Route 66 – part 2: Missouri and Kansas

Friday, 20.September

Drive-in Theatre

Lebanon, Missouri – Carthage, Missouri (570 Miles/ 912 km)

• Our first stop is a Route 66 museum in Lebanon itself and a very typical one, at that: It’s a wild Mischmasch of things that people have collected over the years and that somehow have something to do with the legendary road.

• The first (and last) “town” worth mentioning on the way today is Springfield, Missouri, which at first glance seems very strange and deserted.
• As we drive further in, however, it turns out to be surprisingly nice.
• At its heart is the Gillioz Theater, which originally opened on October 12, 1926 – the day after Route 66 got its name.

• Apart from that, the route today is very, very picturesque and once again we get a real road trip feeling as we cruise through the countryside singing along to the “Route 66” playlist.

• We see cows on and in the water.
• An Amtrak train crossing our road over a bridge and

• a Dino gas station with a Dino.
• We are also lucky enough to drive some really historic sections of Route 66 today.
• For example, we cross an old bridge just before the town of Spencer.

• In Spencer itself, we see a former car garage with a gas station.

• Shortly after we find a cute little supermarket, one you would never expect to find in the USA, on the side of the road and as I have an unnatural craving for pickles (no, I’m not pregnant), we buy a huge jar and I eat half of it straight away, njam – we send a photo and a greeting to my family, as my brothers are also pickle fans and it reminds me of our bike tour, where we also had a “pickle” craving moment.

• Finally, we reach Carthage, where we make a stop overnight. This is because in Carthage you find one of the view still existing drive-in theatres along Route 66 and, luckily for us, it has program today.
• This is really lucky, by the way, because firstly, of the 40 or so drive-in theatres that used to be along Route 66, only 5 are still open and secondly, they only show movies on some evenings.
• Speaking of which, if you’re traveling Route 66 and looking for a list of all the drive-in theatres, we’ve found this one to be the most accurate and complete, even if the website looks a bit sketchy.

• Drive-in theatres were “invented” by Richard Hollingshead Jr.. He installed a projector on the hood of his car and projected a movie onto a screen that he attached to trees in his driveway. His “sound system” was a radio he installed behind the screen.
• In 1933, he opened the first commercial drive-in theater, which fit about 400 cars with the sound coming from three speakers installed next to the screen.
• Later, drive-in theatres became more and more popular and the sound systems more and more sophisticated. Finally the winning concept turned out to be broadcasting the sound at a specific radio frequency so that all visitors could hear their own sound through their car radios. The problem with this idea was that the car batteries frequently ran out during the movies and starter cables quickly became standard equipment in every drive-in theater.

• We’re a bit afraid of that too (the historic drive-in theatre in Carthage uses the car radio sound approach), so we follow the advice we find on a “How to Drive-in Theatre” blog and organize batteries for our hotel radio and thereby have our own car battery independent sound system – which works like a charm!
• Unfortunately, we can’t follow the tip “Take a mattress with you and make yourselves comfortable in the back of your pick-up truck” as, firstly, we don’t have a pick-up truck and, secondly, it seems a bit drastic to just walk out of the hotel with the mattress (à la “Ham nur gschaut!”- insider reference for the Austrian audience).
• Anyway, full of anticipation, we set off in our fat SUV to the drive-in theater.
• Once there, we pay the ridiculously low admission price ($7 per person), for which you get to see not just one, but two movies.
• Then we take our time choosing a nice spot and are successful, since there still is plenty of free space.

• Next, we do our best to follow the advice “support the drive-in theatres by buying snacks and drinks in their stores”. It turns out to be harder than we thought since the snacks and drinks are also sold at ridiculously low prices ($1 for a hot dog, $2 for a soft drink, $5 for a tub (!) of popcorn) and we can only consume so much.
• With all our snacks, we make ourselves comfortable in our car, put the passenger and driver’s seats as far back as possible and are after all happy to be inside our SUV as it’s not that warm outside – we don’t really envy the people sitting on the pick-up trucks with about five layers and three blankets.

