Kansas Route 66 - Eisler Brothers Store

     You should make a point to visit the Eisler Brothers Old Riverton store during your short tour of Kansas 66, even if it's just for some chips and a bottle of Route 66 Root Beer. There's a nice old-fashioned feel to the place, the kind of Mom and Pop business you used to ride your bike to back in your home town. (Usually following your mother's orders to pick up a bottle of milk.) There was a mix of people in the store on the day of my visit, with me and a couple of 66'ers from Spain browsing the old road memorabilia, several busy landscapers stopping in for some quick refreshments, and a local woman ordering over the deli counter. (John Wayne and James Dean were also in the store, near life size.) This mix of customers has been necessary since the early 1960's, when Kansas 66 was bypassed by Interstate 44. And the state was bypassed indeed, as I-44 connects Missouri to Oklahoma without any detour at all into Kansas. 
      The store was first opened in 1925 by Leo Williams and his wife Lora, who ran a general store inside and had gas pumps outside to draw in the early Route 66 traffic. Joe and Isabell Eisler of Allen, Texas, purchased and renamed the store in 1973, and operated the business for many years as a local convenience store and 66 attraction. (They even kept the original tin roof that I didn't know about. Never looked up even once.) The Eislers passed on in the late 2000's, and I found a nephew of the former Texans, Scott Nelson, behind the counter during my 2008 visit. In 2011, Mr. Nelson, who is also president of the Kansas Route 66 association, purchased the business from the Eisler's estate. We wish him every success with his small business, and with his overseeing of the famous 13.2 miles of Kansas 66. Log Book: 610 miles motored on old 66.

Route 66 - Just over the border into Kansas.

One of the many pleasures of traveling Route 66 is the frequent ability to just pull over to the side of the road when the mood strikes, whether to explore America away from the interstate, or to meet someone new.

Missouri Route 66 - Joplin

A bucolic, small town entry to ease us out of Missouri, with our best wishes to the people of Joplin. This out of the way small business is Dale's Ole 66 Barber Shop, captured on a summer day during my 2006 trip. I understand that old Dale retired in 2003, and there is a For Rent sign in the image here, so I don't really know who occupies the building today. But on a hot day in June in the old days, there likely was a row of kids inside the shop, waiting for their summertime haircuts. Log Book: 599 miles motored on old 66.

Missouri Route 66 - Carthage

     The southwestern Missouri town of Carthage has prospered ever since the coming of the railroad in 1872. Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the town boasted a furniture factory and a foundry, grain mills, liveries and a plow works. (What, exactly, is a plow works?)  In addition, it was surrounded by lead mines and limestone quarries. The turn of the century populace was wealthy enough to build fancy Victorian-style homes in the city, some grand enough, in fact, that the Carthage South District that shows them off is a tourist attraction today. Highways 66 and 71 passed through the city, but any business generated there was probably an afterthought, and Carthage as a whole was not affected all that much with the coming of the interstate in the 1960's. The 14,000 or so citizens of modern day Carthage can work for the Leggett & Platt Corporation, which employs close to 2,000 people, or the turkey folks at Butterball, with nearly 600 workers. Schreiber Foods, headquartered in Green Bay, opened a cheese plant in Carthage in 1950 that still keeps 650 Missourian cheeseheads busy.
     66'ers should plan to spend some time in Carthage. The iconic Boots Motel is still there, after a sharp left turn onto Garrison Street. The motel was named for Arthur and Ilda Boots, the original owners, with a wonderful, though aging, neon sign and a main building constructed in 1939 with a streamline moderne architectural style. The palatial Jasper County Courthouse in downtown Carthage was constructed in 1894, with material from the local marble works. I imagine it was quite an impressive structure to the Route 66 Traveler of the 1930's. The classic outdoor 66 Drive-In movie theater was built in 1949, when drive-ins were big. It was closed down for many years as the age of television took hold, but re-opened in the late 1990's. I remember a mess of drive-ins in New Jersey when I was a kid, but at the 66's prices, there is no need to pile your friends in the trunk of the car. Log Book: 591 miles motored on old 66.

Missouri Route 66 - Avilla

     For Ghost Town lovers, I give you Avilla, Missouri, complete with abandoned buildings and reported sightings of a headless, Civil War era Confederate ghost. The last census reported 125 flesh and blood beings, but I never saw any of them.

