Route 66 - Building Excitement

After months of being stagnate, a moment of excitement bubbled inside. We had been mostly stationary for a little over three months as we wintered in Florida and South Carolina. My travel-day-anxiety reared its ugly head as we left Charleston to hit the road, but once the routine set in, it calmed down.

We traveled up Hwy 55 into Missouri, heading towards Hwy 44 and Route 66 on Sunday, March 6th. A storm was due in that evening so we wanted to travel while there was a break in the weather. Our first stop was in Pacific, Missouri for the night. Just a little west of St Louis, this is where we would start our trek west.

As we got closer to the St. Louis area, excitement washed away any cares. We were finally getting close to our journey on one of America’s nostalgic road trip treasures. I was very young when Route 66 was a big deal and I put it in the back of my mind to someday visit. The idea of doing Route 66 got lost over the years - family, jobs, life, all pushed it away. Then in 2021, the opportunity to hit the road happened. We divested ourselves of all our belongings and purchased an Airstream. Here it is a year later and we are finally adding the Mother Road to our lists of places we have traveled

Our blog is called, Stories from the Front Porch, so it only seemed fitting to start this adventure at the World’s Largest Rocking Chair on Route 66. Chairs, for me, represent stories passed on for generations and what better start to this story than the World’s Largest Rocking Chair on Route 66. The chair was erected on April Fool’s Day in 2008. It weighs 27,500 lbs and is 42’ 4” high. It was once the largest Rocking Chair in the World, but lost that honor to someone in Illinois in August of 2015. It is now the second largest in the world

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RV FYI -  the Fanning Feed store (where the chair is located) should be big enough to pull in and park, depends on how busy they are. We were there on a cold, Monday morning during the off-season so it was fine.

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We drove briefly through Cuba, Missouri on our way to the chair, captured a few photos but it was freezing cold so we didn’t make too many stops

Our next stop - the township of Uranus. A brief stop for some Uranus Fudge and a few photos.

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RV Traveling - there is a large gravel parking lot across the street from the store or you can possibly park in the Fort parking lot just past it. Depends on how busy they are

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There is a Route 66 Welcome Center just before Marshfield (if heading west, if eastbound it would be right past Marshfield.) They have a huge parking lot and invite visitors to rest.

Our last stop for the day was the town square in Marshfield, MO where a replica of the Hubble Telescope is displayed. Dr. Edwin Hubble's hometown. 

We ended our first day at the RV Express RV park in Marshfield, MO, just off hwy 44.

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RV - we are towing a 27’ Airstream and wasn’t sure of the roads. Everything we read said the original Route 66 (when you can find it) could be a bit rough, so we decided early on to find RV parks along the route and park, then explore without towing. We did travel the old Route 66 from Cuba to the Fanning Feed store where the chair was located, it was fine. Towing through downtown Cuba was fine, if the town is busy it would be challenging to find street parking.

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