We returned to St. Louis after our two week side trip to Tennessee to pick up Route 66 where we left off. After spending another full day in St. Louis, we continued down the Mother Road to Lebanon, Missouri. It was nice to be back on Route 66.
Monday was a really hot day. Thankfully, it was a travel day, so we could stay inside the AC for the majority of the day. It was only about a two and a half hour drive from Ferne Clyffe State Park in Illinois to DraftKings by Casino Queen RV Park in East St. Louis. We used the extra time to take care of some needed chores.
First we stopped at a laundromat in Goreville to do some much needed laundry. We like laundromats because we can do our two to three loads all at once. We were a little surprised at how much they charged, $6 per load to wash. At least drying was cheaper, a little over one dollar to get a load dry.
Our next stop was at a grocery store to pick up a few items. Keith was a little disappointed with the beer selection at the Walmart we stopped at. We picked Walmart because we knew we could find RV toilet chemicals there. They also had laundry detergent sheets there, which we prefer over liquids, powders and pods. The sheets cannot break open and cause a mess in the RV like the other forms of detergent can.
The next stop was our favorite for the day, an ice cream shop called Small Town Scoop in Murphysboro. We enjoyed lunch there in addition to the ice cream. The shop had a wonderful atmosphere.
For lunch, Ann ordered the reuben with fries, while Keith had the Fancy Blackberry Brie Grilled Cheese with chips. To drink, Ann tried the Big Muddy root beer, made right in Murphysboro. Big Muddy is the name of the river that runs through town. We both enjoyed our selections.
For dessert, Ann had a waffle cone of mint chocolate chip and the Big Muddy. The Big Muddy ice cream is dark chocolate ice cream with caramel swirls and brownie pieces. Small Town Scoop makes their own ice cream and it was delicious. Keith had his usual vanilla shake. He still was not allowed to use a straw, but they had long handled spoons to accommodate him. So he was able to enjoy his ice cream treat as well.
We saw a large, championship belt hanging on the wall. Imprinted on it was “Big Muddy Monster, I beat the Monster, Murphysboro, IL, Sundae Challenge”. The Big Muddy Monster is a sundae with 27 scoops of ice cream, 5 toppings, 5 sauces, 2 bananas, 2 brownies, 2 waffle cones, whipped cream, and cherries. We’re assuming that if you can eat all of that, you get your picture taken wearing the belt. It would be interesting to know how many people have been able to successfully complete the challenge. We did see a sign that you have to be at least 18 years old to try.
We continued our drive by taking route 3 alongside the Mississippi River. As we passed through the small town of Chester, Illinois, we noticed several murals with the Popeye cartoon character. As it turns out, Chester is the birthplace of Elzie Crisler Segar, the creator of Popeye the Sailor Man. Popeye was in a comic strip called Thimble Theater and he wasn’t introduced until the comic strip was in its tenth year, in 1929, but Popeye soon became its lead character, with the strip eventually being renamed to Popeye in the 1970s. Although Segar passed away in 1938, the comic strip lived on under other artists and writers until 1992.
Our only other stop was at a gas station to fill up our tank. We were pretty low on gas, so the bill was barely under $100 to fill the tank. Ouch!
The temperatures, according to our vehicle readings, reached up to 107 degrees. When we were about 20 minutes away from the RV Park, we pulled over and turned on Red Tail’s air conditioning. The alternator and DC to DC charger can pretty much keep the batteries charged while driving and running the AC. The batteries were at 99% when we arrived at the RV Park. More importantly, the temperature inside Red Tail (our Winnebago EKKO) had dropped from 107 degrees down to 89 degrees.
We arrived at the RV Park around 4:30 pm. The entrance gate was still broken as it was when we were here two weeks ago (Route 66: Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri - July 10th to 11th, 2026), so we didn’t need to use the code to get in. The 30 Amp electrical hook up at our camp site this time worked with no issues. It looked like the washing machine that was out-of-order a couple of weeks ago when we were last here had been fixed, but one of the two showers in the men’s bathroom was still out-of-order, along with one of the toilets not working very well.
