Roaming with Chris and Tracy

Chris and I went on vacation last week. The first real vacation we have taken since July 2019! We have taken long weekends, but nothing more than two nights and usually with something we have to do at least one day. We spent five wonderful and relaxing days exploring and experiencing new places. We left on Wednesday morning after Chris dealt with a couple of customer emergencies and returned home Sunday evening.

Since we got a little later start than we had planned, we just grabbed lunch on the go at Haymakers in Macon. We did make a stop in Boonville to explore a bridge there. We have been in Boonville before to go to an antique shop, but we have never explored the city. We are going to remedy that with a weekend visit there in the, hopefully, not too distant future. From Boonville we traveled onto to Springfield with only one stop for gas.

We arrived in Springfield late in the afternoon and got checked into our first of two vintage Route 66 motels, Best Western Rail Haven. We decided it was a good evening for Lamberts, since we’d had a small lunch. After we enjoyed our share of throwed rolls, okra and fried potatoes we did a little night photography, then went back to the motel and called it a day.

Thursday morning we went to the Wonders of Wildlife, and it was amazing! It is a little pricey, but you definitely get your money’s worth. Chris and I spent over 3.5 hours there enjoying the history and the many animals. We didn’t even venture into the Bass Pro Shop store, because we were trying not to wear Chris’ knees out too quickly. The history and art on display in the museum are amazing, and the water creatures in the aquarium are presented beautifully. I had never even thought about petting a sting ray, but I did and it was amazing!

It was time for lunch when we left the aquarium, so we headed to Casper’s Diner, a hamburger joint we had seen the night before that has been in business since 1909, and we were not disappointed! It’s a happy, quirky little diner that servers great hamburgers and we had such a fun waitress.

After lunch we went to the Springfield Botanical Gardens, which was beautiful, but very hot.

Thursday evening we played 36 holes of mini golf. Chris and I always check out the mini golf courses anywhere we go if we have time. The evening started out with a nice breeze, but part way through the second course the breeze stopped and it got very hot and humid. I was sooooo very happy to take a shower this evening.

Friday morning we checked out of our first nostalgic motel, but we will be staying at another for the next two nights. We hit Buc-ee’s for breakfast then headed out to start our day of exploring. Our first stop was the Route 66 Car Museum. This is not a huge museum, but they have some great vehicles. This was not really anything I cared much about, but Chris loves vintage cars and motorcycles. Therefore, I enjoy going to these places because he enjoys them so much.

Our next destination was Finley Farms in Ozark. This is a pretty neat place. We did not get a meal there, but we did both have a tea latte in the coffee shop.

From Ozark we drove on to Galena, Missouri to see the “Y” bridge. This bridge is really neat to walk on, but I can’t imagine driving a car across it with any traffic at all. We spoke to a gentleman from Kansas, who had grown up in the area, and he said he had driven across it many times before it was closed to vehicle traffic and it could be scary.

After many photos, a little chatting and sightseeing it was time to head on west to get checked into our accommodations for the next two nights; the Boots Court Motel in Carthage, Missouri. This charming little motel is definitely a step back in time. I had pretty high expectations for this place after reading about it online… and it did not disappoint.

Arthur & Ilda Boots open the Boots Court, utilizing the service station as the front office. Eight rooms are completed in the “Streamline Moderne” architectural style, offering carport parking directly beside rooms, and advertising a “Radio in Every Room.” The original nightly rental price is $2.50. (From the Boots Court website.)

As advertised in 1939 there is a radio in every room and it was playing an oldies station when we arrived; actually it is playing as I write this. We were also lucky enough to get one of the eight rooms with carport parking. After getting our little Ford Escape into the spot, Chris said he seriously wondered how they got the cars from the 30’s and 40’s into the carport. The room has a radio, but no television, and I do not miss it. If I really felt the need we do have wifi and I could watch anything I want on my laptop. Thankfully we do have a very good window air conditioner that is keeping the room very comfortable.

After getting settled into our room, we went out to get something to eat. We went for a little nostalgia of our own and ate at the Sirloin Stockade. We had not been to one in several years. Then we went and played a couple rounds of mini golf, as we had last evening. Tonight’s games were much cheaper than last nights, but the course was not nearly as nice; still, we had just as much fun. It was after dark as we followed the Historic Byway Route 66 back to our motel. It is really convenient that the state has the historic route clearly marked, so you can follow it without really knowing where it runs.

Today, Saturday, was a very good day. We saw a lot and covered a lot of miles to end up in the same place we started. At supper time, according to Google, we had traveled over 170 miles then we went a few more. We also walked a lot of steps today.

