Day 5 - Cuba, Missouri to Springfield, Missouri

We started the day at the Cuba Welcome Center which has impressive sculptures celebrating the Osage people (ironically, all but completely driven out of Missouri by the white settlers - they ended up in Oklahoma sitting on what turned out to be a huge oil field. But that is another story).

Onward into Cuba itself, self appointed "Mural City" - 15 murals adorning walls in downtown that provide a reason - possibly the only reason - to visit the town.

Sadly, a restaurant we had previously visited, Weir on 66, is now a burger restaurant (located in an old gas station):

We then headed west out of town on Historic Route 66, past the huge rocking chair at Fanning, and on to the Devil's Elbow on Piney River (filmed by the Hairy Bikers on their R66 trip and where they did some fishing):

Lunch at Denny's in Lebanon.

Finally, we made it to Springfield, Missouri, having clocked up another 160 miles but before we checked into the Rail Haven Motel we visited the Fantastic Caverns on the north side of the city and were enthusiastically driven round by Joel:


The pictures don't really capture the enormity and beauty of the Caverns that were indeed truly fantastic and discovered by accident in the mid 1800s by a farmer's dog! Used variously as a bar and dance hall in the prohibition era and then a music venue and now a rather fine tourist attraction.

Oh, and it is still quite hot here .....

Ichiban Chinese buffet for dinner - 3rd time here and it just keeps delivering - $14.99 for all you can eat - tremendous value and delicious food.

Comments

  1. OonaghOctober 12, 2026 at 11:43 PM

    enjoying following your trip we are off to London Karen and Tim's flat to meet up with johns old friend from derbyshire

    ReplyDelete
  2. Duncan @ Complete North AmericaOctober 13, 2026 at 2:51 AM

    Loving the blog Chris, great to follow you on what looks like such a fantastic trip, you must have a super tour operator 😉

    ReplyDelete
  3. Boorman Ross in SFOctober 13, 2026 at 11:38 AM

    Springfield, Missouri! How many blooming Springfields are there? Couldn't they think of some other names, like Summerfield or Winterfield or Autumn field?

    ReplyDelete

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