Route 66: Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri - July 10th to 11th, 2026

Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri was our third day on the Mother Road. We were starting to get our rhythm on Route 66, learning how to pace ourselves and relax a little more.

Friday was Day 3 of driving on Route 66. And it did go smoother than Day 1. We had less distance to cover and the points of interest were fewer and spaced further apart. We started out by driving back to the Cozy Dog in Springfield to pick up the route where we left off. Hikers talk about connecting their footsteps when exiting and returning to a long distance hiking trail. Similarly, we were connecting our tire tread marks.

Our first stop was a short distance down the road, on the south side of Springfield, called Route 66 Motorheads Bar & Grill. A lot of memorabilia surrounded the outside and inside of the building. Ann briefly went inside to buy a Potosi Root Bar to help support them and show our appreciation of the place. Potosi is not a local brewery, as it is based in Potosi Wisconsin, but it is still a craft soda. And, since 2008, the brewery is owned by the Potosi Foundation, where all profits are used to support historical and educational initiatives.

Next was Docs Just Off 66. The Route 66 Navigation app said Docs was on both the A and B routes. This turned out not to be true. It was on the B route and we were on the A route, so it took us on a spur about 7 or 8 miles long to reach the town of Girard from Farmersville. Unfortunately, Docs, which is a restored old-fashioned soda fountain, was closed, so we just admired it from the outside. The Navigation app said Ron’s Red Bird Cafe was also on the town square, but it looked like it is now a colorful Mexican restaurant.

Getting back on the A route, we continued to Litchfield. First, there was the Skyview Drive-In Theater. It is the only original drive in theater operating along Route 66 in Illinois. It opened in 1950.

Next was the Litchfield Museum and Route 66 Welcome Center. The free museum has wonderful displays about the town’s history. Litchfield was a railroad town, but has an interesting past of quite a variety of manufacturing plants, from sporting goods and radiators, to paper and plastics, along with a creamery and a flour mill. It was also a place to pick up another passport stamp.

In Mt Olive, we made a quick stop at the Soulsby Service Station, an old Shell station. Henry Soulsby built the station in 1926 and was pumping gas until 1991. Be sure to stop and go inside. The displays inside were also interesting. Perhaps it was because we are old enough to remember some of the old artifacts from our childhood. So many items were similar to things our parents and grandparents owned.

It was getting close to lunch time, so our next stop was at the Pink Elephant Antique Mall, or rather the Twistee Treat Diner. The Pink Elephant Antique Mall takes up most of an old high school building. The building is shared with the Twistee Treat Diner, the Mother Road Fudge and Candy shop and the Haunted High School (which is only open in October).

The Twistee Treat had an outside window with outside tables, but also had 50’s style inside diner with table service. We went inside for the air conditioning. On the menu was something called a Horseshoe (along with a smaller portion called a Ponyshoe). We had to ask our waitress what the Horseshoe was. It was a bottom bun, with a hamburger patty on top, then French fries on top of that with cheese sauce drizzled over everything. The Horseshoe originated in Springfield, Illinois. We decided to pass on that. Instead Ann ordered the Philly cheesesteak while Keith got the pork tenderloin sandwich. The food was typical diner quality, tasty, but nothing special.

Ann went around and got our passport stamps from the Twistee Treat, the Pink Elephant, and the Mother Road Fudge and Candy shop. She even got a couple of bonus stamps.

Our next stop was the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. The bridge carried Route 66 over the Mississippi River for several decades, but now it is open to only pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge is a mile long and has a 22 degree bend in it about half way across the river.

In order to walk across the bridge, we had to drive over to the west side of the river using I-270, which parallels the Chain of Rocks Bridge. There is a nice parking area, as the bridge is part of the Mississippi Greenway. We walked the full length of the bridge, getting our exercise in for the day.

Our last stop for the day was Granite City, back on the east side of the river. The It’s Electric - Neon Sign Park contained old neon signs that were original to Granite City. It was a nice display. Just down the street a couple of blocks was another Muffler Man.

Our loot for the day was another Route 66 t-shirt from Mother Load Fudge and Candy Shop along with a sticker and pin from the Litchfield Museum.

From Granite City, we made our way to our campground for the night, the Draft Kings at Casino Queen RV Park in East St. Louis, on the Illinois side of the river, right across from the Gateway Arch. The RV Park was tucked way behind the casino and hotel.

