Midwest, Day 5, Oklahoma and Arkansas
We woke up to the alarming news that Kansas City was under a severe weather watch, and upon looking outside it was dark as night. We ate a quick breakfast, and when we checked our phones, were relieved to see that we would eventually be driving out of this weather system.
We loaded the van, and hightailed it south.
My initial itinerary had us finding the swale (ruts) this morning prior to our drive to Oklahoma, and I was so glad we took the time to find them the day of our arrival.
To get to Mickey Mantle's home in Commerce, OK, the GPS took us back into Kansas and it was a straight shot at that point. On the way we passed through Pittsburg (no "H"), Kansas, which we had heard about frequently on this trip. We'd tell people we were from Pittsburgh, and they'd want to know Pennsylvania or Kansas.
This part of Oklahoma isn't the dust bowl that gave Oklahoma the stereotype. This area is as green as Kansas and Missouri. Mickey grew up in a poor neighborhood of small homes, and while we were unable to tour his home, we peeked in the windows and took a few pictures. We also found his statue located at the local high school.
Finding the original "ribbon road" of Route 66 was not so simple. Neither Sal nor I could forgo seeing this part of Route 66, and it took stopping into a tribal center to get directions. There's no street address for it, and the directions I had took us down a road that ended up being closed. This site is 5 minutes of out of town, and it was a 45 minute adventure just trying to find it. Definitely worth it though.
At this point we were behind schedule, and we had hours of driving ahead of us, and one more stop to make before we called it a day.
In a documentary not long ago, we heard about Pea Ridge Battlefield, located in Arkansas. This battle was significant because it saved Missouri for the Union during the Civil War. We arrived with about 30 minutes until the visitor's center closed, so we strategized our visit. We picked up a magnet and stamped our National Parks Passport, then explored the museum. The driving tour of the battlefield is available from dawn to dusk so we had plenty of time.
Emily picked up a Junior Ranger packet and she completed what she could in the museum. The rest would have to be done on the driving tour. The first stop on the ten-stop tour was a section of the battlefield that the Trail of Tears crossed. I had no expected to see portions of that on this trip. We walked a few feet of it, and I tried to imagine what it would have been like. Sobering.
Pea Ridge is not Gettysburg, which is really the only other battlefield I'm familiar with. It's interesting to compare and contrast the two. In reality, Pea Ridge is probably more typical of a battlefield than Gettysburg.
The kids hung in there for the first few stops, and then they were just over it. They have no point of reference, and it was getting late and we were all hungry. Sal and I wanted to finish out the tour though, and around stop 7 or 8, we got out of the car. I start walking toward some cannons and hear Emily screaming from inside the van. I turned around the van was slowly backing down the (thankfully, level) road. Sal took off running faster than I've ever seen, jumped into the van and threw it in park. Apparently he hadn't fully engaged the shift, and it got bumped out of position. Fortunately, the worst thing that could have happened was the van would have ended up backing into a ditch at an extremely slow rate of speed, but even that had been averted. It was one of the those things, where all you can think is "all's well that end's well."
After that scary adventure, we decided it was time to move on. We decided to get on the road toward the hotel, and find somewhere to eat along the way.
We ended up at The Farmer's Daughter Eatery in Missouri's gorgeous Ozark region. It was in the middle of nowhere, and the first restaurant we had seen for miles. We had a bit of a wait because they were busy and the kitchen was trying to get caught up, but they had outdoor seating so we ordered drinks, and just enjoyed the view.
It was dark when we arrived at the Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven in Springfield. This is an original Route 66 hotel, although it's been nicely updated. We had a king size bed in the main room, and the kids were tucked away in a small room with a bunk bed. We had a shared bath.
We all got showers and then pretty much just collapsed into bed. We had done a lot of driving, and had managed to check off everything on our list. It was a long day.
We loaded the van, and hightailed it south.
My initial itinerary had us finding the swale (ruts) this morning prior to our drive to Oklahoma, and I was so glad we took the time to find them the day of our arrival.
To get to Mickey Mantle's home in Commerce, OK, the GPS took us back into Kansas and it was a straight shot at that point. On the way we passed through Pittsburg (no "H"), Kansas, which we had heard about frequently on this trip. We'd tell people we were from Pittsburgh, and they'd want to know Pennsylvania or Kansas.
This part of Oklahoma isn't the dust bowl that gave Oklahoma the stereotype. This area is as green as Kansas and Missouri. Mickey grew up in a poor neighborhood of small homes, and while we were unable to tour his home, we peeked in the windows and took a few pictures. We also found his statue located at the local high school.
Finding the original "ribbon road" of Route 66 was not so simple. Neither Sal nor I could forgo seeing this part of Route 66, and it took stopping into a tribal center to get directions. There's no street address for it, and the directions I had took us down a road that ended up being closed. This site is 5 minutes of out of town, and it was a 45 minute adventure just trying to find it. Definitely worth it though.
At this point we were behind schedule, and we had hours of driving ahead of us, and one more stop to make before we called it a day.
In a documentary not long ago, we heard about Pea Ridge Battlefield, located in Arkansas. This battle was significant because it saved Missouri for the Union during the Civil War. We arrived with about 30 minutes until the visitor's center closed, so we strategized our visit. We picked up a magnet and stamped our National Parks Passport, then explored the museum. The driving tour of the battlefield is available from dawn to dusk so we had plenty of time.
Emily picked up a Junior Ranger packet and she completed what she could in the museum. The rest would have to be done on the driving tour. The first stop on the ten-stop tour was a section of the battlefield that the Trail of Tears crossed. I had no expected to see portions of that on this trip. We walked a few feet of it, and I tried to imagine what it would have been like. Sobering.
Pea Ridge is not Gettysburg, which is really the only other battlefield I'm familiar with. It's interesting to compare and contrast the two. In reality, Pea Ridge is probably more typical of a battlefield than Gettysburg.
The kids hung in there for the first few stops, and then they were just over it. They have no point of reference, and it was getting late and we were all hungry. Sal and I wanted to finish out the tour though, and around stop 7 or 8, we got out of the car. I start walking toward some cannons and hear Emily screaming from inside the van. I turned around the van was slowly backing down the (thankfully, level) road. Sal took off running faster than I've ever seen, jumped into the van and threw it in park. Apparently he hadn't fully engaged the shift, and it got bumped out of position. Fortunately, the worst thing that could have happened was the van would have ended up backing into a ditch at an extremely slow rate of speed, but even that had been averted. It was one of the those things, where all you can think is "all's well that end's well."
After that scary adventure, we decided it was time to move on. We decided to get on the road toward the hotel, and find somewhere to eat along the way.
We ended up at The Farmer's Daughter Eatery in Missouri's gorgeous Ozark region. It was in the middle of nowhere, and the first restaurant we had seen for miles. We had a bit of a wait because they were busy and the kitchen was trying to get caught up, but they had outdoor seating so we ordered drinks, and just enjoyed the view.
It was dark when we arrived at the Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven in Springfield. This is an original Route 66 hotel, although it's been nicely updated. We had a king size bed in the main room, and the kids were tucked away in a small room with a bunk bed. We had a shared bath.
We all got showers and then pretty much just collapsed into bed. We had done a lot of driving, and had managed to check off everything on our list. It was a long day.
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