Jan 11th: Carthage, MO >> Springfield, MO
Driving Route:
Weather was more normal today. For this area of the country, this time of the year, that meant cold. As in freeze our tail feather off cold. We didn’t travel that many miles today, less than one hundred. We still wound up with plenty to do.
Since we stayed in the town of Carthage, we decided to see the most popular Carthage attraction, the Precious Moments Chapel. I remember Grandma Barry have these little dust collectors from the company. She said they’d belonged to her mother. I met the woman once and she seemed like she was a million years old, but she got a kick out of me for some reason.
It was free to see, so we headed down there when they opened and went to the chapel. The chapel was certainly impressive with massive art pieces that had been painted by the creator over four years. It is worth checking out if you like that type of thing or just looking for a unique stop that you can only do here. Benny didn’t know what to make of it and Lev whispered in my ear that one of these days he’d take me to the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. That was enough of a distraction that my heebies stayed out of sight.
The Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage is beautiful and resembles a castle if you use your imagination. There are a few small Route 66 exhibits in the lobby that you can see, as well as a lot of civil war history to learn about here as well. I told Lev about the old courthouse in Live Oak and in a few other of the older towns in that area of Florida that he hadn’t seen while we were on assignment. I told him to think about putting together a travel book for the area since he has so much filler left over and also we’d be close enough we could take more pictures.
“Might not be a huge seller but it could be something different until we figure out what the next assignment is going to be.”
I got a kiss for effort which didn’t bother me at all.
Next came the little town of Spencer. It was one of the better ghost towns I suppose. Sorry, not my thing but I can see other people getting a kick out of it. The owners have painstakingly recreated the buildings and it is interesting to see the exteriors, even though nothing was actually open.
There was supposed to be a neat Sinclair Gas Station but we must have missed it. What we did see was an abandoned historic building. What was unique about it was that it was built of stone, and even though the store was no longer there, the walls still stood, and it has trees and brush growing up through them.
The next stop was at Fantastic Caverns. It is the only drive-through cave in the USA and one of only four in the world. The tour takes you through the cave while seated on a trailer connected to a jeep.
It was a beautiful cave with a lot of history, and it was worth the tour to explore it. I have been in many caves before but never like this. I was not thrilled with the price and was trying to figure out how to just suck it up when we heard, “Lev?! Dude, is that you?!”
I turned and Lev and another guy were doing some weird handshake. “I heard from Diego a week or so ago and … Dude! … you got married?! Please tell me it wasn’t …”
“No!” Lev yelped letting me know that there had been people in line ahead of me. I mean I knew it but still … tough pill to swallow if I’m forced to think about it. That’s when Lev spotted Benny and I and beckoned me over.
“Gus this is Rex. Rex this is …”
“The hot chick from the Florida Assignment.” He looked me over then turned to Lev and said, “Duuuude.”
Benny looked at me and I could tell he was wondering who the weird guy was. Well Rex was on a working assignment for a nationally syndicated news show. He was with one of the busses of Route 66 travelers. They were just shy of the number they needed to get a group rate and … yep … we got invited which cut the cost of our tickets by nearly 50%.
Rex had to get back to work but after the tour, while the bus group were looking in the gift shop and that sort of thing, he and Lev stepped aside to talk. I heard a few names I recognized but most of them I didn’t. I also saw something I was sure I wasn’t supposed to. When Lev would have walked out, I stepped in front of him and smiled and kind of guided us over to the restrooms.
“Babe?”
Still smiling but not really doing it so anyone could see my lips move or hear what I was saying I asked, “Was Rex supposed to have dropped something into your hoodie?”
Lev froze. “No,” he said, gritting his teeth.
“Then do me a favor and go to the men’s room and flush it. ‘K?”
He gave me a kiss. “I’ll do one better. Can you get it out without being obvious then return the property to its original owner?”
“Watch me,” I told him with a naughty look. “Bend over and check Benny’s hikers. Benny play along.”
It didn’t take but a second for me to lean over Lev while he was leaning over, slip my hand into the hood of his hoodie and scrape out the little memory tab. It had something sticky on one side which helped it to stay in the hood and I doubt it would have been noticed until laundry day. Because of the sticky side it made getting rid of it a little more challenging, but not by much. It’s new home was in the same place on Rex that he’d put it on Lev.
We left quickly after that, and I asked Lev to drive while I plied my trade of the path I did not take.
Finding what I was looking for I said, “Yep.”
“Yep what?” Lev asked still irritated and stressed.
“Your friend Rex is now on the payroll of a company that is a subsidiary of … wait for it … Beaumont International.”
“You are shi …,” He stopped and cleared his throat obviously having started to say something else. “… kidding me.”
“Nope. I’m not going to say this is specific to us though they seem like they are spiteful enough, but might be a good idea to pass the info along.”
“Fine. Call Bob and let him know but …”
“Try and keep us out of it? That was the plan.”
“Er … you’re enjoying this?”
I stopped and checked my attitude. “Wrong word for it. I’m happy that I caught it. And it gives me a target to expend some energy on. Maybe it even gets you some brownie points for loyalty to Bob or something along those lines. Let’s call it satisfying.”
Thoughtfully Lev said, “I guess I haven’t been listening well enough. You said you have more, and more directed, training than some of your other friends.”
I hesitated but when you’re married you gotta share some things to understand each other. “Yeah.”
“What did your brother think, or was it his idea?”