We started after a very good night’s sleep in our cozy little nostalgic room. It feels much more like being in someone’s very inviting guest room rather than a motel. We began the day by walking down the street to the Pancake Hut, a local diner, for breakfast. Afterward we headed out for the day, beginning with Grand Falls near Joplin.

Known as the largest continuously flowing natural waterfall in Missouri, Grand Falls is a must-stop photo op for visitors. Located on Shoal Creek just a few minutes downstream from Wildcat Park, “The Falls” plunges 12 feet down a 163-foot-wide ledge of solid chert before crashing into jagged crags and then flowing peacefully to the south. There are no facilities at the Falls. Swimming is allowed. (From the visit Joplin website)

It was not a very long hike from the parking lot to the river’s edge, but it was one of the roughest descents I have ever done. There are natural steps down, but the rock is very hard with an uneven and jagged surface.  The views are very much worth the climb, though. Chris was a little more adventurous than I was and climbed down a couple of spots I did not. We were going to take a trail down a little farther, but there was poison ivy at the beginning of it, so we changed our minds. 

We’d seen on the map that there is a marker at the point where the Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma borders meet.  The large stone monument is the original, but the builders missed the mark, so the plaque in the foreground was added later at the right spot.  When we read the plaque we discovered there was a tri-state corner for Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas about 40 miles away, so we added that stop to our itinerary for the day.  As usual, we didn’t take the direct route.

We moved on to Kansas to find a bridge, I’m sure that doesn’t surprise any of you! We meandered and piddled our way there with an unplanned side trip to Galena, Kansas for some exploring. (This is how most of our trips go.)  Galena had some interesting sights.

We did get to the Rainbow Bridge on an old section of Route 66 west of Galena.

After taking pictures at the bridge, we moved on south on old 66.  This was the first time Chris or I had ever been to Oklahoma. We found it to have farm land very much like Missouri. We could tell when we were getting close to Arkansas because all the gravel roads started turning red. From our experience much of the rock and dirt in Arkansas is red.

The marker at the Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas border is in a little town called Southwest City, and the name says it all.

After we saw these much sought after tourist sights we moved on to Bentonville, AR and went to Walmart. I know what you are thinking “How can they take so much excitement on a hot July day?” I can tell you we were really living in the fast lane. 😉

All joking aside, days like today are some of our favorite. The pace is pretty slow, very low stress, we are seeing roads and places we have never been before and best of all we are together living and loving our best life. It is days like today that make me so thankful for Chris and the relationship we have.

We finally did head back north and arrived in Carthage in time to rest in our comfy little room before supper time. Since we ate a good breakfast, we skipped lunch and went to supper sort of early. We walked down the street to a hamburger and ice cream joint, Braum’s, and enjoyed both.

After supper we went to a historic open air museum village, Red Oak II. It was interesting and made for a very nice after dinner walk.

If that wasn’t enough we went downtown and enjoyed the quiet evening on the square. There wasn’t much going on there except the celebration of our motel neighbors’ son’s wedding. (We saw a bride and groom having pictures taken and saw our neighbor’s vehicle parked there. They told us yesterday they were in town for their son’s wedding, so we put two and two together.)

Today, Sunday, is our travel day home. The last day of vacation is always a little sad because our adventure is about to come to an end, but I am always ready to be home and see our kitties. We got an early start and got the car loaded and stepped our of our charming little nostalgic motel room for the last time… for this trip anyway. We grabbed a quick breakfast at a local donut shop and hit the road.

We had a couple of stops in mind for the day, but our main plan was to follow Route 66 as far as possible. This was all going fine until we missed a turn in Marshfield and stumbled onto the most gorgeous scenery and just stayed “lost” for many miles. I was using Google maps “old school” and planning our route on the fly. We got to where we wanted to go anyway and saw some beautiful countryside on the way.

Our first planned stop was at Uranus, MO. It is a little place which has played up its less than ordinary name. They have a kitschy little tourist roadside stop that is kind of fun in a tacky sort of way. This is not the type of place we would usually want to go, but it was on the way to Devil’s Elbow bridge, so we stopped to see what it was all about.

The bridge at Devil’s Elbow had some very pretty views.

We encountered the first rain of our trip on the road to Devil’s Elbow, but it did not interfere with our exploring or enjoyment. From here it was just heading home with no more planned stops. We did stop in Jefferson city for a late lunch at Lee’s Chicken, and we arrived home a little after 6:30pm, and the laundry began.