Day 4 of The Atomic Tour, and Dave and Tara tackle Illinois, Missouri, and the tiniest bit of Kansas.
Along the way, there are antiques, racism, and remembrance of bad car behaviour past. Thrill as you can barely make out the sound of a special, unexpected guest star!
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I’ve enjoyed the podcasts so far, and was really looking forward to this day of the Atomic Tour - I grew up in Mascoutah, IL, off 64 and not too far from where you went to Target (which I think is in O’Fallon, not Shiloh). It’s such a out of the way place, I’m just fascinated when visitors travel through.
June 15th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Oh dear… I’m a bit concerned to hear that you’ll be staying “right outside the Corn Palace” tonight. Not sure what the accomodations are like in that area. OK, actually, I *am* sure of the accomodations in that area. Um, have fun!
If you’re traveling on I-90, I recommend (Eat at) Joe’s near Alexandria. Also, there’s a DQ kitty corner from the CP.
Have fun :)
June 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I’m considering making the sound of Tara giggling into my ringtone.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Heh, we’re not going to stay near the CP, but it will be tomorrow’s first stop. Iowa is the most boring place on Earth BTW.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Linda: not the sound of Dave’s childhood vomiting? You’ve changed.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Hee! A good friend’s husband is from Iowa, and let’s just say nobody’s arguing with Dave’s assessment.
I love Qdoba! There’s one a block from my office, and they have a much larger and vegetarian-friendly menu than Chipotle. No more diet-friendly, though (sob! sigh). They’ve been around a lot longer, too. Great, now I’m craving crappy chain tex-mex. Yesterday I was craving chain southern comfort food. This road trip is killing my will power!
June 15th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Ah, whew!
(Iowa is boring. But the stretch from Kadoka SD to the Black Hills is desolate. Be sure to stop for a pit stop in Kadoka if you’re taking I90 to the Hills, or you’ll be sorry. I speak from painful experience.)
June 15th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Good advice that I will follow — I’m all about last pees and drinks.
June 15th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Apple Wagon Antique Mall is in Williamsburg, Missouri.
I tried to find out why the dolphin is on the Missouri magnet, but there doesn’t seem to be any good reason. The bottle-nosed dolphin is the state mammal of Mississippi though.
I can’t explain why I love Dollar General. I think it’s sort of the good parts of Wal-Mart (stupid shit at low prices all collected in one location) but on a much smaller and less crowded scale. Plus, of all the dollar stores, they tend to have the cleanest stores and largest selection. For example, Jim and I visited the Dollar General today and he contemplated purchasing a baseball hat that said Redneck on it. Seriously? Plus, he got a bag of socks and a belt for like $8.
That said, it is bullshit that they didn’t have pop. The DG is a franchise, so it sounds like you got a bum location. But like I said, I know the stores are shitholes, and don’t expect anyone but me to like them.
And my aunt used to collect Mammy merchandise, along with other sort of racist dolls and such. And she did display them in her home. I don’t think she really thought that one through, and when her son brought over a friend who is African-American — yeah, that was bad times. She’s since relegated the collection to the basement, but she didn’t get rid of them. I’m not defending it, but there is a market for it.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Welcome to Kansas. Sorry for the kids, but Lenexa is known for its out of control rattlesnake population….so….do with that what you will.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:15 am
The Brass Armadillo!!!! I’ve only been there once, but it was such an awesome antique mall. Was that the place that had street signs hanging over the aisles so that you could remember the intersections where you saw things? Regardless, I have a couple of things from the Brass Armadillo that are still on display in my house.
As for “Missourah” - I’ve lived here my whole life and don’t really know anyone who says it like that, so you don’t so much get my vote for saying it hick-style. It will always be Missouri to me. :)
Glad you saw the Gateway Arch, but it is still worth walking up to…you can’t fully experience it from the highway. I’m enjoying the podcasts. A roadtrip isn’t in the cards this year, so this is a fun substitute.
P.S. I also love the Dollar General. They are kind of hit-and-miss though, so maybe you just got a lousy one.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Ah good to know on Missouri/ah. The only person I’ve known from the state said it was Missourah so I was just going after that. In my defense, she was a hick!
June 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
The other thing that Mom and Dad used to do was bring me to antique auctions in Regina. I think you were old enough to skip those ones, or you had band camp or something. I guess they thought that was better than leaving me in the car at that point. They always had donuts for the kinds in those high school gyms, but it still sucked SO bad. I think I would have taken a whole bite off my own finger to get out of that if I had though of your trick.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Oh, I had to go to estate sales too. One time there was an old typewriter for sale for $10 — did they get it for me? No.
Where are they in all this? DEFEND YOURSELVES, MOM AND DAD.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I go to school in northern Missouri and live in St. Louis so I drive 70 from St. Louis to Columbia at least twice a month and I was wondering what Nostalgiaville was all about, now I don’t have to check it out. And Show Me’s is kind of a less famous Hooter’s.