MISSOURI (ROUTE 66)
Missouri is in the Central Region of the USA; Missouri played a major role in the Westward expansion of the USA. This is memorialized by the Gateway Arch in St Louis.
Coming from the East, Missouri earned the nickname Gateway to the West because it served as a significant departure point for expeditions and settlers heading to the West during the 19th century.
Many other trails began in Missouri, including the Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, and the California Trail. And so the first planning meeting for Route 66 was held in Missouri in April 1926. We also learned that some well-known people are born in Missouri i.e. Chuck Berry, Walt Disney, Brad Pitt, Sheryl Crow, Harry Truman, and Mark Twain. Missouri is also called the Mother of the West and with more than 6,000 caves, it’s no surprise that Missouri is also known as “The Cave State.”
Kansas City and St. Louis are two of the most vibrant cities in the Midwest, with unbeatable music and dining scenes, and plenty of things to do, while road-trip enthusiasts cross the heart of the Show Me State on Route 66 to experience bygone America.
Route 66 is the ultimate American road trip, with lots of roadside attractions, historical buildings, vintage roadside diners, museums, and quirky Route 66 memobirlia. Route 66, known by many as the Mother Road runs the historic road for 3665 kilometres from Santa Monica to Chicago.
ROUTE 66
Carthage is located within the infamous “Tornado Alley” and Japer County has an average of 6 tornado strikes per year. And today yet another Tornado warning.
Not my photo
In Cartage it was time to stock up and visit the Walmart store. It was warm and thunderstorms were looming, there was a tornado watch and possible hail. In Australia we are warned in the event of cyclones but here tornados appear from nowhere
The name: Carthage comes from the stone bluffs along the river that were of a pale colour that reminded the founders of the fabled stone quarries at the North African city of Carthage.
at the Conoco gas station we spotted a sculpture of a weird flying machine. It is the “Crap Duster” created by Lowel Davis. It is based on a manure spreader built by John Deere around 1910-1930.
Like so many Hamburger places on Route 66 the Whistler was famous. So are the many murals and old gas stations.
We found a nice spot in the Robert Talbot Conservation area not far from Springfield.
Springfield, Missouri we are told is the official birthplace of Route 66. As we travelled around Springfield, we did see markers and memorials commemorating Route 66. In April 1926, representatives from various states and communities gathered in Springfield for the first ever planning conference for a national highway system called Route 66. While Springfield’s claim as the birthplace of Route 66 doesn’t mean that the road physically started there, the city’s hosting of this conference marked a pivotal moment in the highway’s inception and planning. Springfield’s vintage Route 66 establishments are preserved along downtown streets and St. Louis Street, east of downtown. The Route 66 Car Museum is the big attraction here, thanks to its collection of more than 70 rare and collectible vintage cars. Nearby are several other route 66 items to check out including an old gas station and a sculpture made from hubcaps.
Red’s Giant Hamburger has its roots trace back to the 1940s when the original establishment opened along Route 66, pioneering the concept of the drive-thru restaurant. While it’s not situated on Route 66 anymore, these days, the place is adorned with vintage photos that whisk you back in time, all while exuding the timeless charm of a 1950s diner. They serve Americas and Route 66 favourite food hot dogs, hamburgers, frito pie, milkshakes, and other diner favourites.
There are over 6000 Caves in Missouri, some even a few miles apart, all with different formations and histories.
One just outside Springfield are the Fantastic Caverns,.The cave was found in 1862 by a farmer whose dog chased a rabbit into a small opening in a bluff. There’s no sign of humans ever being in the cave prior to that, though it’s been used extensively since then — as a speakeasy in the 20s, a country music performance venue in the 50s and 60s and a tour cave. Despite its size, the original cave opening is so small, crawling is required to enter. However, a highlight of the cave is that due to its size inside, Jeep-drawn trams will take you through. Today it is America’s only “ride-through” cave. Following the path of an ancient underground river, saves long walks, steep climbs, and stairs.
Conway is small town in the southwestern corner of Laclede County, in south central Missouri. Route 66 was created in 1926, and passed through the western part of the town and brought a flow of tourists which were served by the locals.
Conway is named after the first storekeeper back in the 1870s. It is an Irish surname which was converted from different gaelic names into this English variant “Conway”:
After Route 66 bypassed Conway in the early 1950s, business fell drastically at the original Harris stations and cabins on Conway’s Old Route 66 junction.
Rolla. The Mule Trading Post is one of the major attractions in town. The city of Rolla is the county seat of Phelps County, it is located on Route 66, in central Missouri next to the Ozarks Region. Frank Ebling opened the original “Mule Trading Post” back in 1946 but when Route 66 was replaced by I-44 and bypassed his store, he moved west to Rolla in 1957 and opened a store on the frontage road. It is also home to the Hillbilly sign in front of the store.
Cuba is called the mural city and home to the world largest rocking chair.
Cuba has many classic and famous Murals, that earned it the moniker of “Mural City”. Cuba is the largest city in Crawford County, is located on Old Route 66, in the central Missouri Ozarks foothills.
