Seeing the Sights on Route 66 – Missouri – Part 2 (Uranus to Joplin)

While we enjoyed the drive through several more towns I didn’t get very many photos.  We picked the camera back up in Springfield which is considered the birthplace of Route 66.  The idea of the Mother Road was born in the Colonial Hotel in 1926 as a highway connecting Chicago to Los Angeles.  The Rail Haven Motel was opened in 1938 and was expanded several times over the years. We also encountered another Muffler Man, this time a chef (who still had his head, and his chef’s hat thankfully) at the Route 66 Food Truck Park. The historic Steak ‘N’ Shake sits on the original alignment of Route 66, was opened in 1962, is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is still in operation.  Bud’s Tire and Wheel was established in 1958 and has several car themed murals on it.  A roadside park has the Giant Hamburg sign and tells the story of how the business name was supposed to be “Red’s Giant Hamburger” but they mis-measured the special ordered T shaped sign and cutting the “er” off to create their business legend.  They made their giant hamburgs and homemade root beer from 1947 to 1984 and the restaurant was torn down in 1997.  There were a few old filling stations, the 1927 established Shamrock Court where the cabins are currently apartments and not open to the public, and a 1935 Graystone Heights Modern Cabins & Conoco Filling Station (now private property).