Missouri and Kansas on Route 66 - RV Podcast Episode 382
Missouri and Kansas on Route 66 - RV podcast episode 382
This week we share our adventures through Missouri and Kansas, visiting large furniture, movie inspirations, and great food stops along the Mother Road. We start this episode crossing the Mississippi River into St Louis Missouri, and making our way south and west through Kansas.
We hope you enjoy while we share the places, people, and — food - on this leg of the trip, while we celebrate 100 years of Americans getting their kicks on Route 66.
And of course, we are doing all this while towing our Mini Lites behind us so that every night we can enjoy — StressLess Camping!
The StressLess Camping podcast is a weekly RV podcast with information, tips and tricks to help every RVer and camper enjoy some StressLess Camping.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
The time we visited Meramec Caverns - in 2021!
Our Journey Journal about traveling through Missouri to through Cuba and into Springfield
Our Journey Journal about Springfield Missouri - the birthplace of Route 66
We are digging all the neon parks on the Mother Road
Journeying on the Bill Would roads into Kansas on Route 66
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Our collection of resources for RVers for StressLess Camping
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 382
Peggy
This week we share our adventures through Missouri and Kansas, visiting large furniture, movie inspirations, and great food stops along the Mother Road. We start this episode crossing the Mississippi River into St. Louis, Missouri, and making our way south and west through Kansas. We hope that you enjoy this leg of our trip while we celebrate 100 years of Americans getting their kicks on Route 66. And of course, we're doing it all while we tow our Mini-Lites so that we can enjoy every night Stressless Camping.
Peggy
Stressless Camping. We have this week's podcast, along with notes and episodes and journey journals and Goofy USA posts, all that on our, at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com. Thank you so much for coming along with us on our journey on Route 66, episode 382. I'm Peggy. I'm Tony. Tony's over there. Back. Last week he decided to be on camera, and I didn't at all, so this week I thought I would get on and say hi.
Peggy
We have spent a lot more time behind the camera in this last leg of the trip than we did in front of it. So we have lots and lots of pictures to share, but not very many pictures of us. I'm sure that doesn't make you too sad. We have been really enjoying ourselves. We really appreciate you being here. Now, why don't you go on a journey with us on Route 66 through Missouri and Kansas? I don't want this to come out the wrong way. We absolutely love traveling in a group.
Peggy
When we were traveling with Bill and Kate on Route 66 in February, and now with Kate and Bailey on Route 66 in October, but we have to admit, it makes it a little bit difficult to stop and see a lot of things when we not only have a travel trailer, but we each have a travel trailer. So we did kind of bypass a lot of St. Louis. We, of course, took some video as we passed the arch, and our friends Brian and Patrick went up on the arch earlier this year, so they shared a couple pictures with us.
Peggy
But mostly we skipped through St. Louis. Uh, we also in the past have been there and went to the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour and saw that. And one of the other things that we really remembered from all of St. Louis was Ted Drewes frozen custard. And so we actually did try to go there, but we could not figure out the parking for ourselves. We were going the wrong direction. But Kate came in from a different direction, so she actually did stop at Ted Drewes on this trip.
Peggy
And since she felt sorry for us for not getting frozen custard, she bought a few different kinds and brought them to camp, and we all tried some frozen custard later. So Kate has been a little bit more driving what we call the Bill Would roads. She, you know, wants to stay on the... What? Huh? Oh, Bill Would? Oh, I didn't tell you about that? So we've decided to call it Bill Would when there's a road that might go faster and then there's another route that you might see more goofy things, and also drive the most distance possible of Route 66.
Peggy
And I know that one of Bill's goals was to drive as much Route 66 as possible, so we call those roads the Bill Would roads. I also looked, one of the things that we remembered doing in the St. Louis area is going to White Castle, and I really thought that they were spread out across more of the country. But apparently, White Castle really is only in St. Louis, so we totally missed our chance to introduce Kate to White Castle. Sorry, Kate. After we passed through St. Louis, we stopped for a moment at the Route 66 State Park Visitor Center.
