If you’re driving Route 66 through Missouri, the Red Cedar Inn Museum in Pacific is one of those stops that’s easy to miss, but absolutely worth pulling over for. It’s a small, free museum right off the Mother Road, but it does a great job of telling a much bigger…
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A Week Near Flagstaff: Hidden Gems, Crowds, and Unexpected Favorites
We spent part of our Route 66 trip based just outside of Flagstaff, using it as a home base to explore both Flagstaff and nearby Sedona. While we were in the area for most of the week, our time was actually pretty low-key, we stayed in Munds Park, worked during…
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A Week in Albuquerque: Route 66 Stops, Petroglyphs & Bandelier
After a week exploring the quirky roadside stops and art-filled stretches of Amarillo, we made our way west to Albuquerque, one of the most iconic cities along Route 66 and a stop we had been looking forward to on this trip. Sitting right in the middle of our journey (with…
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What to Do in Oklahoma City: A Route 66 Travel Itinerary
After wrapping up an incredible week exploring Tulsa, we continued west on our Route 66 road trip and settled in near Oklahoma City for another full week of exploring. We actually visited OKC just a few months prior, but with so many museums, Route 66 landmarks, and nearby towns to…
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The Ultimate Tulsa Route 66 Itinerary: Best Things to Do in Tulsa, OK
After wrapping up our Route 66 tri-state adventure through Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, we headed to Tulsa for a full week of exploring, and it quickly became one of our favorite stops along the Mother Road. Known as one of the most iconic stretches of U.S. Route 66, Tulsa is…
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Unique Stops on Route 66 in the Kansas–Missouri–Oklahoma Tri-State
Spending time along U.S. Route 66 always feels a little like stepping into a living museum. Every small town has its own stories- neon signs that have been glowing for decades, roadside diners with generations of history, and museums packed with pieces of the past. During this stretch of our…
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Route 66 in Springfield, MO: The Most Unique Stops in the Birthplace of the Mother Road
There are a lot of places along Route 66 that claim a special connection to the Mother Road, but Springfield has one of the strongest: it’s widely known as the birthplace of Route 66. In 1926, a telegram sent from the Colonial Hotel in downtown Springfield confirmed the highway’s now-famous…
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Route 66 Missouri: Unexpected Stops from Pacific to Eureka
Our Route 66 trip officially began from our home base in the Chicago suburbs, but we intentionally skipped Illinois (for now). After exploring much of Illinois Route 66 over the years, we’re planning a separate summer road trip (without the RV) to properly revisit and document those stops. We also…
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Standing on Cold War Secrets: Visiting the Weldon Spring Site
The Weldon Spring Site is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management–controlled nuclear waste disposal site with a public interpretive center. That combination alone makes it memorable. During our Route 66 Centennial road trip, we were staying at Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park just outside of…
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A Long Weekend in Madison, WI featuring the PBS Garden Expo
During our three months at home base for winter, we squeezed in a few smaller trips without the RV. In January, we flew out to visit my dad in Oregon and spent a weekend at a conference in southern Illinois. Then in February, we headed out for a long weekend…