Route 66 - Missouri, Kansas & Oklahoma (to OKC) (Days 1 & 2)

While Kaitee traveled to DC, Matt & I decided to hit the road for a week of travel on Route 66. We had driven the Illinois portion of Rt 66 over the summer and wanted to drive the Missouri portion before the end of the year, if possible. 

While researching our next stretch of travel, I came across a few things that we missed in Illinois. Some of those things were added to this trip while the other items will need to be done in a separate day/weekend trip. 

Matt had a training at church on the first morning of our vacation. While he was at the training, I drove Kaitee to Galesburg (45 min drive) to the Amtrak station (DC bound). Once back home, we loaded the car and hit the road for Missouri (ironically, driving right by Galesburg again!).

First stop was just south of Springfield, IL at Double Day Campground. I pinpointed this stop when I found that they had a large 66 shield set up (it is located in the back of of the campground). We parked in the visitor lot and then walked around, exploring their fun IL/Rt 66 items. They did a great job - we really enjoyed our time here.

Thanks to the Facebook group I'm in, I found this fun supersize goat (Goat Your Kicks on Rt 66) & mural in Gillespie. 

Another fun thing we found throughout our Illinois stops over the summer were these Postcard Murals (Matt & I call them Quilt Murals). We found the majority of them on our weekend trips but I found a list of them on the Facebook group and pinpointed the ones we were missing. We were able to get the remaining murals on this trip!

Driving through Mt Olive, we stopped to take pictures along this stretch of 66. We loved the country road feel, with the tall Illinois corn on both sides of the road. Add the 66 shield and road sign - perfection!

Driving into the St Louis area, we stopped in Collinsville to find their latest addition to Rt 66.

These 2 displays are located next to the D.D. Collins House.

While walking around the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, we came across this little guy (almost stepped on him!). This little snapper definitely had a barbaric look to him! Matt picked him up and moved him to the grassy area, away from the main trail. 

The sun was starting to set and we still had a few more stops to squeeze in before dark, but we really wanted to see the view from atop Monks Mound (which is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the Americas and the largest pyramid north of Mesoamerica, per Wikipedia). We climbed the stairs (for 8:00 in the evening, it was still hot...and extremely muggy) and walked around atop the mound. It was worth the effort!

Our next Postcard/Quilt Mural was an adventure. It was located at World Wide Technology Raceway. As soon as we got within hearing distance, we knew that there was a race/event happening and we may not be able to find the mural. We pulled in to the parking lot and found the mural right away. I hopped out and snapped a few pictures. The next item was a Rt 66 shield and state map. We ended up driving along the raceway (with parking lots on both sides of our car). SO MANY PEOPLE! This place was HOPPING! It was also dark, so we couldn't locate the map/66 shield. We decided (pretty much right away) to bypass these items and move along to the next mural which was across the street on the other side of the racetrack. As we sat at the stoplight, I looked to my right and saw the Rt 66 shield and state map...but it was behind multiple police vehicles at a checkpoint stop for "backstage" entries - pitcrew, drivers, semi crew, higher ups, etc. We decided to continue on to our next stop and come back in the morning to get a picture of it when it wasn't busy. As we settled in to our hotel that evening, we found out that it was a huge race event for the full weekend - NASCAR Cup Series. We would agree that it was a huge event. We would go so far as to say it was insane crazy due to the noise level and amount of people!

Our last stop for the day was in Granite City, at their Neon Park. We visited the Neon Park during the day over the summer, but wanted to see everything lit up at night. 

We've heard that Granite City keeps adding new things to their city to make the Rt 66 experience more fun. We missed this Fireman Muffler Man on our first trip. So cute with the dog and fire hydrant!

We stopped for a late dinner in town and figured out our hotel for the night. We were thrilled to have found all of our Illinois items and would travel across the Mississippi River into Missouri for Day 2.

Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel (judging from the breakfast room, everyone was in town for the NASCAR event or the Cardinals game). We were thankful to have found a hotel room for a decent price! First stop was back at the racetrack. That area was still patrolled by security and had a line of vehicles waiting to get in to the parking lot.  Unfortunately, we decided to pass on this shield and map. We will be back in St Louis soon enough and will get some pictures at that time. 

St. Louis 

While we've visited the Gateway Arch multiple times, we wanted to snap some pictures since it is such a huge part of American "must sees" and it is right on Rt 66. I told Matt I'd love to find a spot on the Illinois side to take pictures across the Mississippi River. We parked in the Casino Queen parking lot and took the steps up to Eads Bridge (Rt 66 alignment) 

Officially in Missouri, our first stop was Donut Drive In. We took a few pictures then decided to grab a donut for breakfast - they were delicious!