Peggy
The whole state, I don't know how, what the extent of is the, of the state park, but where we stopped is where there's a bridge that used to go over the river that was part of Route 66, and that bridge is out. And when I went in to get my rubber stamp from the host inside, she said she was really glad that I had the really old style book because it shows the bridge out, and the new style book shows the bid- bridge renovated, but the bridge is not yet renovated.
Peggy
So she likes mine better 'cause it's more accurate. Maybe someday we'll get to see more of that state park. Where we stayed was Meramec State Park, and we've stayed there before. And this time we stayed there, but we still didn't take very many pictures, and we actually used it as a time to get caught up on some things and do some laundry and get our work caught up. So we didn't do a whole lot. One thing we did do on this stop was take a day out and drive into the town of Sullivan and take some pictures of the Shamrock Court neon because that's kind of one of our, you know, sort of focuses on this particular trip.
Peggy
We're just really digging all the neon that we can see. Uh, we did in the past stay at Meramec State Park, and we went to the Meramec Caverns, which was a really awesome cavern tour. The caverns are known as the Jesse James hideout, and as the story goes, Jesse and his brother Frank were running from the law, and they entered the cave. So everyone thought they were trapped, but they heard water running, so they jumped into the underground river and rode it out of the caverns to freedom. Now, inside a cavern, winter, summer, day, night, it's always about 60 degrees, so that's a good place to visit, uh, when the weather outside is terrible.
Peggy
And but 30-degree water is what they've measured that temperature, so imagine how cold those kids must have been riding the river to safety, but hey, they got to safety Also, I don't flex my geology nerd muscle very often, but I wanna mention the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. Uh, they all grow very slowly drip by drip by drip, and the st- the way that I learned was that stalactites grow from the ceiling because they hold tight to the ceiling, and stalagmites grow up from the floor, and they might have been stalactites if they had held on.
Tony
Our next stop on the Mother Road is Cuba, Missouri. And n- no, we, we didn't see Fidel, a different Cuba altogether. But h- here's Kate pulling into Cuba, Missouri, and we were all excited because of Missouri Hick Barbecue. But whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't look at that. First, we're gonna go right next door to the historic Wagon Wheel Motel. And the Wagon Wheel is one of the only continuously operating vintage motels on Route 66.
Tony
Like so many of these places, it started out kind of as a service station and a cafe, and then they built one cabin and then another cabin. And the cabins are unique because they're made out of the local stone, and each building houses two individual cabins. So it's a pretty cool place, and they have a pretty elaborate gift shop there. And then finally, it's 11:00, and we can enjoy Missouri Hick, which came very highly recommended for their barbecue.
Tony
And ooh la la, it was good stuff. I really l- I had brisket and a rib, as did Kate. Uh, Peggy had a pulled pork sandwich. Uh, it was, it was quite good. And of course, we left our mark. Yeah, we put another sticker on Missouri Hick. So there you go. They had this very elaborate and quite nice, uh, Route 66 mosaic on the floor that had all of the stops and, you know, just all the Route 66 highlight cities and such.
Tony
And so that was pretty neat to look at. And we have a story about that at our home on the web. But then our next stop was Fanning's Outpost, where we saw the world's second-largest rocking chair. We've been there in the past. Boy, Fanning's Outpost has gotten quite large. I mean, they have really expanded Fanning's Outpost. And of course, you know, we have a full story with lots of pictures at our home on the web about this section of Cuba and Fanning's Outpost.
Tony
Now, a word from our sponsors.
Tony
Something that is probably super associated with Route 66 is the beautiful neon that used to grace all those motels and cafes along the side of the road. Neon is so part of the Route 66 experience, and with the 100-year anniversary, there is a lot of focus on restoring old neon. One of the places that we stopped at is the Neon Park in St.
Tony
Robert, Missouri, and this is a place where they've taken the old neon signs from all these little businesses. A lot of them were taken out of fields or just, you know, in scrap yards, whatever, and they were put back in prominence. The, uh, light was re-illuminated, and the art of neon is back on display. Now, unfortunately, we visited the Neon Park in the daytime, which is ...
Tony
You know, it's its own experience because this park is really well done. They have all these vintage neon signs from the area, and there are signs below them on the poles that kinda explain what the history is and what the business was and, and all of that. My favorite was this bail bonds sign, and I didn't get to see it lit up, but you could bet I found pictures of it lit up over on the interwebs.