      Avilla had a good 19th century, as a farm town in a rich agricultural area. The town's fortunes in the 20th century, however, have come and gone with the highway. The coming of Route 66 in the late 1920's brought a paved road through town, and it supported roadside businesses - a cafe, gas stations, auto repair and a barbershop. The old road also served the local farming community. There was a lumber yard and farm implement stores, as reported by Jack Rittenhouse in 1946, that "indicate its importance as an agricultural trading and supply center". The town began to decline after World War II, first with the loss of many of its young people, who understandably sought their fortunes outside such a small town. The coming of the interstate in the 1960's finished the town off, eliminating the roadside businesses and farm traffic.

     Bernie's Bar, top, seemed to be open for business in 2006, my first run through town. (Bernie's used to be Flo's Tavern, a fact I point out because I like to maintain historical accuracy in my tavern reporting.) On a return visit in 2008 Bernie's was all boarded up, and the entire block, in fact, seemed about to topple over at any time. Log Book: 579 miles motored on old 66.

Missouri Route 66 - Spencer

     What's around the bend? That question runs through your mind a lot as you travel in this part of Missouri on two-lane Route 66. The modern and not so far away interstate may offer a clear view ahead for miles at a time, but old 66 twists and turns through the towns and wooded areas of this region, and what's ahead is anybody's guess.

     The Johnson Creek Bridge, top, on the way to Spencer, Missouri, is a steel truss bridge built in 1926, and don't you wish you lived in a place where the creeks have names? The Phillips 66 station has been further restored since my visit in 2008, the property having been purchased by a couple of Kansans, Francis and Marie Lynn Ryan. Next trip, I will stop and shake the hands of these devoted 66er's, just for keeping it so much fun for the rest of us. The top attraction in Spencer is the old road itself, vintage concrete 66, with just enough grass growing through the cracks to mark off the old sections.

     There was never very much to the town of Spencer at all. It was originally founded in the 1870's, with a church, a store, and a Post Office, all this made possible by a new road that connected the town to the rest of the world. But the road was allowed to deteriorate, the cut-off town did as well, and there was very little left of Spencer after the turn of the century. It was given a second chance when Route 66 was built through the same area in the 1920's, and things did pick up a bit with a few new roadside businesses springing up, but the coming of the interstate killed the town once again. Log Book: 555 miles traveled on old 66. 

Missouri Route 66 - Paris Springs

      Proprietor Gary Turner (top) can't wait for you to stop by, just so he can show off his restored Sinclair gas station in Paris Springs, Missouri, which he refers to as Gay Parita. When I first showed up in 2008, Gary was busy giving a tour of the grounds to a young couple from Spain, proudly pointing out the old pumps, the old cars, and all the antiques he had accumulating back in the station garage. I hooked up with them and tagged along with my camera. These adventurous Europeans were touring Route 66 on one black motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson, and playing along with open road Route 66 tradition, were dressed absolutely appropriately in black outfits and sunglasses. I leapfrogged from site to site with them and their hog for the rest of the day, and we even tried to have a conversation when we met up behind Eisler's store in Kansas. We didn't get very far with my high school Spanish and their English travel phrases, but they were a pleasure to meet nonetheless.

     The station at Paris Springs is where I had the opportunity to experience Route 66 from the other direction - that of a stay in one place proprietor rather than a constantly moving-on traveler. During a return visit in 2010, I sat in the shade on Gary Turner's little porch for about an hour with him and watched as he greeted the passersby. First to pull up were two old high school buddies about my age, who were driving 66 in a Corvette. It was something they had been planning to do since they were kids, and life had paused just long enough for both of them to fulfill their dream. A bit later, a retired couple from Canada wandered in, telling us how much they enjoyed exploring the U.S. in their retirement. This inspired a friendly discussion about the differences between Canadian and American cultures. I could really get to like this, I thought, as I sat back and relaxed with my new friends, all of us enjoying Gary's hospitality. But when two more cars pulled up to the curb a bit later, I realized there would be no time for me to meet the new arrivals, that I had more places to see down the road and had to get moving. I reluctantly packed up my camera and said my goodbyes, a little bit upset that I had to take my leave. The disappointment passed quickly, though, as I began exploring what was around the next bend.  Log Book: 553 miles motored on old 66.