For dinner, we decided to walk over to the casino. The steak house there was not open. Perhaps it is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays? There was a food court with options for BBQ, chicken, and a coffee shop. But we weren’t in the mood for fast food. The only other option was the DraftKings SportsBook, which served food in the area for sports betting. So that’s where we ate.
After the nice lunch and ice cream we had earlier in the day, neither one of us were very hungry. Ann decided to try the toasted ravioli again since it was a St. Louis specialty, hoping it would be better quality than what she had at the Gateway Arch cafe during our last visit to St. Louis. To round out her meal, she ordered a small garden salad. Keith had the sliders. Yes, the toasted ravioli were higher quality than before, but not by much. Our meals were satisfying, but nothing to write home about.
As we were paying our dinner tab, we heard a loud clap of thunder. We didn’t realize that there was rain in the forecast. It was pouring outside. As we were waiting for the rain to let up, Ann dashed over to the hotel to check out the pool. She remembers reading something about the RV Park that campers had access to the hotel pool.
No one was at the front desk, so Ann just followed the signs to the pool to see what it was like. There was a sign on the door to the pool that read “Out-of-order”. Bummer! No swimming to cool off.
The rain lightened up, so we quickly walked back to the RV Park. Ann needed to get some more exercise to close her rings for the day. Travel days are always a challenge. However, she waited about half an hour or so until the second wave of rain subsided before going back outside. Ann only needed to walk a couple of times around the perimeter of the RV Park to complete her Move and Exercise rings. The rain had cooled the air temperature down, at least temporarily, and the sun came out just in time to set behind the St. Louis skyline, giving Ann a nice view as she walked.
We spent most of Tuesday at Forest Park, on the west side of Saint Louis. Forest Park was the site of the 1904 World’s Fair and is now a large public park, over 1000 acres. It is a combination of meadows, trees, wetlands, ponds, lakes, and streams. It contains the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Saint Louis Zoo, the Saint Louis Science Center, the Muny (performing arts center), and the Missouri History Museum along with a golf course, tennis center, and ball fields.
From DraftKings at Casino Queen RV Park, we took the MetroLink to the Forest Park-DeBaliviere station, just a block from the History Museum. It was easy to use the train system. A vending machine at the East Riverfront station allowed us to buy a day pass for $5 per adult. Or we could have purchased a single ticket for $2.50 for each ride. They also have a phone app, but we didn’t want to do that, we have too many apps on our phones already.
There are two MetroLink train lines, the Red Line and the Blue Line. Both lines run between the East Riverfront station and the Forest Park-DeBaliviere station, so a train comes about every ten minutes, which is often enough that you don’t need to look up a schedule. The ride between the two stations takes about 20 minutes. When we arrived at the Forest Park station, we walked over to the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor Center, not too far from the history museum.
We were hoping to get a drink at the Forest Perk Cafe to make sure we stayed hydrated. Thankfully, it was not as hot as the day before, but it was still hot and humid and we would be walking quite a bit to get around Forest Park. Unfortunately, the Forest Perk Cafe was not open on Mondays and Tuesdays.
At least we were able to get our Route 66 Passport stamped at the visitor center. We had forgotten to get it stamped at the Gateway Arch or Union Station when we were first in Saint Louis two weeks ago. Along with the stamp, we also got another Route 66 pin. The person at the desk spent time with us, describing all the different areas of the park along with giving us a nice map. We appreciated that.
First on the agenda was to find some place to buy a drink. We headed over to the boat house. The person at the visitor center had warned us that the boat house was under construction, but there was a temporary beer garden set up nearby. We found the trailer, but it was not open, even though it was within the open hours posted on the sign.
OK, let’s try the cafe over by the Muny. Nope. It was also closed. Now we were getting a little frustrated. We decided to go ahead and make the walk over to the Zoo, which was where we wanted to spend most of our time anyway. But it was about a twenty minute walk from where we were.
The roads and paths through Forest Park are a maze of winding routes. It was hard for us to get our bearings. We used Google Maps to route us. There are two entrances to the zoo, a north entrance and a south entrance. After a little while, we realized that Google Maps was trying to take us to the south entrance instead of the north, which was a much longer way to get there. We managed to reroute ourselves, but we had already gone out of our way some.