The RV Park sent us a gate code in an email to get in. However, the gate was open when we arrived. In fact, it was open the whole time we were there. It looked like it was not functioning. There was no office to check in at. We used our gate code to get into the information services building, but there was no staff inside, just a phone to use to call guest services. We looked up our site number in an email and just drove to our site.

The RV park was asphalt with trees in islands between the rows. The asphalt had not been paved in a while, with lots of cracks. We were in site 411, in the back. It was not even close to level. Red Tail was off, front to back, by six to seven inches. We added four inches under the front tires and called it good. At least we had full hookups. We plugged in and turned on the AC.

Our stats for Day 3 on the Mother Road were 135 miles with a drive time of three hours and 57 minutes and an elapsed time of seven hours and 45 minutes. That equates to an average speed of 34 mph, which is a little faster than Days 1 and 2.

We made better time on Day 3 compared to Day 1 on Route 66. It was around 4:30 pm by the time we were set up at camp. It was time to do laundry, so we grabbed our dirty clothes and headed for the laundry building. Using our code again to get in, we found only two washers and two dryers, and one of the washers was not working. The machines took quarters, $3 to wash and another $3 to dry. There was a change machine, but we couldn’t get it to work. Luckily we had enough quarters with us to do two loads.

After we finished our laundry, we took it back to our rig. For some reason, we were looking at the emails from Draft King again. The original email said site 411, but there was a later email that changed our site to 132. Oops! We decided we better move just in case someone came around to check. So we turned off the AC, disconnected, and packed up, only to move over a few rows.

When we tried to plug in at the new site, the 30A outlet on the pedestal was not working. However, we pulled out our 50A to 30A dogbone and could get the 50A outlet to work. There was also an orange strap on the top water spigot. But there was another valve on the faucet. Keith tested it and was able to get the water to flow.

So far, we were not impressed with the RV Park. The best thing going for it was its location. We could walk from the campground, cross the Mississippi River on the Eads Bridge, and get to the Gateway Arch on foot. Or at least that was the plan. After eating dinner, we went for a walk to make sure we could access the pedestrian walkway on the bridge.

We found the stairs that led up to the bridge down past the casino, closer to the river. The stairs led up to the Metro station. The Metro train goes over the bridge underneath the road deck. From the metro stop, there is a ramp that leads up to the pedestrian lane. The pedestrians are protected from the road traffic by a concrete barrier, so it felt pretty safe.

If you want to get a bike from the campground and over the bridge, there was also an elevator alongside the stairwell that went up to the Metro stop. Then you can take the ramp from there. However, we did see quite a bit of broken glass on the bridge. Also, the pedestrian/bike lane is rather narrow, so you may need to walk your bike if you encounter pedestrians or other cyclists. AllTrails also shows a bike path that leads under the bridge, then loops back around to get onto the bridge. That would be longer, but you wouldn’t need to take the elevator.

Another option to get into St. Louis is to ride the Metro. We don’t have the details on that, but we may look into that when we come back to St. Louis in a couple of weeks.

Saturday we explored St. Louis. The forecast called for rain. Thunderstorms had dumped water on us most of the night. When we left the campground, it looked stormy out, but the rain had stopped. We grabbed our rain jackets and umbrellas and set out for the day.

After walking across Eads Bridge, we stopped at the Cafe de Blaire on the other side. They sold gooey butter cake, which is a traditional treat of St. Louis. We wanted to try one. It was pretty tasty! The one from Cafe de Blaire was not too sweet, which is how we like our baked goods. We washed the cake down (not that the super moist cake needed washing down) with a hibiscus & rose tea and a cappuccino.

From there we entered the Gateway Arch National Park. The arch sits in a beautiful park with ponds and tree-lined walkways. It was a very peaceful walk over to the arch.

The indoor facilities of the Arch are underground. You enter from the west side and exit either to the south or north of the arch. Inside is a museum, a theater for the park movie, a virtual reality theater, a gift shop, a cafe, and the tram station that takes you up to the top of the Arch. To enter, you need to pass through a thorough security screening, similar to an airport.

The museum is free, but there is a charge for the park movie, the virtual reality, and the tram. We’ve been to the top of the arch a couple of times before, so we were not planning on going up. Besides, there was about a three and a half hour wait to get on a tram. We just paid for the next park movie, which started in half an hour. That gave us enough time to go to the bathroom, get through security, and get over to the theater entrance.

The park movie was about the construction of the Arch. It was an old film, produced in the late 1960’s we believe, but it was a typical, very informative park movie. What was not typical of a national park movie was that they charged for it. It was only $7 per adult, or $4 if you had a National Park pass.

