Sunday 23rd August 2009 – Another Kick on Route 66

I like old bridges. Well, I like things that have been carefully engineered, and have stood the test of time. There is such an object in North St Louis, called the Chain of Rocks Bridge. It's one of those standard American steel truss bridges. I assumed it was, or used to be, a railroad bridge, but I was assured it was a road bridge. And when we got to it, it was not only a road bridge, it was THE road.

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I had breakfast on route 66 on Jackson in Chicago some time ago. Then I drove out to Baker CA on a bit of it at the other end. Now I'm going to walk across the mighty Mississippi on it. This is a lot safer than buying a Harley-Davidson, etc.

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We were actually in north St Louis to see Glasgow Village. Which exists, and is (sort of) thriving

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and proud of its history

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There is an "important" village meeting on Tuesday, so there is an active community life. There are two schools, a fire station and a police station. And the remains of a shopping centre.

There is actually a Glasgow Drive, with brick houses which are clearly older.

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It might be the case that it is the origins of the later development. This bit is actually just within the city limits.

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Later that evening, I was invited out to watch the European Grand Prix. It had been recorded at some ungodly hour of the morning, but, this not being an American sport, there was no chance of finding out anything at all about it before watching the recording. Actually, that's not quite true: if there had been a really horrendous accident, and everyone had been killed, or bizarre weather had rained it off in Valencia in August, we might have heard about that.