When we finally reached the zoo, we were both parched. Now it was almost lunch time, so we decided to have lunch in addition to drinks at the Cafe Kudu, just inside the north entrance of the zoo. Ann had the Hawaiian burger with fries while Keith had the hot chicken sandwich. There were no refills on the drinks, so Keith also picked out some grapes that we shared to give us a little more hydration. The food was a decent quality for concession food.
After being refreshed, we walked around the zoo for a couple of hours. There is no admission fee to enter the zoo. However, some of the attractions inside the zoo do require fees, such as the giraffe feedings and the sea lion show. We were happy with just walking around and seeing the animals.
The atmosphere of the zoo is very welcoming. It is laid out like a park, with plenty of trees and water features, so we were in the shade most of the time. It also helped that it was a mostly overcast day. Between the meandering paths and the exits of buildings being in a different location than the entrances, we were disoriented most of the time. We had to keep looking at the posted maps or Google Maps on our phones to figure out where we were in the zoo. But it wasn’t that important to know exactly where we were or where we were headed as we just took the path that looked the most interesting at the time.
When we started getting overheated, we just went inside one of the buildings to cool off in the air conditioning, such as the insect house and the primate house. The penguin house was a little too cold inside, especially with our clothing that was damp with sweat. It felt good at first, but we didn’t stay long as we started to get chilled.
Part way through our zoo visit, we stopped at the Lakeside Cafe for a drink. We sat inside for the AC, but next to the windows so we could have views of the lake. The lake had a variety of ducks, pelicans, and herons. There was no enclosure, so we pondered how the zoo keeps those birds here or if they do nothing and the birds just naturally hang out there.
After we had our fill of the zoo, we walked over to the Art Museum, which was also free. We’re not big museum people, so we wandered around inside just long enough to cool off. There were nice views from the front of the museum out over Forest Park.
From there, we walked over to the History Museum, which also had no admission charge. Inside, we checked out the 1904 World’s Fair exhibit. We were impressed by the room which was the full size of one of the cars on the ferris wheel at the fair. Each car could hold up to 60 people and was about the size of a school bus. One couple even got married inside of one, on horseback!
We ended our visit to Forest Park by stopping at the cafe in the History Museum and enjoying Fitz’s soda. Fitz’s is a St. Louis company. Keith had a cream soda while Ann drank a black cherry.
Instead of taking the MetroLink all the way back to East Riverfront, we got off at the Union Station stop to find a place for dinner. The MetroLink station is on the edge of the parking lot for the wonderful area behind Union Station. We had discovered that area during our first visit to St. Louis.
We picked out the Train Shed at Union Station. It is a bar and grill. Ann ordered the pork chop with Brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes while Keith had the salmon with spinach and rice pilaf. The food was excellent, much better than the food we had at the casino the night before.
Our waiter brought us a couple of iced teas to go. Since we couldn’t take them on the train with us, we found a couple of Adirondack chairs next to the koi pond outside to sit and sip our drinks. By this time, it was rather comfortable outside and we enjoyed watching the people and the koi. It was a weekday instead of a Saturday like the time before, so there were less people at Union Station this time, making it even more peaceful and relaxing.
When we went back to the MetroLink station, we discovered that there was some track maintenance, which meant there was only half the number of trains running. That just meant we had to wait about 15 minutes for the next train. However, there was a baseball game that evening, so the train was packed, standing room only. But, the stadium was only two stops away. So most of the people got off at the stadium and we were able to get a seat for the rest of the ride to East Riverfront.
All in all, it was an enjoyable day, although a very long day. We were both exhausted, as we had walked about ten miles. Also, going in and out of the heat all day long seems to stress the body. After taking showers to remove all the stickiness from our bodies, we were thankful to hit our pillows that night.
Wednesday, we resumed Route 66 again. This was technically our fourth day on Route 66. From DraftKings, the route took us over the Eads Bridge and through St. Louis. The first landmark we reached was Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. We had gotten an early start for the day, leaving camp just before 9 am. Even after stopping at a drug store for a couple of items, we reached Ted Drewes just a little past 9:30 am. Even though we might have been willing to eat frozen custard that early in the morning, the place didn’t open until 11 am. We took some pictures of the place and moved on.