Tony
Uh, it's funny because there is the, the neon jailbird is behind neon bars, and then there's the Alpaca Motel sign and so many more signs from the area. The Stanley Court Hotel sign was basically in a field just rotting away, and they brought it back to life and fixed it up nicely, and now it's there at the park. And after dark, you get to see the, see the glow.
Tony
Another place that still has its original neon is the original Steak and Shake. Apparently, this is how they used to decorate their places. And here's kind of an example of how they did the neon signs in the Neon Park with these nifty little signs explaining everything. And of course, a lot of theaters on Route 66 also had, uh, extensive neon, and some of that has been re-illuminated. But one of our favorites was this frozen custard stand.
Tony
And I mean, my gosh, the neon is in motion. It changes patterns. It's, it's like a beacon of bright light there on Route 66. Unfortunately, we were so full from dinner that we didn't get to try the custard, but Boy, the sign sure is neat. And then there are other neon signs, including this one pointing to, to Springfield, and the Railhaven Motel. No trip through this area would be complete without a stop at Uranus Fudge Factory.
Tony
And if there were ever a place that were created by the imagination of a 12-year-old boy, it would be this place. But they do have some really nice neon, and they are continuously improving it. So you walk in, and of course right now it's close to Halloween, but you walk in and the whole staff screams, "Welcome to Uranus," and, uh, "Good to have you," and all of that. And you know, it's proof that if you have a business...
Tony
'Cause how many places along Route 66 sell fudge? And I mean, there's, there's a countless number of f- places that sell fudge and candies and T-shirts, but this place is just hopping because they have a gimmick, just like that song says, gotta get a gimmick.
Speaker 3
Welcome to Uranus Fudge Factory.
Speaker 4
Welcome to Uranus.
Tony
Welcome to Uranus.
Speaker 4
We made it.
Tony
Something I noticed about the Uranus Fudge Factory is also that they just continue to kinda spiff it up and modernize things. That little train was new. There are so many shirts that could offend your friends and relatives. Uh, of course I had to buy one. Uh, you'll just have to see in the future which one I bought. But the place has all kinds of gifts and candy and foods, and the people are really pretty delightful because they, they get it.
Tony
It's funny. Uh, they have really expanded the place. It used to be not really bigger, but some of the storefronts were empty, and now they're filling up. Uh, one of the things that we noticed is that there is a strange museum. Now, we did not go into the actual exhibit, but we did go into the, like the gift shop section of this. Hey, there's the mayor of Uranus.
Tony
Uh, he's, I guess, the character, and they have this fun mirror so you can look distorted in Uranus, as it were. Uh, and yes, unique gifts is truly, uh, an apt description. We saw this El Camino outside that basically somebody molded a giant chicken into. So does that make it a El Ca-chicken or a Cock-amino? I don't know. But anyway, uh, I know you'd be disappointed if I didn't kinda highlight our stop at the Uranus Fudge Factory.
Tony
Before I go much further, I wanna thank Peggy and Kate for doing all the planning on this trip, and they're doing such a great job with all these last-minute plans. One of those places we found was the Route 66 Car Museum, which is part of the Harvest Host program, so two nights we spent there. This museum is not a huge car museum, but it is... It's incredible the variety of cars that they have there.
Tony
And if you have even the, the slightest interest in vintage, classic, unusual cars, boy, this is a place to go. I mean, they have everything from the modern-ish Dodge Viper, they have a relatively new, uh, Morgan, this old Packard. It goes in the back. They have little cars, they have big cars. They have cars that were used in movies and television shows, including one of my absolute favorite cars of all time, the Batmobile.
Tony
Now, this is not an original, uh, George Barris Batmobile. George Barris created the first Batmobile out of a Lincoln Futura concept that he bought for, like, a dollar or something. Uh, and anyway, that has been a car I have loved ever since I was a wee lad, and when I walked in the door of the museum and I saw the Batmobile there, uh, it was just, boy, you, you needed, uh, something to stop me from drooling. I, I just love this car, and that was probably my favorite TV show as a kid, too, was the 1960s Batman series.
