St. Louis to Springfield

 We left the Cahokia RV Park and headed towards Springfield, Illinois. 

On the way we had to stop in Collinsville to see the World's Largest Catsup Bottle!  This was a mandatory stop because for the entire past year that we spent planning this trip Bill told EVERYONE that we were going to see the World's Largest Catsup Bottle, which is really just a tall water tower painted like a bottle of catsup.

Sadly as we were about to leave after taking our pictures we witnessed a deer get hit by a car.  It came running down an embankment and Bill had just said, "Look, there's a deer" when it ran right into the path of a car.  The car hit it and didn't even slow down or stop.  Bill ran over to check and said it was alive but badly injured.   I called 911 and reported it and they said they would send a patrol car over to take care of the situation. 

The next stop was in Livingston at the Pink Elephant Antique Mall and Twistee Treat Diner.  This is a great fun stop along Route 66 and definitely worth your time.  There are numerous displays including a space ship with aliens, old cars, and a President Trump giant.  When we were there we saw dozens of classic cars that were part of a 100 Year Anniversary Car Rally and Parade.  We looked through the antique store and I bought a vintage lazy susan serving dish.

After we left we moved onto Litchfield to try out the Ariston Cafe. It is mentioned in all the guidebooks as a "Must Stop" because it is the longest continuously operating restaurant on Route 66. It opened in 1924 and is still open.  I can't really attest to how good it is because we wanted something light so we just had the soup and salad.  They do, however,  have a very impressive dessert tray with yummy looking offerings.

Next door to Ariston Cafe is the Jubelt Bakery so I peeked in to have a look but didn't buy anything.

Paula and I called several campgrounds to try and get reservations for the night with no luck.  We finally found spaces at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Campground so we drove over as it was starting to rain.  I called the number for the attendant and he told us not to park on the grass because they were expecting heavy rain.  He said to park anywhere on the blacktop and when he got back from dinner he would turn on the electric box if we needed it.  

Bill and I said we were fine with dry camping so our space was free.  Since we weren't using hook ups we were set up in just a couple of minutes.

Since Jeff has been having so much trouble with losing power they wanted at least electric so their space was $30.  Jeff disconnected the jeep and they got set up and waited until the attendant came back.

We had been waiting to try the Cozy Dog Cafe who invented the corn dog.  We took the jeep and drove over to give them a try.  The corn dogs were much better than the mall food court variety and the chili dogs came with a choice of yellow cheese, white cheese, or shredded cheese. It was a pretty good choice and 1000% better than the Dog House in Albuquerque. 

We started getting more rain off and on as we drove back to the campground for the night.