Next up was the Route 66 State Park. It was a passport stamp spot. Inside the visitor center was a small Route 66 Museum. Outside were the remains of the Old Meramec River Bridge, which carried traffic over the river from 1932 to 2009, although Route 66 was rerouted in the 1960’s. The road deck was removed, as the bridge is deemed unsafe. An overlook and an information sign are on the river bank, as part of the Route 66 State Park.
Not too far from the state park is Campbell’s Service - Route 66 Museum. The owner was inside the museum and we had a lovely chat with him. Campbell’s Service looks like an old service station, but it is actually an old church. The owner bought the church a few years ago and remodeled it to look like a Route 66 service station. He had been collecting Route 66 memorabilia for quite a few years and wanted a place to display it all. In addition to his own collection, he also bought a larger collection from an elderly gentleman named Campbell, which is who the museum is named after.
The museum, inside and out, is one of the better Route 66 museums that we have visited so far. The amount of pride that the owner has put into it definitely shows. Hopefully you can stop by when the museum is open. The owner is retired and doesn’t keep regular hours. He just opens up the museum when he feels like hanging out there for a few hours. So we feel lucky that we were able to enjoy it.
Just down the street is the Red Cedar Inn. It is another museum, mostly about local history, including the history of the inn, which was a restaurant that operated from 1934 to 2005, run by three generations of the Smith family. As a staff person of the museum was explaining the history to us, another visitor chimed in. The visitor confirmed that the Red Cedar Inn was a very good restaurant back in the day. She remembers eating there.
There was a temporary display at the Red Cedar Inn. It contained 66 quilt squares about Route 66 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the route. The creator of each square also provided the background story about the selection of their particular pattern or scene.
It was getting to be about lunch time, so we tried to stop at Lewis Cafe in St. Clair, but it was closed for some reason. Instead, we walked down the street and around the corner to Robin’s Rustic Nest, which we had seen on our drive into town. The family restaurant is not historic, it opened just three years ago. But it was filled with local patrons and the food was pretty decent.
Ann had the Philly cheesesteak with sweet potato fries while Keith opted for breakfast food, which Robin’s serves all day. Fried eggs, sausage, hash browns, and toast filled Keith’s belly. With our hunger satisfied, we were ready to continue heading down the Mother Road.
Next on the agenda was Meramec Caverns. The guided tour takes about an hour and a half. When we arrived, we were able to get on the next tour with only about a ten minute wait. We heard that they start tours every 30 minutes, so we felt our timing was pretty good. We were afraid we might have to wait awhile, as some of the tours might have filled up, but we had no problems. Of course, it was a Wednesday. On the weekends, it might be a different story.
Much of the cave does not have many interesting features, but then there are some areas filled with beautiful formations. However, almost as intriguing as the formations is the history of the cave itself, including being used as a hideout by Jesse James, the legendary outlaw. The cave tour ends with a short movie displayed onto a large curtain of cave formations. It was definitely worth the long stop.
Our next stop was at the Wagon Wheel Motel on the edge of the town of Cuba. The Wagon Wheel opened as a restaurant and gas station in 1936, with lodging being added in 1938. While the gas station is no longer operating, the motel still is. It is the longest continuously operating lodging still open on Route 66.
The staff at Wagon Wheel said they still had some rooms available for the night. The motel looked very cute and cozy, so the offer was very tempting, but we had a campground reservation at Bennett Spring State Park for the next three nights. So we bought a couple of Fitz’s Cardinal Cream sodas and continued into Cuba.
Cuba is known for all of its murals. We parked and walked around, checking out some of the murals. A couple of blocks away was the old Cuba City Jail, so we checked that out as well.
As we were walking around, we spotted Rich’s Famous Hamburgers. It was a very cute-looking place and it was getting close to dinner time, so how could we pass up a place like that?
