This weekend I am visiting France for a few days, however this time on my little trip I am doing it in a camper van… I have never being camping before, so it’s all a little new, and scary, to me. However, I have always wanted to do a slightly off course version of Route 66 in the US for as long as I can remember. Although originally I wanted to do the trip in a Cadillac I think I would much prefer an RV now, cos old age and all that. So this weekend’s trip to France in a camper is a little bit of a mini test… Can I actually live out of the back of a van for days on end, let alone weeks.
As I mentioned above my dream Route 66 trip is a slightly amended one, as there are certain places that I wouldn’t be able to miss out on, especially when traveling so close to them. So, here is my dream route 66 trip & the places I would want to see in each – although I have missed out Texas & New Mexico on this post as it was way too long.
ILLINOIS
Well Chicago has the official starting sign for the trip, so I obvious can’t amend this part of my dream trip. There’s plenty to see and do in Chicago, so trip passes and pizza are certainly needed. Yes pizza is a big draw to Chicago for me, I mean it’s the home of the deep dish and I am not one to go against traditions. I’d also love to visit Lincoln’s house, the Chapel of Lincoln, finally Henry’s Rabbit Ranch. America is the place of those quirky side of the road ‘World’s Largest XYZ’ sites, and I have a slight fixation with them. Luckily for me Illinois is home to the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle, so obviously this is high up on my list to see.
OFF ROADING
So this is the first of my amendments, as usually from Illinois it’s on to Missouri, but I want to take a little detour down to Memphis for a few days. There’s not much explanation needed for this one, Memphis is the home of music and some of my all-time favourites have gotten their big breaks there.
MISSOURI
The home of St Louis and Six Flags… You can’t make a trip to the US without visiting at least one theme park, right? There’s also the St Louis Car Museum to visit, which houses loads of classic American cars to drool over – there’s also a Vacuum museum down the road in St James, if that’s your thing.
KANSAS
The home of the Galena Haunted Bordello, and high up on my places to visit. The house was owned by Ma Steffleback & was built by a mining company to help the miners ‘let off some steam’ in the 1890’s and was the place where she murdered dozens of her clients. The bordello has recently been renovated (in the last 5 years I believe) so it doesn’t look quite as spooky as it once did, but I am sucker for a ghost story/haunted house so the brothel is on my bucket list.
OKLAHOMA
This is one of the busier states in terms of things to do, plus they also have the World’s Largest Totem Pole, so ya know I have to tick that from my list. There’s also places like POPS (aka here’s a milkshake the side of your head with doughnuts and bags of sugar in); Cherokee Trading Post; Staford Air & Space Museum; and last but not least Sandhills Curiosity Shop
ARIZONA
There’s the obvious things to see here, but the one I want to visit the most is the Lowell Observatory. I love anything to do with space, the stars and all things solar. The Lowell Ob has lots of different programmes on throughout the year so observe, tour or watch.
CALIFORNIA
OK wait for it, there’s a McDonalds museum here, and you know I gotta visit that (even if I am a veggie). This is the 1st ever McDonalds that was opened and has now been turned in to a museum with an amazing collection of old (and recent) McD’s history.
To end my dream trip I would also tack San Francisco on the end, as it’s so close by anyway & I have heard it’s an amazing place to visit. Where would your dream road trip take you? (Also wish me luck for my first camping experience haha).
