Life on the Road: The Soundtrack

05/25/2026

My somewhat terrifying journey on I-70 from Denver to Grand Junction. Road construction, lane closures, climbing mountains, long descents and oh yes, a blizzard. Taking overdrive off and shifting into 2nd gear on the descents was an absolute game changer. No more smoking hot brakes and no sliding in the ice.. I found a few great 14-day Boondocking sites right off I-70 which I'll be posting soon and was relieved when I finally made it across the state .. that relief however was very short lived as I-70 though Utah is no joke either. More coming soon. Thank you for watching.
Music: Spine of Colorado
Lyrics / Arrangement Rebecca Lents
RZStudios26 https://suno.com/

05/11/2026

Times Beach Timeline
Growing up in mid Missouri and having relatives in and around St. Louis and Illinois meant many trips were made via I-44. I often fell asleep in the car on family trips but my mom would always wake me up to see Six Flags and Times Beach in Eureka. I very clearly remember Times Beach. In my memory there were about 60 houses in perfect rows .. most single story small homes. I remember curtains in the windows and through some windows you could see lamps .. toys in the yards .. a bike or wagon .. the houses looked as though they had been abandoned for years.
I was born in 1976 but i never remember seeing the homes in a lived in state so my memories of them must have been from 1983 (after the flood and evacuating) to 1996 when the homes were finally cleared.
Recently while driving that same route i looked over to the area where times Beach was and realized .. it was now a state park. I was totally shocked and decided to exit the interstate and check it out. Later that day i couldn't get it out of my mind.. i knew that the town was evacuated due to toxic waste or something but i never really knew the whole story.
Learning the history of all that occurred along that specific Meramec River bend was disturbing shocking and a big ironic .. and it deserved a song.
I'm not A historian and though i do a fair share of research for my song lyrics .. this is just a song and the video is just a video. Many images are AI due to most of the actual images being protected by copyright.
I hope you enjoy the song and video and if you'd like to see more videos or hear more original songs about the amazing places I've visited across the county please join my page Life on the Road: The Soundtrack.
Times Beach Timeline
400,000 Years Ago (Pleistocene Epoch): Glacial runoff carves the Meramec River basin. The area is inhabited by prehistoric megafauna, including mastodons and mammoths.
Mastadons & mammoth extinction due to climate change and hunting.
11,500 Years Ago – 1600s: Ancestral Indigenous groups utilize the river for transport and sustenance. The Osage Nation establishes the valley as part of their ancestral hunting grounds. Mississippians build mounds along the Meramec River.
1803: The Louisiana Purchase transfers the region to U.S. control, initiating an era of forced land cessions for Indigenous tribes.
1825: The Treaty of St. Louis forces remaining Shawnee and Delaware groups out of Missouri to lands further west.
1830: The Indian Removal Act mandates the systematic relocation of all remaining Indigenous peoples to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).
1830s – 1850s: The area becomes a rural farming community. The Meramec River begins to gain popularity as a recreational site for St. Louis residents.
1923 – 1924: The Meramec River US 66 Bridge is constructed. The Bridgehead Inn is built in 1935 to serve Route 66 travelers near the bridge.
1925 (May): The town of Times Beach is founded on the flood plain as a summer resort promotion by the St. Louis Star-Times.
1926: U.S. Route 66 is designated, running through the town and across the Meramec Bridge.
1971: Waste hauler Russell Bliss sprays dioxin-contaminated oil on the town’s unpaved roads to control dust.
1972: Route 66 was bypassed by the new Interstate 44, causing a sharp decline in local businesses.
November 1982: Town of Times Beach receives first news of possible dioxin contamination.
1982 (December): A record-breaking flood of the Meramec River inundated the town, spreading dioxin-laden silt into homes and buildings. EPA testing confirmed that every object was deemed unsafe, as the floodwaters had forced the contamination deep into the structures.
1983: The federal government announces a total buyout; the town is evacuated. Residents were strictly prohibited from removing any belongings; no re-entry was permitted, and no personal possessions could be saved as everything was considered toxic.
1985: The town of Times Beach is officially disincorporated.
1990 – 1997: The EPA performs a massive remediation, incinerating 265,000 tons of contaminated soil.
1991–1996: Demolition of the remaining structures began in 1991 and was completed by 1996 to make way for the incinerator and park development.
1997: Cleanup is finalized.
1999 (July 10): Route 66 State Park opens. The 1935 Bridgehead Inn is restored and repurposed as the park’s Visitor Center, serving as the main interpretive hub for Route 66 and Times Beach history.
2026 (Present): The 419-acre park serves as a historical memorial and nature preserve.
"Town Mound": This is a man-made geological feature—a large, grass-covered earthen mound that contains the compacted and interred remains of the town. This includes bulldozed homes, businesses, and debris. The incinerated soil ash was placed in a separate, dedicated hazardous waste landfill on the site.

