Day 5 – Sunday

Three states in a day – Missouri – Kansas – Oklahoma

Lazy start from our best western rail haven. To be honest, it wasn’t the best pick. On the plus side it had free wifi, free breakfast, lots of cute retro touches and the history of stays from both Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. And it was only £42. But that didn’t distract from the fact that the rooms were cold, the bathroom tiny and I didn’t get a great nights sleep. You get what you pay for I guess, so we’re paying a bit more from now in.

First stop was Andy’s, for frozen custard. Not to be beaten by Ted Drewes being closed yesterday, we happened upon Andy’s when entering Springfield last night. Ok, so here’s the deal. Frozen custard is made like custard from cream and eggs, and the guy in our hotel said that this makes it healthier than ice cream. Well, I have to say, I couldn’t taste the difference and it certainly didn’t taste healthy. But whatever. So you can buy it as a cone (chocolate and vanilla only, no toppings allowed, as a sundae (any flavour, any topping) or as a concrete. The concrete sounded intriguing and exotic, so that’s what we had. Basically, it’s the frozen custard with the toppings mixed all the way through rather than on the top, in a cup with a spoon. It’s all in the marketing!

Eatandys.com

It’s fair to say that Springfield is in the heart of the Bible Belt. Apt for our Sunday visit, and we saw plenty of churches. Particularly liked the one bang next door to the sinners and saints salon!

Otherwise, Springfield is a little run down. Some lovely retro buildings down town, but equally as many boarded up. We also had probably our best value meal so far here at Houlihans. Two courses including a 4oz fillet steak and two sides for $15.95 each. And happy hour started at 9pm (fabulous) with house wine and draft beer for only $3. Half decent place too!

Driving West, our last stop in Missouri was Carthage which again is a town that has past its heyday. Of note was the county courthouse, and some stunning homes listed on the national register of historic places, built late nineteenth century, which seem almost incongruous in an otherwise down at heel town.

The rest of Missouri is punctuated with more churches and religious calls to action on mail boxes, billboards and just random stakes by the side of the road, such as

• God is angry with the wicked
• Lord Jesus keep us clean and pure

Kansas
This post will be short and sweet as Route 66 only crosses Kansas for 13 miles, so what can I say?

It’s similar to Missouri in many ways, another poorer area, and more religion. But other than that the only point of interest we saw was the pretty Rainbow Curve Bridge. Constructed in1929 over Brush Creek, and is the only remaining Marsh Arch Bridge on Route 66.

From Kansas into Oklahoma, we put our foot down to Tulsa, for our first overnight in OK!