in a wheel around the field, trumpets blared as they rotated back and forth on the wheels and Eli's team's performance incorporated a lot of cool snake imagery, the theme to mark the band's 50th anniversary.
It was Mae's first experience with a marching band and she seemed into it. She was not a dan of the ear muffs though.
We were amazed by the turnout - there must have been 5000 people there. Eli's band, the Santa Clara Vanguard, will be competing for the grand championship in early August in front of an expected 30,000 people. Bryn was excited to have discovered another sub-culture.
Our next atop after Broken Arrow was Springfield, MO. I was working during the trip so we stayed put in the mornings and then drove in the evenings.this scheduled left little time for exploring our surroundings. But in Springfield, I got to relive my days of traveling with Grandma & Grandpa by staying in a Best Western. This wasn't just any BW, though - Elvis had stayed there in 1956. His room had been decked out in chrome Cadillac fenders and went for a significant per night premium, so we opted for a normal room, but Mae and I posed for a picture outside.
She seemed to be pretty into the cultural history significance of the moment.
This hotel was also cool because 1) they offered s'mores, which we indulged, and 2) the owner of the hotel had kept all of the old signs. The first was the original sign back from the Elvis days. In the tradition of route 66 marketing gimmicks, the hotel's name comes from the split rail fence around it - not it's proximity to any rail station. I wonder how many disappointed travelers the name attracted over the years.
At some point in the 70s, it became part of the Best Western chain. As a kid, I remember associating motels that advertised this sign outside as being older, less nice and, most importantly, pool-less.
But if it sported this new, rebranded sign outside, you knew you were in for a much more exclusive hospitality experience.
And Best Western has been keeping up with the times, as you can see with this newest branding. I appreciate this new logo's use of the classy "BW" initials. Just a reminder of yet another point that the hotel chain shares in common with me: initials. The marquis board is very effective at advertising the hotel's Elvis heritage.
Finally, Thursday evening, we made it to St Louis, gateway to the east from our perspective. Similar to Phoenix, our visit to St Louis coincided with a record heat wave. It made doing anything outside kind of miserable, but the neighborhood my aunt and uncle live in has nice trees that provide lots of shade. This was a weekend for hanging out with family, anyways. It was good to have a little reunion in St Louis during our trip.
Mae meeting Uncle Phillip
We still managed some sight-seeing though: this is the old downtown courthouse where the Dred Scott case was heard.
And of course, we made it to the arch
And up into the top of the arch. For those who haven't been to the St Louis arch, it's a fun ride up in a little 1960s era, Jetsons style pod train. It wasn't very windy the day we went up, but apparently the arch can start swaying a few inches when the wind picks up. My Uncle Phillip encouraged us to rally all of the other tourists to run back and forth in unison across the viewing platform in an effort to rock the arch like a boat. We didn't do that, though.
Mae's first trip across the Mississippi river was in St Louis!
And, Mae's first independent swing ride was also in St Louis. It was a weekend of many firsts.
WHEEEE!!!
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