Day 3 - Cuba, MO to Joplin, MO

Our third day on the road dawned bright and sunny as we back tracked to Stanton, MO to visit the Meramec Caverns, another Route 66 staple, which had been closed when we passed through yesterday. Along with the painted barns we've already mentioned, we must have seen 50 billboards advertising the caverns in different ways. They were definitely worth taking the time to visit. You walk in through the building and straight into an enormous cave called the Ballroom, the floor of which is unexpectedly covered in Lino. Very practical, one assumes. After that however they look more like regular caves, with some spectacular formations and a tour which ends with a light show to "God Bless America". The caverns were supposedly a hideout for the wild west outlaw Jessie James, who had discovered some hidden passages, which otherwise remained undiscovered until the 1940's!

Inside the caverns. Oooh, pretty.

After the caves we headed back along the expressway to rejoin Route 66 back in Cuba and to see some of the murals adorning the sides of several of the buildings around the town.

Various murals painted around the town of Cuba, MO.

The rest of the day took us through several small downs and up and over rolling hills and countryside. A lot of the road today was a real pleasure to drive along - rural and quite, good surface condition, and lots of curves and gentle hills. We even came across a rare 4-lane section of the rural road still existing (in most rural stretches, the road has been retunred to 2-lane, the othe rhalf been abandoned, obliterated or built over).

BRIDGE ALERT: Those of you with a sensitive, non-engineering nature should look away now. Several of the old alignments took us over some of the original 1920's vintage steel bridges, including a pony truss, a through truss, and some others I can't really remember anymore!

We will spare you with just one bridge photo, this one being at a place called "Devil's Elbow"

 

Moving back to the ridiculous stuff, and there is plenty of it, some examples include: a large rock outcrop painted to look like a frog, a giant bowling pin which appeared to advertise nothave no purpose, a two storey tall Solo cup (I think it was the Solo factory), all in addition to the world's largest rocking chair and gift shop mentioned separately. We also took a bit more time to photograph a lot of the vintage neon motel signs as we drove past.

Giant bowling pin, obviously. Whatever it is advertising, it is doing a poor job of it. I didn't even notice it being beside a bowling ally.

Giant frog sticking out of a hillside overlooking the road.

This is apparently a very good motel according to the books. They also keep their phones nicely cooled (nothing worse than trying to use a piping hot phone) - not even the Ritz-Carleton offers that.

It's almost like being on the north end of Lincoln Avenue...

What more do you want?

This historic motel used to be right on Route 66, but managed to get cut off from the main route twice. Once when they built I-44 right infront of it, and again when they later moved I-44 behind those trees, taking the frontage road with it. It now sits on a dead end of former Route 66 paving where nobody can see it. Somehow, it still appeared to have some business.

Paris Springs (remind anyone of Cars?) has a replica Sinclair gas station built on the site of an long demolished one. The very chatty owner obviously has a patter for visitors and gave us a picture of the gas station as well as a maps and recommendations of places to stay. He directed us to Red Oak, an entire town built by an eccentric millionaire artist which has numeour restored houses and buildings, and dozens of old cars in various states of repair all moved to one site. It was rather charming, but slightly bizarre none the less.

The Sincalir gas station was a treat, with lots of little props and attentions to detail.

Red Oak is a very strange place which cannot be easily described; a bit like the scenery at a theme park perhaps, but with people living there. This crazy water fountain things kind of sets the scene.

Tonight we got as far as Joplin, almost at the Kansas state line. Joplin was the scene of that infamous tornado this past spring, but we haven't really seen the town yet since we got in after dark.
Note: Route 66 is hard enough to follow in daylight. Following it at night is near impossible.


- Selina and Neil