Carefully I answered after checking that Benny had his headphones on. “Lawrence didn’t know. The further away from that time the more convinced I am that maybe he hadn’t wanted me to go into the military … possibly at all. Hard to say and I’m not going to go around second guessing everything.”
“But …”
“But … I’m thinking he may have thought I wasn’t ready or he wanted me to have more options or something. He trained me in case I went regardless of his opinion, and I admit he never tried to stop me in any obvious way, but he was the one that talked me into the bit of college that I’ve got. On the other hand …”
“Babe?” He prompted after I got lost in some memories and thoughts.
“There were people that definitely thought I had a place or could make a place for myself in the Navy.”
“They wanted you to be a female SEAL?”
I tried not to laugh. “No, definitely not. That’s a male-only club even if there have been females that have technically gotten in, and even I recognized it back then. Besides, the Navy does have other Special Operations groups you know.”
“Er …”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s in the past for me. But just to say, Lawrence didn’t know. And I’m not really sure what he would have made of it. I never hid the extra training, Lawrence probably guessed at some of it though then again, given some of the way things used to be when he was home it may have just gotten ignored in favor of more immediately important issues. And before you can figure out how or if to ask … yes, there are some facets of that part of my life that I miss. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t miss what has happened since more if I didn’t have it instead of the other. And I hope that made sense.”
“Yeah,” he said thoughtfully. “Yeah, it made sense. But I’m still glad you would miss us more.”
“Yeah, I would. So, if you just happen to meet any former ‘friends’ or whatever, treat them with caution and try and not get too close until you can clear them. Or we can clear up whatever is going on. The hollyweirdness is more than a little much to take on top of everything else we are trying to get through right now.”
He sighed. “Just call Bob. See if he has anything to say on the subject.”
Springfield, Missouri, is a college town with a lot of charm, according to Lev’s brochure collection, and a few unique Route 66 stops.
The main Route 66 stops are in the old downtown area, which is in the north part of the city. First up is the footbridge that crosses the train tracks. This is supposedly the longest pedestrian footbridge in the US, and I wouldn’t doubt it. The bridge takes you over the tracks and gives some great views of downtown and the trains passing by.
Also, while we were in the old downtown, we checked out Askinosie Chocolates or Eurasia Coffee. The chocolate shop is in a historic bank building, and the coffee shop is across the street.
There are a few more historic Route 66 spots in the city if you want to see them. The first is the Steak and Shake, which is a chain franchise, but this is one of the only ones that still has an original look.
Lastly, while not Route 66 related, Springfield, Missouri is home to Bass Pro Shop, and its flagship store. Named Bass Pro Shop World, this store is fantastic to explore.
The store has a gigantic aquarium with over a mile of walking to see everything, a wildlife area which has elaborate stages set to show off animals like elephants and tigers, and an NRA rifle museum with thousands of guns. And across the parking lot is the Bass Pro Shop Outlet Store and then believe it or not, Lev had us a room at the Bass Pro Shop Angler’s Lodge. When he told me it took me a while to believe him.
The Lodge had this exhibition called Wonders of Wildlife. There was a penguin encounter, a shark dive, and according to a sign-thingie, the world’s most immersive conservation attraction. There was over 350,000 square feet of exhibits. Plus, larger than the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, there was a 1.5 Million Gallons of Freshwater and Saltwater Aquariums and includes 35,000 Live Fish, Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians and Birds. Whoa.
Finally heard from Bob. There is a big, fat legal case going on that Bob was not free to give the details about to us, but it was noted – and appreciated – that we were showing some loyalty to our previous employers. I’m not sure what that is going to mean but brownie points are brownie points I guess. It was more my faith in Bob being a decent human being than loyalty to the company. I let Lev have his own opinion while not asking for it. It is also paybacks for Mizz Beaumont’s crapheaded actions. They did find it interesting about Rex but didn’t make more of it than there was, just said basically what I’d said to Lev … if you see anyone that you’ve worked with before, use caution. And that includes with Diego and Chan because word on the street is that there is a competing offer to have him come to work in their production studios.
We weren’t going to make us crazy. Peoples is peoples. Peoples just better leave us along. Found out that Lev had done some work for the Morris Family Foundation (a man name Johnny Morris started Bass Pro Shop) and called in a marker he had to get us a place to stay for the night with the understanding that he planned to spend some money on-site.
“Lev …”
“You admit yourself that the River House is a bit off the beaten path. Even having been there last December I’m not sure I could find it again on my own.”
“Yes.”
“And that we might basically be camping there until we can figure out what the place needs and what it is going to take to do it.”
“Er … yeah.”
“Remember how I talked about properly outfitting yourself prior to Alaska?”
“Yeah, okay but …”
“Trust me on this Babe. Now that I know that you know about certain wild beasts and where to find them … I’m going to provide some feed for them.”
It took me nearly a minute to realize what he was talking about. “You sure?” Before he could misunderstand, I continued, “Because there might be a small amount of feed in Jacksonville. I’d rather not bring notice getting more and sufficient for our needs.”
“Consider it a wedding gift.”
I snorted. “You’re the gift. Can we get some fishing tackle?”
He grinned. “Anything you want.”
“Better watch that. Last time you said it you wound up nearly comatose.”
Good thing he wasn’t driving, that’s all I’m going to say. He eventually started breathing again but it took a moment or two.
Resources:
Nearby Attractions | Bass Pro Shops Angler's Lodge | Springfield, MO
View: https://youtu.be/S__wDhdxvOE