St. Louis to Chicago (finally)

We made it! Holy Mary, there were moments I didn't think this would happen. I had furious desires to stay in many of the towns I visited, and other desires to push Katie out of the car when she made especially bad puns. Nonetheless, we have miraculously arrived. Let me tell you about our last day on the road.

We stayed at the Millennium Tower in St. Louis, right next to the Arch. It's pretty damn cool. We went there in the morning to ride the tram up to the top, where there's an observation room with windows peering out to St. Louis and the river. The view was great, but the tram itself was the best part. You sit in these little round, white capsules while it lurches you up the inside of the Arch. You get out on top, look around, and then go down the other side. I felt like I was inside an engineering experiment, which, now that I think about it, I was.
So the Gateway Arch is cool and all, but it does not put yummy in my tummy. A more important St. Louis destination is Ted Drewes's Frozen Custard. Frozen custard is a Route 66 tradition, besides being filled with sugar, so there was no way we were missing this. They make this shake called the Concrete which they turn upside down when they give it to you, just to show that it is, indeed, that thick. They were fantastic. Katie recommends the Tart Cherry. After our lunch of frozen desserts, we drove on to Springfield, Illinois. Illinois as a state is obsessed with Abraham Lincoln, so we obviously had to visit his tomb. There's a huge bust of him in front of the tomb, and people rub his nose for luck (it now seems as though he permanently has a very bad cold). They also leave pennies for him, which is a great offering. Give unto Lincoln what is Lincoln's, and to God that which is God's.
The tomb is beautiful and rather sad. Mary Todd and three of their four sons are buried there. Mary Todd was an interesting woman; three of her sons died young (at 4 years, 12 years, and 18 years old), and she held seances to try to reach them. She was a little crazy, but who wouldn't be after the death of three sons? It's all very moving. You can see why they're nuts about Lincoln: he was a great man.

After the sadness and patriotism, we moved on to fried food, another American institution. Cozy Dogs opened in 1946 right here in Springfield after they became popular at USOs during the war. They are very tasty, and the restaurant is filled with weird Cozy Dogs memoribilia. We give it five stars.

After Springfield, we drove almost straight to Chicago (with one stop at an antiques mall where we met some very funny older gentlemen and I bought a lot of lidded Pyrex dishes). I'm going to get the key to my new apartment this morning. Yay!