Day 13 Coffeyville, Kansas to Lebanon, Missouri
We all enjoyed a full hot breakfast this morning courtesy of the Best Western Inn - even managed to sneak a few extra items back to the room! Back on the road we tuned in to the local country radio station (The Chevy has got a fancy radio that searches for, stores and groups radio stations into listening genres - very handy to update the FM stations as we are continuously moving away from and into new stations) and pumped up the music while cruising through the rolling Kansas verdant country side. Kept a look out for Dorothy and Toto ( from The Wizard of Oz) but couldn't see them. No sign of tornados either fortunately as we are in "Tornado Alley" A lot of business sell tornado shelters and similarly a lot of towns have community tornado shelters set up. A lot of houses don't seem to have gardens here, it seems kinda odd for a house to be sitting on a block of land surrounded by grass and trees and in quite a few cases no fences between the neighbours.
Crossed the State line into Missouri at Baxter Springs regaining Route 66 after our detour into Kansas and parked the car up at Walmart to do a quick shop. Popped into a couple of antique shops on Main Street and rummaged around the fascinating collection of goods. Nikita scored a very fine pair of ladies Dan Post boots here. Enjoyed a picnic lunch at the Rainbow Arch Bridge - the last of the "Marsh Arch" bridges remaining on Route 66 then continued on to the town of Galena, stopping at the restored Kan-O-Tex gas station featuring "Tow Tater" the inspiration for "Mater" from the 2006 Disney movie Cars. Found Dorothy and Toto here in the gift shop (definitely got blown well out of Kansas ! )Took a few quick snaps then weaved our way through several towns, following our guide book religiously - some directions to the detail of a car rally it would seem as Route 66 took several right angle turns and always heading down Main Street.
Fortunately the myriad of small towns abated and Route 66 went straight as an arrow for several miles until it aligned with the Interstate I-44 which we took to catch up some time. Bypassed Springfield, MO (one of 38 Springfield Cities/Towns or Townships in the USA) - couldn't see Homer here either and continued on to Lebanon, scoring a tidy under $50/night motel, including breakfast. Enjoyed the constitutional dinner of Bar-S franks lovingly cooked by Tony before crashing to bed. Another enjoyable day!
Miles traveled today: 208.5, Time 5:05