From 1926 to 1969, while Route 66 went through Cuba, the travellers gave the local economy a boost, and motels, cafes and gas stations were built to cater to them. In 1969, Route 66 became a full-fledged divided highway and bypassed the town.
The “Uptown Cuba Historic District” is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; and the Missouri legislature designated Cuba as the Route 66 Mural City
At Cuba Visitor’s Center grounds, you will find the sculpture of a family of Osage natives trekking west after they were removed from their homeland in Missouri by the U.S. Government. It is 35 feet tall and 80 feet long, it includes an Osage warrior, his wife and daughter, and a domesticated red fox pulling a sled.
Amelia Ehrhard who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, had to make an emergency landing in Cuba in 1928 where she repaired her Avro airplane and continued her flight. She disappeared while flying around the world alone, in the Pacific Ocean and was never seen again.
Other interesting facts
Cuba has a shoe store which has on display the shoes of the worlds tallest man. A size 37AA and 35AA. Robert Wadlow was the World’s Tallest Man, so maybe he wore the 35AA while he was still growing. The outside of the shoe store is also covered by one large mural of what the corner looked like in the early 1900s.
In Bourbon, the town named after the liquor, you notice the 2 bourbon tanks in town, one is the New Bourbon tank and the other the Old Bourbon tank. The Kentucky settlers of the late 1700s, Scots, Irish, Welsh, English and some French and Germans, produced a spirit distilled from corn, which later became known as Bourbon because it originated in this area.
Route 66 was aligned through the town in 1926, and several new stores opened to cater to the travellers: garages, service stations and cabins. This continued until 1953 when the new four-lane alignment of US 66 bypassed the old business district.
Just south of Bourbon you find the Onondaga Caves, a National Natural Landmark and State Park. This cave is looking after tourist since 1904. In those days people arrived by train followed by horse drawn carriages.
Other interesting sights: Just outside Fanning the world’s largest rocking chair,42-feet-4-inches high on rockers each 31.5 feet long that weighed a ton apiece. Assembled out of steel pipe, the chair weighed 27,500 pounds. 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, everyone was worried that tourists might flip it over and kill themselves, the chair was permanently welded to its base.
Once we arrived just before St Louis we turned north and said goodbye to Route 66.
We spent 3 weeks covering the area between Flagstaff to St Louis when most Americans do the complete Route 66 in 1-week (3600 kilometers PFFFFF). Hamburgers, fried chicken, meatloaf, hot dogs, French fries, corndogs, burritos, chili, steaks, fruit pies, milkshakes, and the like are common Route 66 road foods. But we gave up after a few days. We crossed 3 time zones, and the days became longer courtesy of the clock going forward and summer on the way.
We look forward to Part 3 of Route 66 from Saint Louis to Chicago with highlights such as:
- The symbolic start of Route 66 is Buckingham Fountain in Chicago’s Grant Park. Route 66 Welcome Center at the Joliet Area Historical Museum, with its excellent exhibit on the Muffler Men, huge fiberglass statues that were used to advertise car repair shops.
- Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket, specializing in fried chicken served under the slogan, “Get Your Chicks on Route 66. The perfectly preserved Ambler’s Texaco Gas Station in Dwight, where the gas pumps are painted gleaming red. Pontiac’s pride in its Mother Road heritage can be seen in its 23 colourful outdoor murals and its two museums dedicated to America’s love affair with the automobile. 3. The Route 66 Association Hall of Fame & Museum showcases vintage ads, signs and a classic Volkswagen hippie bus housed in an old fire station. 4. The uber-retro Ariston Cafe is one of the oldest continuously operating Route 66 establishments, serving up a melting pot of American, Southern, Greek, and Italian fare since 1924.
TIME TO EXPLORE MORE OF MISSOURI
First stop Lake of the Ozarks, to do some R&R. Lake Ozark is Missouri’s most popular lake destination and with more than 1760 kilometres of shoreline the lake has more shoreline than the coast of California. The lake has a surface area of approximately 220 square kilometres. Located on the northern edge of the Ozark Mountains in central Missouri, Lake of the Ozarks was created by an impoundment of the Osage River in 1931. In its over-90-year history, this long and winding lake has grown into Missouri’s premiere vacation destination, with over 70,000 homes along the lake, many of which are vacation homes and with more than 5 million visitors per year.
At the time of construction, Lake of the Ozarks was the largest manmade lake in the United States and one of the largest in the world (1931) Long and winding in shape, the lake consists of the main, 150 km Osage River channel and many arms each feeding different tributaries.
With more severe weather in the forecast (Thunderstorms, 2-inch hailstones and possible tornados around Lake Ozarks) we decided to leave. Instead of using the highways we decided to travel inland towards Kansas City. Driving through historic towns, with cobblestone streets and rolling hills enroute to Independence the city which was the home of Harry Truman for over 60 years including when he was President of the United States between 1945 and 1953. Once we crossed the city Kansas City, we crossed the State border into the State of Kansas. (Funny Kansas City is in Missouri)
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