Route 66 Day 5 (6-19) - Stanton, MO to Springfield, MO

 Before I launch into the day, I wanted to share a picture of our KOA Kamping Kabin. We love these little cabins! They come with a full size bed, bunk bed, and usually a desk and a chair. They provide mattresses, but you need to bring your own bedding and towels. The bath house was close by, and the showers were pretty decent. Oh - most of these also have a 2-person swing on the porch, a picnic table, and a fire ring. We got a lot of use out of the swing while we sipped cold beverages and watched fireflies.

 

 This was too much fun to pass up. A water tower...or is it a bourbon tower?

 Cuba was next on our itinerary. 
 

This is a great old station - just a quick photo op...


 
The Wagon Wheel Motel was also just a quick photo op...
 
 
Cuba has so many wonderful murals, but I only took a few pictures - mostly because we planned too much for this day and knew we wouldn't have time to enjoy more than a couple. These are in no particular order...because I am too lazy to go back and check. You can find more information about the murals on the Murals of Cuba, Missouri website. We have talked about going back to Missouri and spending more time on the Route. If these plans work out, we will definitely read more about the murals before we go and hunt them all down while we are there.

Harry S Truman and the Fair

 

The Gold Star Boys

 
 
Amelia Earhardt
 
 
When we travel, we love to visit local wineries. For a variety of reasons, we have not had many opportunities yet this trip, but when I found Heinrichshaus Winery online, I knew I wanted to visit there. I am very grateful to GPS for getting us there, because the sign is not exactly attention grabbing, but we looked down the driveway and saw the cluster of grapes (it's almost a "where's Waldo" thing) and knew we were in the right place.
 
 
 
But it almost looked abandoned...albeit beautiful.

 
The flowers on the side patio told me they were open for business, so I went in...
 
And found Heinrich!
 
 
Heinrich was awesome! And the wine was, too. He only makes dry wine - although one was an off-dry. He is so knowledgeable about the local wine industry. Such a story teller! We heard about his life in Germany before coming to the US. After arriving, he said he quickly learned that Americans didn't know how to make wine or bread - so he started making his own. We could have stayed and talked for hours, but we had miles to drive and he had work to do. Before we left, Chuck found this empty bottle while looking around the shelves. Since we are from Roswell, NM (a.k.a. Crash City), we had to get a picture.
 
Next up was a wine tasting at St. James Winery. They had more wine to choose from, but the place was definitely more commercial and had less character. However, we did come away with a couple of bottles.

 

In addition to tasting wine, we are sampling pie along the way. Due to our travel schedule, we have missed many of the recommended places, but we did make it to Slice of Pie in Rolla. They have a bazillion pies to choose from!



Photo op at Munger Moss Motel...





 
Moving down the road, we were thrilled to find so much original Route 66

Curve after curve of original road...
 
We just had to pose with it...

On to Devil's Elbow Bridge...





 
Next up - the Uranus Fudge Factory and General Store. Rooftop minstrels and dancing elephants...

Yes...it does say that...

 

Yes - we did buy fudge. Yes - after we paid, they did say, "Thank you for picking Uranus."

Yeah! We didn't miss Frog Rock!

We stopped in at the Munger Moss, only to discover they were in the middle of their 75th anniversary celebration. We didn't stick around long, but we got a few pictures.

 






One of our favorite parts of travel is the people you connect with. Some you meet for the first time - others you have known their entire lives. Was fortunate to be able to connect with Liz (on left in first pic) and Sarah (as well as Sarah's family) while we were in Springfield, MO. We enjoyed some great barbecue at the Buckingham Smokehouse Bar BQ and fabulous conversation.


We will definitely need to get back to Missouri to spend at least a week. So many places we missed. So much of that was due to timing, so if we had a week, we will at least be closer to seeing everything we want to :)



 


Comments

  1. JohnJune 30, 2021 at 6:29 PM

    Those murals are beautiful.
    I'm enjoying the way your days are panning out, as it's interesting to see what other things are on the route that are not so well known. Frog Rock and that Munger Moss Motel sign/distance post.

    ReplyDelete

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