Tony
It was just so cheesy and so corny, and so very typical of even now how I kinda perceive the world around me. But the Batmobile is actually a reproduction, and these things have become so collectible that an original one sold for well over $4 million at an auction. And so you can see why people are recreating these Batmobiles. This was a pretty good reproduction.
Tony
It did not have the flames that shoot out the back, but that, that wouldn't be such a great idea at a car show anyway. So anyway, this was, uh, just a fantastic two nights on Route 66, uh, right outside of Springfield, and from here we ventured out into Springfield and met this cool-
Larry Russo
All right.
Tony
Who do we have here?
Larry Russo
Hi, my name's Larry Russo. I'm from Hot Springs, South Dakota.
Tony
And what in the wide, wide world of sports are you up to?
Larry Russo
I've got my '72 Volkswagen Super Beetle. Her name is Percy. And her, her battle cry is "Perchow!" Kinda like, uh-
Tony
Ka-chow, right?
Larry Russo
Ka-chow, yeah.
Tony
Ka-chow.
Larry Russo
Yeah, we've been, uh, I fixed her up over a couple months, August, September, and, uh, drove out, started October 1st, drove out to Chicago, and I made it here to Springfield, Missouri, so-
Tony
And you're doing the whole of Route 66-
Larry Russo
The whole thing
Tony
... in a 54-year-old VW.
Larry Russo
Yep.
Tony
And you've got it all... It looks like you're all fitted out for maybe some car camping, or-
Larry Russo
Yep, car camping.
Tony
How are, are you doing the little motels? Are you car camping, or-
Larry Russo
I've stayed in the little bigger motel- motels. Haven't done a little one yet. But I've done some camping. Uh, froze the first night. Second night was beautiful, so hoping to do more, but the rain got in my sleeping bag-
Tony
Oh, man
Larry Russo
... so gonna figure that out tonight at the hotel.
Tony
Are, is there a place where we could follow your adventure?
Larry Russo
Well, I'm headed to Carthage, I think.
Tony
Sounds good.
Larry Russo
Oh, on, uh, Facebook, yeah.
Tony
Yeah.
Larry Russo
Percy Von Motorstrasse.
Tony
Very cool.
Larry Russo
Put in Percy Von, should come up on Facebook.
Tony
I'm gonna go follow it right now. Good meeting you.
Larry Russo
Same. Appreciate it. ... go in a cafe and have a root beer or something.
Tony
Sounds like a great idea.
Larry Russo
Yeah.
Larry Russo
It starts.
Peggy
Going to ABC Upfitters does not have to be a one and done. We talk a lot about upfitting at ABC Upfitters, and sometimes a power package, or if it's not a Rockwood product, I think that has a different name, but sometimes you'll get the lithium and solar system built into your RV, but maybe you want more. Maybe you want bigger. Maybe you want newer. And that's when you come back, and instead of upfit, you're gonna upgrade, and that is what Mike is doing with this Geo Pro.
Speaker 3
Yes, I am. So, thank you, Peggy. So what we have is, he, this customer came back. He is changing his AC, that he had a, uh, a Mach. He's changing it to a Furrion Chill Cube, which is more efficient, cuts half the time, so he'll get more runtime on his, uh, his battery. Uh, he also came back, got a couple extra different stuff, customer preference, that we installed for him. Uh, but along with these upgrades, he's getting, he had three solar panels. He's adding another one for number four. Even if you had three, you wanna, uh, size of your roof, you wanna add three more, we can go six.
Speaker 3
If you have a 60 amp MPPT, uh, that'll max that out. If you have a 25 MPT, we can go up to a 60. That's another upgrade that you can have. Um, gosh, battery-wise, a 460, you can add another 460 to it. Uh, another, uh, popular demand this year has been the, uh, the 1250, the 100 amp hour batteries. Um, you get three, four, you can put those in a install, um, then you can go up to, uh, six. Um, you just keep coming back and, uh, you can just add on.
Speaker 3
There's just so much you can do, uh, add on and upgrades to this product, uh, to the system. It's, uh, very prone and, uh, I mean, it's kinda endless, you know?
Peggy
Yeah.
Speaker 3
So, yeah.
