Heading to Ozarks/Branson, MO

So we were supposed to head to Hot Springs, AR today (Guy was excited for that). Last night I looked into it more and you can’t even go in the springs (too hot). They have bath houses that you can go in but they are just like hot tubs inside a building. The Hot Springs National Park does look beautiful but he didn’t want to drive that far just to look at them.

Since we had to reroute and take Texas and New Mexico out of our travels we decided to skip Arkansas. It was going to be a lot of driving to go there and back up to get to Colorado. (I am so sad to miss Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Park but it is what it is.)

Our original plan was from Kentucky to Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, etc. Now we are doing Ozarks/Branson Missouri, through Kansas to Boulder, CO to Utah, etc. This is why we kept a flexible itinerary and didn’t make too many reservations knowing we would have to make some maneuvers.

We had to travel over 2 scary bridges today. One was under construction and only 1 lane open (very narrow). The second one was over the Mississippi River, steep and was very bumpy. Thank goodness nobody came from the other way because Guy drove down the middle 😬

We didn’t realize once we hit 60 WEST we wouldn’t be able to find a hotel nicer then 2 stars so we ended up driving 481 miles. 😱

We typically like to stay between 200-300 miles a day so this was a long day. Driving an RV up and down mountains in the pitch dark when you aren’t familiar with the roads is not very fun. However, during the day the drive through Missouri was beautiful. We went from flat farmland to the hilly farmland so we enjoyed our drive. This is how you know you are old (you enjoy the scenery of the mountains while driving) 😂

We are stopping in Springfield, MO for the night and should arrive around 11:00pm. Then tomorrow we will only have 100 miles to drive to the Ozarks. 👍🏻

Here are some pictures from our drive today. Taking pictures as you are driving don’t turn out as nice as in person. (Guy was driving, I was riding)

For some reason it won’t let me upload videos 🥺

I did a search for lodging nearby a couple of times and this was the result.

Please excuse the messy windshield. Ole Betsey needs a bath.

Guy should get an award for this trip 🥇