The World’s Largest Wind Chime
Casey, IL
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The World’s Largest Wind Chime
Casey, IL
Check out the first video in a series we’ve titled “Through the Window – Route 66”. We recorded this while heading towards Funks Grove, Illinois to pick up some of their famous “sirup”. It was delicious!
Heading out today, we decided to make our way across the rest of Missouri and all the way through Illinois. A half hour in we began seeing signs for “Nostalgiaville”, which is a 50s & 60s memorabilia shop, and “Ozarkland”, a shop full of all kinds of goodies. Both looked interesting so we exited and stopped at Ozarkland first. The store was huge and full of every kind of souvenir you can imagine and plenty of local flavor. We spent around an hour walking around the place and picked up several things along the way. At the register, Jasmine heard a customer mention that Nostalgiaville had closed so we just jumped back onto the highway.
We ran into a lot of rain as we cruised along I70 through Missouri and into Illinois. We also had to stop a few times because Lady T was not happy with the heat and the several small hills we encountered. As we puttered on, we saw a sign for Casey, IL which claimed to be home to the largest wind chime, golf tee and rocking chair in the world. Since we hadn’t seen any roadside oddities in a while, we decided to have a look.
We followed sigs to the downtown area but we didn’t see the chime. We did find the golf course but it didn’t look easy to get into so we turned around. Oh, and the rocking chair didn’t exist save for two supports and a sign that read “Coming soon!” By this time, we were thinking Casey had created a nice scam to get you off the highway and into their downtown area.
Stopping at a local grocery store, I looked up the wind chime on my phone and located an address. We plugged that into the GPS and felt pretty stupid when we realized that we had passed the thing twice :/ Jasmine and I were both focused on the supports for the rocking chair on the opposite side of the road that we didn’t notice the gigantic wind chime directly across the street. We pulled over to take a few pictures and ring the chime. The café adjacent to the display had just closed but Jazz convinced the lady to open the door to sell her a couple of postcards ;o)
The rest of the day we just drove towards our home for the night, a Flying J Travel Center in Indianapolis, IN. We are thinking of making a detour from Indianapolis up to Lake Erie to explore for a day before the final leg of our return trip back to reality. DO we have time to go to PA to hang out on the lake or should we just continue our path home?
I guess you will have to continue to subscribe to find out 😉
~J&J
We woke up bright and early today to the most sunshine we have seen since we left home. We had a light breakfast and made a vehicle check, which included securing the brackets of the solar panel with Eternabond tape.
Heading out at about 9:30, we immediately ran into the Red Carpet Corridor Festival, which is an annual multi-municipal destination that runs about half the length of Rt 66 in Illinois. Following our maps and guide books the rest of the way, we visited some of the most popular attractions such as:
- The Gemini Giant, Wilmington
- Polk-a-dot Drive- in, Braidwood
- Two cell jail house, Gardner
- Ambler-Becker Texaco, Dwight
- Odell Station, Odell
- Pontiac Automobile Museum, Pontiac
- Murals on Main Street, Pontiac
- Funks Grove Maple Syrup, Funks Grove
- The Rail-splitter Covered Wagon, Lincoln
- Shea’s Gas Station Museum, Springfield
- Cozy Dog Drive-in, Springfield
- Pink Elephant Antique Mall/Twisty Treat, Livingston
We had to skip the last handful of attractions because we ran out of daylight & rough roads & road closures forced us onto the main highway. We used Route 55 to get to the outskirts of St. Louis and will now be bedding down at the Pilot travel center in East St. Louis.
First, stop tomorrow will be the Gateway Arch and then we will resume our travels. See you then!
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~J&J
05/02/14
Finally, the beginning of The Mother Road! Route 66, America’s Main Street. We headed out this morning around 9:30am, driving through Ohio and Indiana and arriving in the windy city of Chicago around 6:30pm.
We stopped at a couple rest areas along the way and picked up a few necessities at Walmart. Finding the beginning of the historical Route 66 was a little tricky, but we finally found the first road marker at the Art Institute of Chicago and proceeded towards Ogden St. We missed a turn on Joliet road and had to backtrack, but picked up again off of I55 and got back on track.
It is now just past Midnight and will be sleeping at the Food & Fuel Truck Stop in Joliet. We’re surrounded by big rigs and Jazz keeps looking for a 1974 Dodge Monaco Sedan ;o) Tomorrow we will visit Elwood (the town, not the brother) and hope to end the day with some pictures of the St. Louis Arch.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Blog for email updates and like us on FB for updates throughout the day.
~J&J
