Day 19--Joplin to St. Robert(?), Mo: And the rains came down!

You know, some night's the uploading of the pictures takes forever, so thank goodness we got to our hotel at a decent hour tonight. I feel much better today; it must have been a 24-hour bug or something. Ben did throw up in the middle of the night last night, but he is better today too. Daren keeps saying that I got sick of being around the family so much, but if that's the case it should be him being the one getting sick. He has driven the entire trip and has been very patient with all my stops for pictures, or at least slowing down (can you tell most of the pictures, at least the signs ones, are taken on the fly?!). It is really nice having him want me to take pictures for a change, and he has spotted many things I wouldn't have seen because I have had my head buried in the guide book trying to navigate. It all has worked out great so far, and we are having a blast! So, on the map above, we went from Joplin to St. Robert's today, which isn't on the map, but it's just before Devil's Elbow. FYI.


When we started out from Joplin we went through some beautiful little towns, Webb City being the first. When lead and zinc were first discovered in the area, Webb City is where the mine owner's lived (early 20th century or so), making it one of the richest cities in America for a time. There are many beautiful victorian-style houses around where the wealthy lived. This picture doesn't show it well, but this rock wall around this house has to be plenty old, but it is really cool.


This picture doesn't do this place justice, but it's one of the most beautiful cemeteries I have every seen. All our boys love cemeteries, so we have been through almost every one we have seen, and this one was amazing with the old old headstones and the big old trees around. It was out in the middle of nowhere (in a little town called Carterville), so it was very quiet and the boys and Daren had fun looking around to find the oldest headstone while I made more PB&J's--what else?! p.s. The oldest one they found was died in 1899--I'm sure there are older there, but not bad for just a few minutes. They are showing off the acorns Jake found and gave to everyone!

A beautiful old railroad bridge, somewhere between Carterville and Carthage, Mo.

When we say that we were pleasantly surprised with Oklahoma, mega dittos for Missouri! I mean really, these pictures don't do it justice. You really need to see it for yourself, because everywhere you look are like images from a calendar. Missouri is plenty green as well, and it's beautiful like Oklahoma, just in a different way.

Ahh, the drive-in! Quite a nostalgic thing. Apparently drive-in's used to be a big thing on Route 66, but as time has gone by, so have the drive-in's (and everywhere else too). This one in Carthage is the last drive-in to bear the Route 66 name, and apparently people come from far and wide to enjoy movies here. Too bad it wasn't closer to our destination because they are showing Indiana Jones here tonight!


We feel like we are just blazing through every town we go through and hardly have a chance to stop and smell the roses...well, today we finally stopped and what a gem we found! We were passing this old (but nicely restored) Sinclair station in a very small town called Paris Springs. I handed the camera to Daren to take a picture out the window since it was on his side. There were 3 men talking out front and one called over to us and told us we could stop on in...so we did. We made a new friend on the road today, named Gary. I don't know his whole history, but he was more than happy to talk to us about the "good ol' days" when this station was up and running, and how he moved back to this town, after living in California, because he loved it so much. I think he just sits outside and talks to anyone who will stop by and chat with him. His station, which doesn't sell gas or anything else, is beautiful and full of old Route 66 memories. He also had a couple of old trucks around, and as you can imagine, the boys hated that!! I imagine there are at least 100 Gary's out there along the Mother Road, but in our haste, and with 3 young boys, it just doesn't work to stop at every little place, but I'm so glad we did today. We will have to come back someday for sure...maybe on that Harley ride with Jed and Alisha!! And anyone else, of course!

Seriously, could one boy named Jake be any happier than in an old truck?!!

Will makes the cutest comments all the time about old stuff--and usually it's the really old, rusted-out junkie stuff. He will point to something, i.e. old dilapidated gas station, or old, broken down rusty car, and say, "Look at that cute old gas station (or truck, or whatever). Always looking on the bright side!!

As we were leaving Gary's place, we saw dark clouds forming all around, and we knew that our streak of good weather was probably just about over, but we had no idea what we were in for. As we entered Springfield, Mo. (not to be confused with Springfield, Il., where we will be for a couple of days next week) it began to rain, and within minutes was an absolute downpour. I don't think I have ever seen anything like it. We stopped at this Steak n' Shake for an early dinner, and just running from the car to inside we were SOAKED! As if that weren't bad enough, while we were sitting there waiting for our food to come, the rain was coming down so hard and the wind was blowing so hard that it was coming down sideways and we could hardly see out the window! The streets had an instant river of water going down the sides, all the while lightning was flashing and thunder was crashing...it was great! I love those kinds of storms--if we ever get anything like that at home we will sit out on the front porch and watch it storm, at least until a big ol' thunder scares (some of) us to go inside! And then it was over. By the time we walked out to our car the storm had passed and the clouds were starting to dissipate. No wonder the parks are always wet and muddy. Speaking of...

We stopped in a place called Lebanon for the boys to play at a park, and I'm sure you can guess how this one ended up?! Really though, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it wasn't pretty either! I have to remind myself that my friends and I used to do that too, but we would play mud soccer and were dripping from head to toe in mud--and that was in high school!

The bridges are old and the rivers are high here, but from what I hear they are worse the farther north we go. We will be in St. Louis tomorrow, so we'll have to see how bad it's getting. We actually got to drive over this bridge, but we went back to get a picture because it was amazing. All this driving today has been through the Ozark Mountains, and although they don't seem like mountains to those of us from Utah, it sure was beautiful.

"Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs..."

The Boots Motel in Carthage was built in 1939. To quote the online guide we use, "For its time it was indeed thoroughly modern with a radio in every room, tile showers, floor furnace with thermostat control, air conditioner and garage." Not bad for those times!

Photo 1: so technically the todem pole isn't a sign, but it was just out in front of someone's front yard and was really cool and I didn't know where else to put it. Photo 2: It's easier to quote the online dude that write it out myself, but this place has a history: "In 1946 the motel was built and opened. There were 14 cabins with garages in between the rooms. Those were very busy days for the Hudsons. They worked day and night it seemed. Some of the tales are that the lumber was black market lumber. Remember rationing days were still in existence. Mr. Hudson would stay hid, for if the feds could not find the owner, they could not stop the construction. Jessie once stated that she went to St. Louis to one of the big department stores, and was escorted out because she had asked to purchase a case of toilet paper." And apparently this is one of the nicest motels on Route 66 today...but we already had reservations for our Marriott tonight! And on to St. Louis tomorrow!

Total mileage to date: 3.938.1

Weather: mostly cloudy with a fury of rain for 24 minutes, highs around 85

Premium gas price paid in the boonies: $3.99