St. Louis-Bound: We've Been Down This Road Before

Back in 2015, when Naomi was just barely 9 and Danielle was 5.5, we took a road trip to St. Louis. Naomi is now about to turn 19 and Danielle is 15.5 so we decided to take a very similar road trip to see the highlights of St. Louis once again. While this trip was cut short a bit due to summer schedules and conflicts, we did manage to hit a couple of the same spots during the road trip to and from. (Oh, I do love comparison photos!)

McDonalds's on I-44 in Vinita, OK

Will Rogers and The Smiths

For something a little different this year, we made a slight detour to visit the Precious Moments Chapel & Gardens. This place is incredibly peaceful and wonderful, beautiful and inspiring. I have vague memories of these figures from when I was a kid, but no longer have them (long gone somewhere with my Cabbage Patch doll...) The entire area is an amazing display of art and years of dedication to create this space, where every image, stained glass and carving tells a story, many from the Bible. NOTE: The Memorial Room, a place of remembrance for lives lost too soon, held an extra significance at this time in the aftermath of the flash flooding that just took place in Central Texas along the Guadalupe River. 

Road trips call for pitstops, so when the billboard for Stuckey's appeared at just the right time, of course we had to grab the iconic pecan roll for me and peanut roll for Jeff. 

A regular occurrence anytime we are in the proximity of Old Spaghetti Factory -- celebrating Naomi and Danielle's birthdays, no matter what month it happens to be. Spumoni is a must (except Vanilla for Danielle). Lucky for us, there are two different locations enroute to St. Louis!

Near Springfield...the "greens" have disappeared in the last 10 years, but the fork is still in the road. And apparently it is a bigger deal now: while we were there, 3 other groups of people showed up to take a picture. It is a pretty photogenic fork... 

While on the topic of art, how about this just because...why not? The Awakening. Art is meant to be interpreted however you are. How are you?

Jeff planned an intentional route home through Fayetteville, Arkansas so that we could repeat a magical stop at Terra Studios (which we visited in 2014 on a different trip). Naomi and Danielle still have their Bluebirds of Happiness, and Naomi opted to expand her collection with a couple items, including a pink bird of happiness that was just sooo cute. 

Naomi distinctly remembered the "trash trolls" from years ago and was excited to know they were still accepting items.

So Jeff's road trip routes always include favorites, like Gusano's (deep dish Chicago style pizza - yum!) and of course, an arcade whenever possible. (Full disclosure: the 3 girls crashed at the hotel while Jeff closed down the arcade.)

Arcadia Retrocade

But his routes also include unexpected stops, such as the Bigfoot Museum of Oklahoma! Yes, it is a real thing, while the content inside is up for debate. 😉 

The evidence did make a rather convincing argument for something...

And all these people couldn't possibly be wrong or all in cohots...

We have been on the hunt for years ourselves, but still waiting to capture the winning photo...