Awoke today to our first bit of rain, skies were grey and it was a lot colder. Over the last few days it's been in the 80's, today low 50's!
After Sandra doing a bit of CPR on her credit card, she had to call to confirm her recent spending, we decided to set off for the Outlet stores.
They were only about 30 mins outside the city, easy to find and deserted. We arrived about 10.30, it was pouring with rain and they weren't under cover. So pac a macs on off we went fortified by a Starbucks!
First store was Michael Kors, followed by loads of others! Everyone we met in the stores were really helpful and chatty except the ones in Gap and the Manager in Calvin Klein.
Had really great service in Levi's and a shoe store.
Surprisingly I spent more than Sarnie, now that has to be a first! Levi's, Converse, Calvin Klein and Under Armour all benefitted from me! The Levi's deal was the best, £25 a pair, they cost £85 at home!
We had some lunch in the food court, Chinese, that was really tasty and filling, then hit the road.
It was really raining but we managed to find our way back to where we needed to be. We got a bit confused and stopped at the Route 66 State Park information centre. Really helpful guy, must have been late 70's if not older. He put us back on track and off we wen't. Travelled through lots of small towns, with various comfort breaks on the way.
During one of these Sarnie took over navigating as Lel's eye was causing her some trouble.
We did go wrong a cople of times, nothing to do with Sarnie's navigational skills, the worst one was where the R66 sign showed straight ahead when we should have turned right! We drove for miles through some of the Mark Twain National Forest, eventually found a place to stop and managed to get ourselves back on track wth the help of "Rand McNally", that trusty atlas that my sister, Val, got me some years back.
As time was getting on we drove down Interstate 44 into Springfield. We found our street ok but it went on for miles, masses of hotels, miles of retail plazas, it is called Battlefield Retail after a Civil War battle. I'm sure all those guys who died fighting in the battle for the rights of slaves would really appreciate they've been remembered with a massive retail area!
We finally found our hotel, checked in and went across the street for a meal. We had bought some alcoholic supplies in St Lous, so we all ended up in our room for "one for the road" as Sarnie says!
Hotel is currently being refurbished, so some evidence of building work going on, not ideal but at least it s only for a night.
I would say today was the most tiring day so far but we did cram in all that retail therapy!
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