Ann ordered a regular burger while Keith got the smash burger. Instead of fries, we both chose the coleslaw, as we both felt our consumption of vegetables had been a little lacking lately. The burgers might have been a little greasy, but they were very flavorful, probably the best tasting burgers we’ve had in a long while. The regular burger was cooked to a medium rare, pink and juicy in the middle. Rich’s Famous Burgers is a small, local chain, with locations in Cuba, Saint James, Steelville, Sullivan, Owensville, and Pacific.
It was at this point that we decided we would only make one more stop, at the Uranus Fudge Factory in St. Robert, then bee-line it to the campground. Then we’ll spend time the next day picking up Route 66 where we left off and finish the last stretch to Lebanon. Since we were planning on coming back, we didn’t spend much time at Uranus, just long enough to buy some fudge.
It was about 8 pm by the time we were setting up at the campground. That’s about 11 hours from the time we left the RV park in St. Louis. That was a long day! But Ann still hadn’t completed her exercise for the day. So she grabbed her head lamp and walked a couple of the campground loops as the sun set.
The stats for Day Four on Route 66 were 134 miles with a driving time of three hours and 47 minutes, which gave us an average speed of 35 mph. The elapsed time, counting all the eight stops that we made, was almost ten hours.
Thursday was a relaxing morning before we headed out to complete the rest of Route 66 that we skipped on Wednesday, making it Day Five on the Mother Road. Our camp site was in Campground 4 of the state park. Unfortunately, the bathhouse for our section was under construction. There was a temporary bathroom trailer, but it had a sign on it that it was closed for repairs. The next closest bathhouse was a good five minute walk over to Campground 5.
As we were eating our breakfast, our air conditioner abruptly stopped. What happened? Oh, the inverter is off because the power went out on our site pedestal. Apparently, the nearby construction had shut off the power. The camp host came by and let us know that the power should be back on in an hour or two. That worked for us, since we were leaving soon and it was a pleasant enough morning that we could open the windows and turn on the fans.
If we had plugged into the pedestal while we had manually turned on the inverter, the air conditioner would not have turned off. But we’re thinking that is not a good idea, because we would not have noticed the pedestal no longer had power until our batteries were drained. We’ll try to remember to always have the inverter off when we plug in, so we’ll know when the power goes out. If it does go out, then we can decide to run the AC off our batteries or not, and monitor the battery levels.
When we bee-lined it from Uranus to the campground the evening before, we noticed that the traffic heading the other direction on the interstate was backed up for miles due to construction. So we decided to start our drive on Route 66 in Lebanon and work our way backwards to Uranus. Not only would we miss the construction, but that would also mean we would be arriving in Uranus after lunch, so we could have ice cream there.
Our first stop was the Route 66 Museum in Lebanon. It was a passport stamp location. The museum is inside the public library. It was a lovely museum, with several mocked up rooms depicting typical places along Route 66, such as a gas station, a diner, and a hotel room. Very nicely done.
Before we left, Ann picked up another t-shirt at the gift shop. She likes to collect and wear t-shirts from places we visit. Since we didn’t buy any souvenirs last year in Europe, Keith thinks Ann is making up for lost time and buying more than her usual share of t-shirts this season.
Our next stop was the Route 66 Neon Park in St. Robert. We believe it just opened this year. It contains restored neon signs from St. Robert, St. Louis, and other locations in Missouri. They turn on the lights at night which would be pretty neat to see. However, waiting for darkness during the long days of summer means staying up pretty late, which we were not willing to do.
Just on the other side of the interstate from the neon park is the Pulaski County Tourism Bureau & Visitors Center, another passport stamp location. There is no museum here, but the staff there is very enthusiastic about what there is to see and do in the area, providing us with all kinds of brochures and information.
On our way to the visitors center, we drove by the Route 66 Diner. That sounded like a perfect place to have lunch, so that’s where we went next. Ann had the guacamole burger with fries while Keith had the grilled chicken with fries. The food was decent and Ann might have even considered the burger pretty good, but it did not compare to the burger she had the day before at Rich’s Famous Burgers. Rich’s had set the bar pretty high.
