Day 1: Friday, May 30, 2025
Today we left for Des Moines. We took off early in the afternoon on our way to Gallup, NM.
This was just a stopping point to get us down the road so we wouldn’t have long days on the road during our trip, giving
us time to stop and see things that we discovered on the way. We had dinner at the
Hotel el Rancho
, which was a neat local/historic
restaurant with a Mexican flare.
Day 2
We got an early start with breakfast at a local diner and then and headed to our next stop, Elk City, OK.
We traveled along Route 66 and stopped in Tucumcari, NM where we stopped and visited the
Blue Swallow Hotel
, the inspiration for the movie, Cars. We also saw a place where Clint Eastwood once stayed while filming a movie and stopped at a
local trinket shop.
We went on towards Amarillo, TX and stopped at
Dream Maker Station
, a local souvenir and gift shop in Adrian, TX. From Adrian, we drove to Amarillo where we stopped briefly at
Cadillac Ranch
and then had a great dinner at
The Big Texan
and saw a guy attempt to down a 72oz sirloin dinner in 60 minutes. (unfortunately for him, he failed and had to pay the tab!)
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Day 3
Continuing along Route 66, we left Elk City on our way to Hot Springs, AR. On the way we
stopped in Oklahoma City to see the
Oklahoma City Memorial
, a very stoic and humbling moment for us.
The route took us through Ft Smith, AR where we stopped to see the Fort and Courthouse were
Judge Isaac C Parker
better known as the Hanging Judge, held trials. There was a nice museum and we took some time to walk the grounds and
see various old buildings and historical markers.
We ended the day sight-seeing in Hot Springs, taking a ride up a 24-story observation tower that gave us a beautiful view of
the Ozark Mountains and surrounding area. Dinner was at
The Ohio Club
, where we enjoyed a wonderful live performance by a local musician.
Day 4
Monday took us on a drive through the beautiful Ozark Mountains. We made many stops along the way, taking
in the sights and vowing to come back during the Fall to see the changing colors.
We stopped in Eureka Springs, a place Cindy visited with her Grandfather, and spent time browsing local shops. We ended the
day in Branson, MO. with dinner at the
SaltGrass Steak House
, with great food and a wonderful table on the patio at Branson Landing.
Day 5
We spent our first day in Branson walking the shops downtown and then went to Top of the Rock for a
self-guided tour through
Lost Canyon
where we saw beautiful scenery and met some interesting people along the way. Lunch was at Arnie’s Barn located on the resort
property. The Barn is the actual 150-year old barn moved from Arnold Palmer’s property in Pennsylvania!
The day was capped off with a dinner cruise on the
Showboat Branson Belle
It was a wonderful evening with great food, a live show and beautiful views of Table Rock Lake.
Day 6
The last full day of our journey took us through Springfield, Sedalia and Columbia Missouri. Stopping at the
Grizzly Industrial facility was something John has always wanted to do, we spent a short amount of time admiring all of the tools
and then headed to our main destination for the day, Sedalia, MO.
Cindy’s family is from Sedalia so we wanted to spend the day driving around town seeing homes that her parents grew up in,
schools, parks and other places they spent time at while growing up. We stopped at two cemeteries to pay our respects to the loved
ones that gave her so many great memories while growing up. The day culminated with having dinner with a cousin she hasn’t seen in
many years. It was a great evening catching up on family and memories.
Day 7
We departed Columbia early in the morning, headed for the final and most cherished of our destinations; Des Moines, Iowa and
the wedding of Tyler and Kirsten. We will write about that event in another post.
It was a fun and exciting trip full of many memories. In all, we drove over 2,100 miles and spent over 45 hours behind the wheel, but it
was worth every mile and minute of the journey. We love traveling, and having an opportunity to drive and pull over at any time to see
the country-side is what we enjoy so much.