There are many Route 66ers who have traveled the route multiple times - sometimes they make the trip about staying in the historic motels, sometimes it's about the museums and others make it about the food. For us, it is most likely going to be a one time trip, so it is more about the roadtrip experience with a few historic motels, museums and diners along the way. There are so many wonderful Mom & Pop stops along the way, it is hard to decide which ones to stop at, where to sleep & where to eat. Because of this, we decided early on that we would (most likely) skip eating at most of the restaurants along the way (we typically have a few small snacks during the day and only eat one meal in the evening). We did make an effort to stop and take pictures and go inside to look around if possible. 

Ted Drewes (ice cream) was still closed for the day, which was good because we'd just bought donuts! Ted Drewes is a "must have" whenever you're in St Louis! 

Ted Drewes is known for turning their concretes upside down when serving them to their guests. So funny story, Matt & I were visiting my sister and brother-in-law many years ago and they took us to Ted Drewes. He wanted to show us the hype of serving the concrete upside down . . . except it was really hot that day . . . luckily he had the forethought to catch the custard with his hand before it hit my head! Fun times, Fun times!

Kirkwood

While driving to our next stop (Route 66 State Park), we saw signs for Wally's! I didn't realize that there was more than 1 Wally's out there. Matt asked if I wanted to go in but I told him that we'd be fine to wait until we returned to see things in Pontiac, IL that we had missed . . . including the Wally's. He made an executive decision and turned around so we could see what Wally's was all about. I'm so thankful we stopped! It was a fun (chaotic!) stop with so much to see. We had a lot of laughs as we explored.

Everyone says to try the popcorn! Fresh and warm! We opted to not purchase any this trip because we weren't hungry . . . but plan to do so when we visit the Pontiac Wally's.

Route 66 State Park 

(Visitor Center next to decommissioned bridge)

The decommissioned Rt 66 bridge from I-44/Rt 66.

Pacific, MO

Campbell's Service (museum), closed for the day

Red Cedar Inn Visitor Center

The quilt display was amazing! It was fun to walk around the display and see the places we've been and look at the pieces for what was ahead on the route. Beautifully done!

Jensen's Point Overlook

I wanted to surprise Matt with the Bigfoot stop. He was surprised, but sadly they were closed for the day. We took a picture by the back fence and continued on our way back to 66. We happened to glance out our window and saw Big Foot (one of them at least!) in the parking lot of B & H Market. Oh boy, oh boy!!!!!! We stopped and took some pictures. What a great surprise!

Villa Ridge, MO

Sullivan, MO

We decided to cut down to Meramac Caverns (without doing the caverns tour during this trip). It would be easy to spend a few days in this area if you like the outdoors. They have a ropes course, whitewater tour, boat ride as well as the caverns. 

Shamrock Court Motel was just recently refurbished and opened to the public (this year). They did an amazing job! We look forward to spending the night here sometime when we have a few days in the Ozarks!

Bourbon, MO

Cuba, MO

Cuba was probably our favorite town for the day - Hick's BBQ (smelled delicious - we still weren't hungry for dinner), Murals of Cuba, 66 Shield, Wagon Wheel Motel (another idea for an Ozarks visit) and an old Drive-In Movie Theater, an emergency landing for Amelia and a surprise letterbox for Matt.

Fanning, MO

Rolla, MO

The sun was setting as we rolled into Rolla. Another beautiful sunset was in the making! We stopped at Stonehenge and then took in the amazing artwork at the retaining wall in front of  Best Western Coachlight.

St Roberts, MO

From Rolla, we hopped on I-44 and drove to St Roberts (our hotel for the night). The main purpose for staying in St Roberts was to see the Neon Park at night. Well worth the extra drive (since we'd have to back track the next morning to pick up Rt 66 in Rolla). 

Kaitee & Matt had visited St Roberts in February of this year when they made a trip to Kansas City. They loved the goofiness of Uranus Fudge Factory and the surprise of the St Roberts Neon Park. We drove by the Uranus Fudge Factory and pulled in to take some pictures of the neon lights. To our surprise and delight (hardly anyone was there!), they were still open (general store at least) so we meandered around a bit. 

There are a few stops along Rt 66 that we really want to be able to see/visit during "open" hours. The Neon Parks (at night) are some of those stops. We were fortunate to visit Granite City and St Roberts during the evening hours and were able to visit the neon parks while they were all lit up. Without planning our days ahead of time, we really don't know when we will be at certain stops along the way. We were blessed that it worked out to see the bright neon tonight! St Roberts was, by far, our favorite Neon Park of the trip (quantity and quality of signs, easy to get to and close parking lot). They have a few spots ready for more signage too! 

Day 2 comes to an end. In two days, we've driven a little over 400 miles (175 miles of straight interstate from home to the Double J Campground, our first stop). We've been taking our time and enjoying the views and sites along the way - we've been having a blast!