05/11/2026

Times Beach Timeline -
Growing up in mid Missouri and having relatives in and around St. Louis and Illinois meant many trips were made via I-44. I often fell asleep in the car on family trips but my mom would always wake me up to see Six Flags and Times Beach in Eureka. I very clearly remember Times Beach. In my memory there were about 60 houses in perfect rows .. most single story small homes. I remember curtains in the windows and through some windows you could see lamps .. toys in the yards .. a bike or wagon .. the houses looked as though they had been abandoned for years.
I was born in 1976 but i never remember seeing the homes in a lived in state so my memories of them must have been from 1983 (after the flood and evacuating) to 1996 when the homes were finally cleared.
Recently while driving that same route i looked over to the area where times Beach was and realized .. it was now a state park. I was totally shocked and decided to exit the interstate and check it out. Later that day i couldn't get it out of my mind.. i knew that the town was evacuated due to toxic waste or something but i never really knew the whole story.
Learning the history of all that occurred along that specific Meramec River bend was disturbing shocking and a big ironic .. and it deserved a song.
I'm not A historian and though i do a fair share of research for my song lyrics .. this is just a song and the video is just a video. Many images are AI due to most of the actual images being protected by copyright.
I hope you enjoy the song and video and if you'd like to see more videos or hear more original songs about the amazing places I've visited across the county please join my page Life on the Road: The Soundtrack.
Times Beach Timeline
400,000 Years Ago (Pleistocene Epoch): Glacial runoff carves the Meramec River basin. The area is inhabited by prehistoric megafauna, including mastodons and mammoths.
Mastadons & mammoth extinction due to climate change and hunting.
11,500 Years Ago – 1600s: Ancestral Indigenous groups utilize the river for transport and sustenance. The Osage Nation establishes the valley as part of their ancestral hunting grounds. Mississippians build mounds along the Meramec River.
1803: The Louisiana Purchase transfers the region to U.S. control, initiating an era of forced land cessions for Indigenous tribes.
1825: The Treaty of St. Louis forces remaining Shawnee and Delaware groups out of Missouri to lands further west.
1830: The Indian Removal Act mandates the systematic relocation of all remaining Indigenous peoples to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).
1830s – 1850s: The area becomes a rural farming community. The Meramec River begins to gain popularity as a recreational site for St. Louis residents.
1923 – 1924: The Meramec River US 66 Bridge is constructed. The Bridgehead Inn is built in 1935 to serve Route 66 travelers near the bridge.
1925 (May): The town of Times Beach is founded on the flood plain as a summer resort promotion by the St. Louis Star-Times.
1926: U.S. Route 66 is designated, running through the town and across the Meramec Bridge.
1971: Waste hauler Russell Bliss sprays dioxin-contaminated oil on the town’s unpaved roads to control dust.
1972: Route 66 was bypassed by the new Interstate 44, causing a sharp decline in local businesses.
November 1982: Town of Times Beach receives first news of possible dioxin contamination.
1982 (December): A record-breaking flood of the Meramec River inundated the town, spreading dioxin-laden silt into homes and buildings. EPA testing confirmed that every object was deemed unsafe, as the floodwaters had forced the contamination deep into the structures.
1983: The federal government announces a total buyout; the town is evacuated. Residents were strictly prohibited from removing any belongings; no re-entry was permitted, and no personal possessions could be saved as everything was considered toxic.
1985: The town of Times Beach is officially disincorporated.
1990 – 1997: The EPA performs a massive remediation, incinerating 265,000 tons of contaminated soil.
1991–1996: Demolition of the remaining structures began in 1991 and was completed by 1996 to make way for the incinerator and park development.
1997: Cleanup is finalized.
1999 (July 10): Route 66 State Park opens. The 1935 Bridgehead Inn is restored and repurposed as the park’s Visitor Center, serving as the main interpretive hub for Route 66 and Times Beach history.
2026 (Present): The 419-acre park serves as a historical memorial and nature preserve.
"Town Mound": This is a man-made geological feature—a large, grass-covered earthen mound that contains the compacted and interred remains of the town. This includes bulldozed homes, businesses, and debris. The incinerated soil ash was placed in a separate, dedicated hazardous waste landfill on the site.

