Everyday in the Life of the Harts

Our plan for each day - leave the hotel by 8 and continue on Rt 66 as long as there was daylight. As we got closer to the end of our day, we planned accordingly so that we could stay in a town that had neon displays that we could enjoy after dark.

Day 3, we left St. Robert and backtracked to a few things that we missed on Day 2 (we ran out of daylight but drove west to our hotel in St Robert, so we could visit the Neon Park at night).

We stopped at Uranus Fudge Factory to see a few things during the day.

Hopping on I-44, we backtracked 20 minutes to our first stop - Vernelle's Motel and John's Modern Cabins.

Back on Arlington Outer Road (this section of 66 was only a few blocks long and was decommissioned), we stopped and took a picture of the cabin - you could hardly see it from the main road!

We continued along Arlington Outer Road, seeing the Former Totem Pole Trading Post and then turned around at the Arlington General Store. This road is essentially a dead end road, ending in Arlington.

Back on I-44, we exited at Jerome to see Larry Baggett's Trail of Tears Memorial. Unfortunately, the Memorial wasn't open yet so we took some pictures and continued on our drive.

Hooker Cut - "Construction of Hooker Cut began in 1941, requiring the excavation of over 280,000 cubic yards of limestone. The blasting and crushing process alone produced more than 87,000 tons of aggregate. At its completion, Hooker Cut was the largest road cut in the United States, reaching a depth of 91 feet from the top to the roadbed. As you pass through, you can see every layer of exposed limestone." (VisitMo.com)

Devils Elbow

We visited this same location in March 2011 with the kids (when we visited Lake of the Ozarks). It was neat to see the same location, 15 years later.

We ended up passing back through St Robert a few hours later, making a quick pit stop at the gas station before hitting the road again.

Waynesville

Downtown Service Station (Waynesville) did a great job with lots of signage, a Rt 66 mural and some fun traffic cones.

Gascozark

Gasconade River Bridge

Lebanon

Boswell Park

Phillipsburg

Underpass Cafe

I was so excited to shop!

Conway

Historic Twin Oaks Tourist Court

On our trip with the kids (2011), we also stopped at the Conway Rest Area on I-44. With Route 66 themed picnic areas and visitor center, we decided to divert from the route (we hit both the Westbound and Eastbound Rest Areas, ending where we started...right back on 66).

This is from 2011 (notice the girls wearing their Little House on the Prairie dresses! We were heading to Mansfield to tour Laura & Almanzo's house)

The same picnic area - with new paint

Niangua

AbbyLee Modern Court

Marshfield

This Rt 66 Plaza has a neat story in regards to the move & rehab of the Niangua Filling Station.. Here is the station before it was moved (screenshot from Google Maps, 2023).

The city of Marshfield did a great job with this rehab! Unfortunately, they were still finishing the interior of the filling station when we visited, so it wasn't open yet.

Edwin Hubble, the inventor of the Hubble Space Telescope is from Marshfield. There is a replica of the telescope in town.

Springfield

We ended our day in Springfield but not before we visited a handful of sites along the route.

This year, Springfield placed these Centennial Sculpture Shields throughout the city - commemorating the 100 year anniversary of 66. There are 17 sculptures - we found the majority of them on Day 4, but found a few of them today.

Once in town, we stopped for dinner at Dickey's BBQ. While not a Rt 66 "fav", it was a favorite of ours when we had one in the Quad Cities. It was nice to eat there again!

After dinner, we went in search of the World's Largest Golf Club and World's Largest Fork (both in Springfield)

We spent a bit of time walking around the flagship Bass Pro Shop. It is HUGE and had some great displays & museums throughout the store (including a live alligator!). I was also on a (successful) hunt for a Rt 66 sticker that had been hidden by a previous traveler.