Route 66 has several paths through Springfield so keep your eyes opened for old motels. On the way into town we spotted the ruins of Luvrey’s Court built in 1930. A little way down the road Rest Haven Court and Rancho Motel are still in business but a bit rundown. The Rest Haven Sign is almost an exact copy of the Munger Moss sign.
Shamrock Court has a great sign but it doesn’t appear to still be a motel.
The stone cabins of Rock Fountain Court were arranged in a semi-circle around a fountain (long gone). The cabins are now apartments.
Springfield doesn't promote their 66 connection very much but a Birthplace of Route 66 Roadside Park is in the works. So far it’s just a pull off with one sign and plans to add more in the future. The pull off which loops back to the road is very narrow with tight bends so large RVs should not attempt driving on it.
The retaining wall across the street is covered with mosaic art.
Springfield has a couple of museums – the Springfield Art Museum which is free and the History Museum for Springfield-Greene County.
Reposted from a visit in 2012.
The Springfield Art Museum rotates it’s collection of almost 9,000 paintings, watercolors, sculptures and prints throughout the year. They also host Watercolor U.S.A., an annual juried exhibition.
Everything is accessible.
The parking lot is large enough for all RVs. Use the entrance on E. Brookside Dr. The entrance on E. Bennett St. has a big dip and many scrape marks on the pavement.
The Springfield-Greene Botanical Center is another free attraction that we visited in 2012.
Wide, paved, interconnected trails wind past themed gardens and around a little lake. The main trails are accessible but most of the gardens can only be viewed from the edges. The Master Gardener Demonstration Garden is an exception with paved paths through most of it. The Gray-Campbell Farmstead which wasn’t opened when we visited does not have ramps into the buildings or paths around the grounds. The Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden, the only garden with a fee , was also closed.
The largest lots are at the Botanical Center –plenty of room for RVs.
We also stopped at Bass Pro in 2012 so this is a repost of that visit. It looks like the museum still hasn’t opened.
Stores (along with the parking lots where we are generously allowed to park overnight) usually don’t make it into my posts but this one deserves a mention, if only for consumerism gone wild. Who would have thought that simple outdoor activities like hunting, fishing and camping would require a 300,000 square foot store?!
This is the location of the first Bass Pro store. It’s the largest one and even has a museum which we didn’t get to see as it’s still under construction. The inside of the store is decorated with hunting lodge facades, waterfalls, ponds, giant trees used as posts and beams, large aquariums and many, many stuffed animals and fish.
To get to the RV parking area follow the oversized vehicle signs. It’s located in the far southwest corner,butting against a residential neighborhood so it’s relatively quiet. Very fast, free WiFi!
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