• The first movie is supposedly a children’s film “Hocus Pocus” (it’s almost Halloween after all). I write “supposedly” because the movie starts quite brutally with the murder of a child, carried out by three witches – then it gets a bit more harmless (still quite spooky), but considering the age of some of the kids running around (there’s also a playground)- I am not certain if it’s the most suitable.

• After the movie, there’s a fifteen-minute break, during which there’s some really funny advertising for the local store, where we stock up on more hot dogs and drinks, of course, before we continue with “A Haunting in Venice”, a Poirot movie that is apparently quite new and a bit spooky (an understatement, says Matthäus, after I said to him every two minutes “I won’t be able to sleep tonight!”), but definitely worth seeing.

• It’s really late when we finally arrive home – but the blog also warned us to “Plan enough time for a drive-in movie night” and it was totally worth it! Mega!

Saturday, 21.September

Our short drive through Kansas and a nice surprise

Carthage, Missouri – Claremore, Oklahoma (690 Miles/ 1104 km)

• Matthäus had a prophetic dream: he dreamt that we were constantly getting lost and taking forever – and indeed, we did get lost a few times today…
• There’s a farmers’ market in Carthage, but we skip it and instead take the picturesque route to Joplin, where there are beautiful murals (wall graffiti).

• Shortly after Joplin we cross the state line into Kansas, ciao Missouri!
• Just 13 miles of Route 66 (less than 1%) run through Kansas and yet you can see a lot on these 13 miles. The state does its best to promote and maintain this short stretch of road.

• We have a lunch break at Nelson’s Old Riverton Store, which dates back to 1925, and eat their delicious sandwiches sitting on their really nice and atmospheric patio.
• The store still has some elements from the year it was built and is therefore a sight in itself.

• We continue along even more picturesque roads to the Marsh Arch Bridge, built in 1923. Much to our surprise it is still open for cars and we can cross it even with our fat SUV.

• Shortly after, we reach the Oklahoma state border, a state in which we will now be staying for some time as a huge part of Route 66 runs through it.
• Here we have another very nice surprise: We discover (a bit by accident) the Coleman Theater in Miami (pronounced: Mei-am-ma), built in 1929 in the Art Deco style.

• It has been – with lots of passion and love – renovated thanks to donations and the active support of the people of Miami – which now enables us to admire it in all its glory.
• We are super lucky because when we arrive, the last tour is just starting and our guide plus the elderly couple taking part in the tour are really nice and we have a great chat and laugh.
• The guide tells us about the history of the theater and – even more exciting and entertaining – all kinds of anecdotes and events that took place here.

• Of course, the theatre is haunted, and the “blue lady” is said to be seen every now and then at concerts and performances in one of the box seats – provided you believe in her, of course.
• The theater is built in Louis XIV style, with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and curved, exaggerated seating everywhere – but I have to admit: it’s got style.

• “This is the couch on which Bill Cosby had sex with Camille,” says our guide, pointing to a random couch -ah, sure, sure.
• He also tells us that very famous artists, singers etc. were often invited here causing young teenage girls to be so excited that they would “drop by” to see the “celebreties” with their own eyes and maybe even get an autograph.

• To attract more attention, the young ladies also regularly fainted and there were sofas especially for this purpose, on which the unconscious lady was placed by a gallant gentleman and then heroically regained consciousness under the constant waving of fans by her companions and under the gaze of all people (hopefully also the celebrities and many good looking men) present.
• Funnily enough, a wedding is taking place here today. We therefore feel a little underdressed as we walk through the middle of the beautifully decorated hall, where the first guests are already arriving.
• After about 2 hours, the tour comes to an end and we chat for a while with our guide, who gives us recommendations for accommodation, which are always welcome.

• We continue along really historic sections of Route 66, including some of the oldest original sections – wow! – the only thing is that we hope to not come across any other car since our big SUV mostly only just fits on the road.

• In some parts the road is completely gone and we drive on dirt roads; now we are glad of our SUV with its “Rock & Dirt” function.

• We reach the village of Foyil, known for its most famous resident, Andy Payne, who won the 1928 “Bunion Derby”, an ultramarathon from the east to the west coast of the USA, and in whose honor a statue was placed here.

• Shortly afterwards we reach Claremore, where we stay in a small, fine Route 66 motel.