05/07/2026

Learning The Maps - The Websites & Apps I Use to Check Land Ownership.
If you're looking for easy ways to find free boondocking locations or the best way to find free places to camp on public land .. look no further. This video will unlock all the secrets to finding free campsites. The websites and apps shown in this video will allow you to know who's lands you are on so you can and follow the correct regulations and know where you can legally stay.
This was a huge undertaking and though my information is always free, Donations are appreciated and can be made to paypal.me/rebeccaschnirch1. as a way of saying thank you I will send you the link to every resource I use and each one mentioned in the video. ($5.00 suggested donation for map links and a list of 200 free campsites that open in Google maps)

05/07/2026

Learning The Maps - The Websites & Apps I Use to Check Land Ownership.
If you're looking for easy ways to find free boondocking locations or the best way to find free places to camp on public land .. look no further. This video will unlock all the secrets to finding free campsites. The websites and apps shown in this video will allow you to know who's lands you are on so you can follow the correct regulations and know where you can legally stay.
This was a huge undertaking and though my information is always free, Donations are appreciated and can be made to paypal.me/rebeccaschnirch1. as a way of saying thank you I will send you the link to every resource I use and each one mentioned in the video. ($5.00 suggested donation for map links and a list of 200 free campsites that open in Google maps)

05/07/2026

I have always loved rocks, especially fossils, so I am always excited to spend time anywhere on Pomme de Terre Lake. After my last trip there and finding so many interesting fossils to photograph, I was inspired to highlight Pomme de Terre Lake’s remarkable geological history by writing this song, The Ancient Stones of Pomme de Terre, to share some of the amazing fossils you can see there. What makes this land so unique is that it serves as a massive timeline stretching back nearly 500 million years. The banks are primarily made of Mississippian Burlington Limestone (about 350 million years old) and older Ordovician dolomite.
The fossils you can find there include crinoids (stems of crinoids look like small stars or gears) shells of brachiopods and gastropods, a variety of corals, plant fossils, macrofossils of various tree types, echinoderms, bryozoans, stromatolites and even trace fossils such as mud burrows and ripple marks from when this area was a tropical sea. You can also find chert, quartz, calcite, dolomite, galena, barite, marcasite, limonite and hematite. Even more incredible is the Pleistocene history; this area is home to one of the most significant mastodon and mammoth "bone beds" in the country, where Ice Age giants were trapped and preserved in mineral springs. While it is amazing to see this history, please remember that collecting fossils, artifacts, or minerals, or disturbing any formations on USACE land is prohibited. All of the photos in the video are ones I personally took of rocks along the Pomme de Terre Lake shoreline, Pomme De Terre River area and in the Outlet Park Public Use Area. This is - for the most part - a song.. though the lyrics are thought to be accurate in describing the area it is primarily for entertainment and hopefully for your listening and viewing enjoyment.
You can find similar songs and videos on my page Life on the Road: The Soundtrack.
https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaLents

Music: The Ancient Stones of Pomme De Terre
Lyrics / Arrangement Rebecca Lents
RZStudios26 https://suno.com/
Sources:
https://mostateparks.com/page/55000/geology
https://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Missions/Operations/Lake-Projects/Pomme-de-Terre-Lake/History/
https://sites.wustl.edu/monh/geology-of-missouri

04/26/2026

I put together this playlist of original songs I've written that are inspired by the many sides of America — from landscapes, highways, and weather to history, legends, laws, local sights, and culture. The songs span a wide range of genres, so each one brings a different sound to the stories and places that shaped this country.
If you’d like to listen, just click the playlist link below. You should be able to listen to it without creating an account, but making a free Suno account lets you save the playlist and create your own.
I hope you enjoy the journey through the music as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Suno is building a future where anyone can make great music.