Peggy
Yeah, I know we've come back from our original power package. We came back and got the DC to DC converter installed.
Speaker 3
Mm-hmm.
Peggy
Then we came back another time and got the rail lights, when you started doing rail lights-
Speaker 3
Yep
Peggy
... which are standard on Rockwoods now.
Speaker 3
Yep.
Peggy
And, but if you don't have a Rockwood and you didn't get 'em standard, come to ABC and get-
Speaker 3
Yep
Peggy
... those. And, uh, the bifacial solar panels are starting to become a thing, so the-
Speaker 3
Yes, they are
Peggy
... the, kind of a little better solar panel.
Speaker 3
Yep.
Peggy
So again, there's no end to the number of times that you can come back and upgrade your ABC power system.
Speaker 3
Yep.
Tony
Springfield, Missouri is the birthplace of Route 66. Uh, that happened on April 30th, 1926, when a telegram was sent from Springfield proposing the number 66 for the new highway running through the city. That helped establish the name of the road that would eventually become an American cultural icon, and you can bet Springfield has celebrated this with some great monuments and kinda statues and such around the city.
Tony
Now, the hotel where this was sent from is long gone, but there is a sculpture that celebrates that hotel, and a really beautiful sunburst mural that lights up at night, and that was a really popular spot. Of course, there's also neon, and across the street from where that sunburst is, is a motel that Elvis reportedly s- uh, stayed at in 1955.
Tony
Oh, burn low, baby. Anyway, another thing that's kind of making a resurgence on Route 66 are musical roads, and we're gonna take you down the newest one here in Springfield right now.
Tony
Well, you know what they say, when you get to a fork in the road, take it, and we took it to Lambert's Cafe. Okay, okay, okay, those of you who are purists will know that Lambert's Cafe is not on Route 66, but it is kinda sorta close to Springfield, and we really like it. Why? Because they got a gimmick, and that gimmick is they bring these fresh hot rolls out from the kitchen, and there's people who literally will throw them at you to, you know, serve them.
Tony
So they stand kinda in the middle of the restaurant and chuck these really hot, freshly baked dinner rolls. Now, the food at Lambert's is also pretty darn good. They have these things called passed, uh, sides, and the appetizers are sort of passed around by other team members at Lambert's. You get pretty good size portions, and it's been around since the 1940s. So in the past we had heard about it from John and Cathy at Living the RV Dream, and boy, we sure, any chance we can go to Lambert's, we do.
Tony
This time we brought Kait, 'cause she had never had a throwed roll. So good food and a really fun atmosphere.
Peggy
Heading out of Missouri and into Kansas, Tony wanted to make good time and get to the campground in case it filled up, and it was first come, first served. So I hopped in the truck with Kait, and we had a Bill Would day. You remember Bill Would, right? Those are the roads that you don't necessarily have to take, but if you wanna have the most, most, most experience on Route 66, you do it like Bill Would. Most of the places are just take a picture out the window sort of spots, but we thought that was what the Gay Parita service station was gonna be, and it turns out there are everything there.
Peggy
There's old cars, there's, you know, old statues, and just, it's such a fun place to walk around and take pictures. And we got a new bottle opener for our home bar, and they got a new sticker. Yay. Kait says it feels like her driving her truck is like flying an airplane clock, cockpit because she has all these monitors in there, but she did have a really good tip for solo drivers. Let me have her tell you about that.
Speaker 4
Hey, Siri. Add 1,128 buildings to drive list.
Speaker 3
Okay. I've added 1,128 buildings to the drive list.
Speaker 4
My dash cam footage, I'll have a timestamp to look for, which is in all the files, and know what I'm supposed to be looking for later.
Peggy
Carthage, Missouri is a fun town to drive through. It's a fun town to spend a little bit of time in. Tony and I did that in the past. But they just have, like, so many cars on sticks sort of statues. And there is a town, well, there's a little area called Red Oak II, and it's, like, a town that this guy built from old Missouri buildings to make it m- feel more like his childhood home. So he, we have driven through that, not with a travel trailer of course, and so Kait and I s- decided to skip that and we just moved forward.
