Today we were ready to
lock and load by 9:30 a.m. Kim gets on
Flame and click..click..click. Dead
battery. Really?! On his way to get Stanley
the charger Kim tried to start Zeus. Another dead battery. Kim’s certain he put both bikes in travel
mode yesterday and since both were rolled out of the trailer in neutral last
night, the dead battery thing was a complete surprise this morning. Would’ve gotten on it sooner had we
known.
Both seats needed to be taken
off and a bunch of wiring pushed aside to get at the batteries. Ugh! Flame started after a couple of minutes of
being hooked to Stanley...Zeus wouldn’t start with Stanley’s help so we pushed
him up front of the truck to get a super duper boost of energy. By the time both bikes were started tools had
been taken out of the back of the truck, out of the trailer storage area and
from behind the truck’s back seat. Then
everything needed to be put back. Finally
pulled out of the campground at about 10:30.
Toilet issues last night and bike issues this morning...it’s just part
of a Kim n Karen Adventure. 😕
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I couldn’t help
myself...I started looking at Roadside America to see if I could find something,
anything that we could stop at that would be open but absent of people. World’s
Largest Rocking Chair on Route 66 ought to be the ticket. I did my research before I broached the
subject with Kim...not far off the highway, it’s outside so we’d be able to see
it and there should be plenty of parking area to turn the Beast and the Trailer
around. If there should be other people
wanting to see the 42 foot high rocking chair then we’d just wait our turn. He agreed and followed my direction to exit
the highway. There was a mom with 2
little people heading in the direction of the chair when we pulled into the
parking lot. We took the opportunity to
record a birthday video for Rachel while waiting our turn to take
pictures. The trading post was open; we
were the only people around so we went in and spent too much money on our
trinkets. Helping out a local business,
right? Roadside America provides some
background as to why there is such a big rocking chair in Fanning, Missouri.
The former World's Largest Rocking Chair was the brainstorm of Danny
Sanazaro, who wanted to entice customers to his archery and feed store. Danny
remembered a big rocking chair he'd seen as a kid on a family road trip, and
he'd heard of a 34-foot-tall rocker in Franklin, Indiana -- Big John -- that
he knew he had to beat.
Erected on April Fool's Day 2008, Danny's mighty chair dwarfed the
competition: 42-feet-4-inches high on rockers each 31.5 feet long that weighed
a ton apiece. It was designed by John R. Bland, a friend of Danny's with no
formal engineering training, and built by Joe Medwick, the owner of a local
welding company. Assembled out of steel pipe, the chair weighed 27,500 pounds.
A highlight of the chair's
early years was its annual "Picture on Rocker Day," the first Saturday
in August, when Danny would hire a hoist truck to lift lucky tourists to the
chair's 20-foot-wide seat for once-in-a-lifetime photo ops.
To be certified by Guinness as the World's
Largest Rocking Chair, the chair had to rock, which it did when first built.
But the massive, multi-ton chair was so terrifying in motion, and Danny was so
worried that tourists might flip it over and kill themselves, that he had the
chair permanently welded to its base.
Records exist to be broken, and Danny's rocker was knocked out of the
No. 1 spot on August 25, 2015 by a
56.5-foot-high behemoth in Illinois. Denied its bragging rights, the
rocking chair was dutifully stripped of its World's Largest signage and
repainted red as, "The Route 66 Red Rocker." But its new identity
didn't rock the public's imagination, and after less than a year Danny went out
of business.
The rocking chair, however, remained, and in August 2017 the store
reopened under new ownership, with an emphasis on snacks and souvenirs. The big
chair -- still the second largest rocker in the world -- is now promoted as the
"World's Largest Rocking Chair on Route 66."
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Due to getting a heads up on construction
closures on I-70 around Indianapolis we chose to take 55 North at St. Louis. From there we weighed all our
options...campground, rest area or Walmart or busting right through to
Ludington. I know Kim was really toying with
the ‘Let’s just get to Ludington’ thought but it was too late in the day for the
amount of miles still to travel. I had
checked several Indiana, Illinois and Michigan KOAs...most weren’t open for the
season yet. Well, that narrows our options, doesn’t it?
About 6 o’clock Kim told me to start
checking for campgrounds...no luck with private campgrounds but I managed to
find a KOA in Kankakee that was open.
However, due to COVID-19, there were restrictions. I read them to Kim: Only long term, fulltime, essential personnel, and individuals with no
dwelling are allowed to camp. Camping for leisure is not permitted. Tent camping, cabins, lodges, and restrooms
are closed until further notice. Laundry
is OPEN but will need to be scheduled.
Curbside check-in or registration ONLY.
During office hours, please wait in front of the store for an employee
to come to you. Outdoor rec areas are
CLOSED until further notice, includes playground and basketball courts.
We really didn't fit any of the categories but we’re not leisure camping either so Kim said to give it a
try. “We’re travelling home...we’re self-contained and need a site just for
tonight. Is that possible?” The answer was, “Why sure, we can help you
out with that.” Yeehaw! Headed in that direction, found our nighttime
check-in map, and set up camp. Tomorrow
we’ll be back in the Mitten State. 😀
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Traffic is still minimal with the majority
of it being truckers. The Chicago/Gary,
IN area should be interesting tomorrow. Drove about 440 miles today.
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