I have always been fascinated with the history and nostalgia of Route 66 and dream of making the trek from Chicago to LA one day. I don't really know why I love it so much, maybe it's the romanticised idea of classic cars, the open road, greasy diner food, a longing for a simpler time, or perhaps just my craving for adventure and travel. I haven't been able to make the entire trip yet, but I did make a day trip of some of the old Route 66 stops in Missouri! The girls and I went to Springfield, MO to visit my sister and stopped off at a few locations along the way. I did some google research to look up various locations and/or suggestions. I did find several stops but having two antsy girls we didn't stop off at every location, and sadly some of the locations I wanted to stop at were no longer there.

Our first stop was the Gardenway Motel and the Sunset Motel in Grey Summit, MO. These were pretty much just drive by's to get photos. Next we drove to Rolla and went to Devil's Elbow. This is where you can see and drive on some of the first four lane highways ever built. A little detour will take you to Devil's Elbow bridge, there is a dive bar and bbq place there too. Since I had the girls with me we drove on to Ft. Leonard Wood, MO and the more family friendly Route 66 Diner. They have excellent diner food and milk shakes and the kids will enjoy pumping quarters into the juke box. After lunch we proceeded on the old Route 66 by-ways to Waynesville, MO where we found "frog rock." I was disappointed to find out that this was not an original stop on Route 66, it was added in the mid 1990's. But we drove by anyway. There were a couple of other places I had GPS'd in the Waynesville area but found that they had been torn down. We continued on to Lebanon, MO to find the Munger Moss Motel and the old Wrink's Market (which is now empty and for sale). The last stop brought us to the Rail Haven Motel (aka Best Western) in Springfield, MO. I enjoyed our little adventure and it only makes me want to go further west next time!