I made the trip back to Springfield… while I hit the big cities, I still had a lot of ground to cover… I needed to get to Kansas, and even Miami, OK.
I got to Springfield, and stopped at the Rail Haven Motel – one of the old roadside Motels, though well maintained, and redone. Elvis actually stayed at this one.
this happened to be RIGHT next to the gateway in Springfield, which was cool. This made for a good start the next morning.
Springfield had a lot of cool art items along the road that were worth checking out
The gateway did a great job of illustrating a lot of the things I had seen thus far – as well as some I had yet to run into!
Red Oak II, Missouri was interesting. Most people collect small things… stamps, cars, books… Lowell Davis collects BUILDINGS. This was a worthwhile diversion off the main road (likely part of an old alignment)
It wasn’t much past this area that I was driving along, and I heard a “thunk” on the back of my car. I looked in the mirror just in time to see one of the Mitsubishi hubcaps spinning down the road and careening off a big truck going the opposite direction. You know.. I had lost one already, this made 2. I wasn’t going to go chase it down.
Kansas – all 12 miles of it. Talk about weird. You drive down the Missouri Historic Byway… and then it ends. I’m glad I had the app on my phone – it said to keep going.. and out of nowhere, there’s a new sign – Begin Kansas Route 66!
Galena Kansas is another gem. While the road cones and the town that inspired the movie “Cars” is out west, the CARS that inspired the movie (including Mater) are in Galena, along with a new-generation Muffler Man.
Heading through Oklahoma… and all of a sudden there’s a Big Blue Whale on the side of the road – talk about a unique attraction that doesn’t really scream “Route 66″…
As I kept going towards Tulsa, I kept checking my hubcaps… and wouldn’t you know it? By the time I was done for the night, the last two hubcaps were breaking, and coming off the car. I drove the hubcaps right off the car. Mitsubishi – the mirage is a turd.
I took a chance on another roadside motel… the Desert Hills looked inviting enough with its huge neon sign, but it could use a few modern updates. at least the A/C worked… we’ll just call it rustic. It was certainly clean enough, just been there a while.
