After yesterday’s long haul, we all agreed to take a relatively short day today. But wow, was it packed anyway.
These beauties gathered at the Cracker Barrel where we stayed. It’s easy to imagine a group like this traveling Route 66 like our four vans are today.
Yes, I said four. At Cracker Barrel we Debbie, who drives a former wheelchair van very much like mine. She’s on her way to the southwest as well, hoping to join the Homes On Wheels Alliance convoys going on over the winter. This is literally her second day on the road!
We all vibed pretty well together, and she’s going our way, so we invited her to tag along with us for as far as she wanted to go. She agreed, and then there were four.
We made the short drive to the town of Cuba. Our first stop was Shelly’s Route 66 Cafe, a fun little remnant of when the Mother Road came through town.
The real attraction, though, was the numerous murals and artwork scattered around the small town. We left the vans and proceeded on foot to take it all in. The best way to show this part is a photo dump.
How do you top this? Really, you can’t. I’ve seen some amazing art in towns we’ve passed through so far, but Cuba has them all beat.
We did move on down the road to the Fanning Outpost. This was a fun little gift shop, with amazing local fudge, popcorn, sodas, and other stuff. I couldn’t resist the temptation of a Route Beer 66 and some cinnamon roasted cashews.
Finally, we all posed for a picture with the world’s second largest rocking chair.
After a short drive to Rolla, we spent the rest of the day taking care of mundane necessities like showers and laundry. Even on an exciting adventure like this, we have to take time out for the mundane tasks. We found an overnight spot, had dinner, chatted a bit, then hunkered down for the night.
It’s funny — in more than one discussion, many of us agreed that for what was supposed to be a short, easy day, it was still pretty long and tiring. We didn’t do much driving, and not nearly as much as yesterday. But the day was still packed, and even productive. It’s nearly 8:00 pm as I’m typing this, but it feels closer to 10:00 or even later. It’s time for me to put this down and go take a breather.
Smokey Da Van 