Then we were on to our last stop for the day, back at Uranus Fudge Factory. We spent a little more time checking out the whole place. In addition to the fudge factory, there is a large gift shop, a circus sideshow museum, and an ice cream stand along with quite a few quirky displays. They really seem to have fun with their name and exploit it to the max. The sideshow had a modest entrance fee, so we didn’t go in.
Ann bought yet another t-shirt and then we waited in line for ice cream. It turns out that Thursdays is when the delivery truck arrives with more ice cream. The ice cream is delivered so hard, that they have to wait several hours before it is soft enough to dip. That meant that the ice cream flavors were rather limited. Ann was able to get a waffle cone with a scoop of mint chocolate. She would have gotten a second scoop, but she didn’t like any of the other available flavors. Keith was so looking forward to a vanilla milkshake, since it was the first day he was allowed to drink from a straw again. But vanilla was not available. So he decided not to get anything and just pouted while he watched Ann eat her ice cream cone.
Then it was about an hour’s drive on the interstate to get back to camp. And yes, the traffic heading the opposite direction was still backed up for miles, so taking Route 66 in reverse was a good call.
The stats for Day Five on the Mother Road were 41 miles with a driving time of an hour and 20 minutes which was an average speed of about 31 mph. The elapsed time, including the four stops, was three hours and 22 minutes.
Back at camp, Ann walked down to the river and back to finish her exercise for the day. Since our campground loop is on top of a hill, it was a good climb to get back up to our site from the river. Getting her heart pumping felt good and she was treated to a fawn running through the woods beside her.
In the middle of the night, Keith woke up to find a tick crawling on his neck. Luckily, the tick had not attached yet and he was able to kill it. Who knows how long that tick had been traveling with us in Red Tail. We could have picked it up anywhere, bringing it inside on our shoes or pant legs. We travel with tick removers which really worked well the one time we had to use it (Natchez Trace Parkway: Meriwether Lewis - June 23rd to 25th, 2023). We try to be careful about checking for ticks on our bodies and clothing after a hike, but you don’t have to go on a hike to pick one up.
Friday we stayed in Bennett Spring State Park the whole day. It was raining most of the morning, so we hung out inside Red Tail. In the afternoon, after the rain stopped, we got out our e-bikes and explored the park by cycling around on all the park roads.
The park is a paradise for fly fishermen. Bennett Spring is one of the ten largest springs in Missouri. Bennett Spring produces 100 million gallons of water per day, which flows into the Niangua River. Part of the spring water is diverted into a fish hatchery within the park. However, the hatchery is under some major reconstruction, so it currently is sitting empty.
People lined the banks of the stream leading from the spring as well as others fishing in their waders out in the middle of the water. It seemed like there was plenty of room for everyone to fish.
There are quite a few buildings in the park. Most of them were built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). In addition to many cabins, there is a dining lodge, a park store, and a nature center. We didn’t get a close view of any of the cabins, but they looked pretty nice from afar. We did go inside the dining lodge, the park store, and the nature center.
A couple of short trails exist inside the park and there is one trail that leads outside the park and stretches on for miles. We saw several of the trailheads, but we didn’t go hiking at all.
We didn’t want to stay out too long, as there were more storms in the forecast. In fact, we were on the edge of a tornado watch most of the evening. The camp host for our loop came around to make sure we knew there was a watch in effect and to keep an eye on the weather. If the watch turned into a warning, she recommended going to the bathhouse in campground 5, as it is a concrete building.
In the evening, we planned out what places of interests we wanted to stop for on Route 66 for the following day. Again, we realized that we would probably not make it to Miami Oklahoma. Our camping reservation was at Twin Bridges Campground at Grand Lake State Park. If we can at least make it to Joplin Missouri, then we can go straight to the campground from there. It should only be about a 45 minute drive from Joplin. Then, as it has become our routine so far, we’ll go back and pick up the section we missed, from Joplin to Miami, the next day.
It didn’t take us long to get right back into the groove of Route 66. We were looking forward to the next stretch on the Mother Road to see what adventures it had in store for us.
Check out our related video: Route 66: St. Louis to Lebanon, Missouri
(Ann)