Peggy
Uh, Tony and I have also stayed at the Boots Court, which is one of those vintage, uh, motels, hot- motels, yep, motels. Uh, and it has the little garages built in, but of course our truck didn't fit in those little garages. But that's okay, it was fun to stay in anyway. Uh, also Tony got a good beard washing, 'cause that's as high as the shower head would reach. Even though this probably would've been better without a trailer, Kait and I drove over the Wee Bridge.
Speaker 4
Missing roller coasters? Just come to Carthage, Missouri, where you can go wee on the Wee Bridge.
Peggy
Special right here. Wee.
Speaker 4
Wee. Ah.
Peggy
We did meet up with Tony for a little lunch break, and so I could get my sweatshirt that I had left in the trailer, uh, in Joplin, and I needed that sweatshirt. Y'all, fall has falled. Fall has fallen. Fall has fell. It got cold overnight the second night we were in Springfield. We spent the first night, like, really warm and humid and kinda miserable sleeping, and the second night we went to bed and it was warm and humid, and we woke up and it was, like, 45 degrees, and phew, that oppressive heat and humidity is gone, at least for the moment.
Peggy
And then Tony moved on, and Kait and I went to the Joplin Museum. It's called the Mineral and History Museum, and it is. It's the history of Joplin and the history of their mining and the minerals they have, and they have really some beautiful specimens. And there's also a cookie cutter museum, which is why it was on the Roadside 66 app, and why we found out about it in the first place. Entering Kansas, we found where the Yellow Brick Road meets Route 66, and I couldn't resist a little goofiness.
Peggy
Let's follow the Yellow Brick Road. Look, I'm in Kansas. Look, I'm in Missouri. Look, I'm in Kansas. Look, I'm in Missouri. There's Kait. Just after we entered Kansas, we came up over this hill, and we knew that we were coming up on Luigi's Pit Stop, but we did not know we'd get such a welcome. They have this over the road kind of trestle bridge thing with a giant gorilla We saw Percy, the, uh, Percy von Mutterstrasse and Larry are doing Route 66, and we met them in Springfield.
Peggy
This is not the last time we will see them. We took some great pictures. Luigi's Pit Stop is very much just a tribute to the Cars movie. They have a bunch of the characters from Cars as like cardboard cutouts or, uh, cutouts that you can put your face in. S- uh, some tractors are so numb. Also, right around the corner is, uh, the, it is a gift shop now, old service station of course, and it, the story goes that that's where Tow Mater was conceived.
Peggy
There is a statue there of Tow Tater that was made by Joe Ranft, and that is apparently the, uh, inspiration for Tow Mater. I, of course, stuck a sticker on the window, and then we headed out toward Baxter Springs. In Baxter Springs, we almost drove right through town, but then I found out that there was an American Giant, a muffler man, Big Al, at an old service station that's now a gift shop called Gearheads, I think it's called, and that was a fun little shop.
Peggy
There were some, uh, Star Trek memorabilia even included in that one. Uh, but it was a great little stop. And then after that, Kate and I drove over the Rainbow Arch Bridge, who also have a new sticker. It is a really cool old bridge, uh, that I wrote the history of in our blog post a- that I will put a link to here, and I can't exactly remember it or find my notes while I'm talking, so. We camped that night in Baxter Springs City Park, which is a nice little park right by the river, and they have, not that we used it, but they have a really good, uh, disc golf course that was very popular.
Peggy
The g- the campground wasn't too crowded, which was nice. It was really great, and made a good place to prepare and think about our next day, where we were heading off to Oklahoma. And that was our Kansas adventure on Route 66. Hey, uh, maybe we need a word from our sponsors. We hope you enjoyed our journey through Missouri and Kansas on Route 66. We really appreciate you being with us, and hanging out with us, and following our journey.
Peggy
We love when you like, and when you subscribe, and when you share the podcast, the YouTube channel, uh, articles on the website. Whatever it is that you wanna share, feel free to do so, and thank you so much for being here for episode 382. We are still on Route 66. We will see you again next week, although next week is Halloween. Ha ha ha. Don't forget to sign up for our once-a-week newsletter so that you can enjoy all the news from the RV world, and we hope that you are enjoying your own stressless camping.
Speaker 6
Stressless camping.
