DESTINATION: LEBANON, MO

Lewis Café in St. Clair, MO

    This was a return trip for us, having met the three laughing widows here in 2009 (Carl has a great story).  Instead of widows this time, we had four good looking Missouri State Highway Patrolmen who obviously were loyal customers.   We remembered that the place was famous for their homemade pies so we made sure we dropped in around noon for our pie lunch.  It did not disappoint! They told us as we were paying that before we come the next time to call ahead and request what kind of pie we would like to eat. Wow!  That’s pretty good customer service!

Water Towers

    Good humor is always appreciated by us so we couldn’t just pass up these gems.  Of course, one tower in Bourbon was not quite enough so they added another.

Osage Trail Legacy Park

    The next stop was a total surprise to us for it was not here during our last Route 66 trip and not mentioned in our Route Bibles because it has just been completed.  It was near Cuba, MO at a commuter parking area and had a wonderful little visitor center with a very enthusiastic docent who shared a wealth of information with us.  We watched a video of the Osage Indians who were very large in stature - many were at least six and a half feet tall, and others even seven feet tall, according to contemporary historians.  Today’s I-44 was the original Trail of the Osage.  In the early 1800’s they traveled from this area into St. Louis, trading furs and lead ore for food, clothing and supplies.  When the first Europeans began exploring the Ozark region, the Osage dominated the area which included areas that became Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.  Wanting to learn more about this interesting people, who are now limited to a small reservation in Oklahoma, I bought the book “Killers of the Flower Moon”, by David Grann which is currently being made into a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Mural City - Cuba, MO

   Driving on into Cuba we wanted to find a couple of the murals for which this little town is known.  It’s not hard to bump into one of the 14 murals that are located throughout the town.  Here are a few we like.