After the 20 minute movie, it was lunch time and we hadn’t gone through the museum yet. We didn’t want to take the time to exit the Arch, look for a place to eat, then come back in through security to see the museum, so we ate at the cafe. The cafe had a nice variety of options to choose from, but it was concession stand quality. Keith chose the hot chicken sandwich while Ann picked the toasted ravioli. Then we split an order of fries. The toasted ravioli or T-rav is another St. Louis creation. The meat-filled ravioli is deep fried and served with tomato sauce for dipping. It is generally served as an appetizer. Ann thought it was OK, but we’ll have to try T-rav again at a real restaurant in order to give it a fair shake.

The Gateway Arch museum was worth a browse. There were displays there for everyone, including kids. Some of the displays were interactive. As the Gateway Arch was meant to be the gateway to the West, the displays were about the construction of the arch, the Corps of Discovery expedition of Lewis and Clark, and the history of the west in general.

From the Arch, we walked over to the Old Courthouse, just on the other side of 4th Street. The Old Courthouse is part of Gateway National Park. Inside are displays about the courthouse construction and expansion along with how the courthouse was used. Before the Civil War, Missouri was a slave state, but they also supported the idea that a person “once free, always free”. So many slaves sued for their freedom in the Old Courthouse.

This is the courthouse where Dred and Harriet Scott filed suit for their freedom and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that African-Americans are not citizens of the United States, which helped spark the civil rights movement, leading to the Civil War along with the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

We continued our walk along Market Street, enjoying the green spaces between Market and Chestnut Streets, including the Citygarden Sculpture Park. Surrounding the green spaces are large historical buildings, such as the City Hall and the Stifel Theatre.

We continued down to St. Louis Union Station, the old train station. A large hotel occupies most of the station. We stepped into the hotel entrance. The inside was just as impressive as the outside of the building.

From the front side of the station on Market Street, we could see that there was a ferris wheel behind the station, so we walked around to the back side of the station. Boy are we glad that we did. The area behind the station was amazing. Where the train tracks used to be is a large public space dominated by a huge koi pond. The area was partially shaded by coverings on the old structures above. Kids were buying fish food from a machine and feeding the koi. Adults were relaxing in the Adirondack chairs lining the pond.

Inside the backside of the Union Station building was the St. Louis Aquarium, a ropes course, and a mirror maze. There were several restaurants and a soda fountain.

Outside was a small amusement park, with the ferris wheel, a small roller coaster, and giant swing as well as carnival games and food stands. It was a Saturday and the place was hopping, but the large koi pond made it seem so much more peaceful than an amusement park. This was the place for a family to hang out.

We bought a couple of drinks and sat in the Adirondack chairs, relaxing and watching the kids feed the fish. Ann spotted a couple of white egrets or herons fly through the space. Perhaps all the fish attracted them there.

From Union Station, we walked back on Clark Street to Salt & Smoke for dinner. We’ve eaten at the Salt & Smoke in St. Charles several times (EV Road Trip). What we didn’t realize was that the Salt & Smoke in St. Louis is in Ballpark Village next to Busch Stadium. There was a St. Louis Cardinals game that evening, against the Atlanta Braves, so Ballpark Village was packed. We arrived at Salt & Smoke around 4:30 pm and had to wait about half an hour for a table. We didn’t think that was too bad given the crowds.

We both ordered the Two Meat Combo. Ann had pulled chicken and St. Louis ribs as her meats along with a green beans with tomatoes salad and red pepper potato salad as her sides. Keith paired his St. Louis ribs with chicken wings and went classic with his sides, beans and coleslaw. We like Salt & Smoke’s food, but Keith thought his wings were a little dry, not as good as what he’s had in St. Charles. Perhaps it was just an off night.

All meals at Salt & Smoke come with a large cheddar popover. It’s one of our favorite parts of the meal. And it was just as good as we remembered. It reminded us of the Yorkshire pudding we ate with Sunday roasts in England the year before (Dartmoor National Park, England - March 28th - 31st, 2025).

It was about a 45 minute walk from there back to the RV Park. It sprinkled on us a little bit along the way. In fact, the weather that day turned out to be pretty good, considering the original forecast. We only experienced a little drizzle a few times throughout the day.

Just as we were getting comfortable driving Route 66, we took a little break to meet up with Ann’s brother and friends in Tennessee. But, after a couple weeks break, we were excited to come back to St. Louis to pick up where we left off. Stay tuned!

Check out our related video: Route 66: Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri

(Ann)