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Last of the Mid-West     Missouri, Kansas, and the Ozarks. We are moving rapidly from the mid-west, through a bit of the south, and then off to the southwest. Cultural changes abound as we go from the influence of Chicago and St. Louis, through the Bible belt, and into cowboy country.
 

	Back in the Ozarks, heading towards Kansas, and Oklahoma. Though still rolling, the high summits of the previous days travel are nowhere to be seen. the land is beginning to flatten out.
	Road cuts expose rock looking somewhat similar to that of the Wisconsin Dells, but the geology is quite different. The granites of the Ozarks have nothing in common with the sandstones of the Dells.
Mt.Vernon Missouri. The town square.
	What's a town square without a Civil War cannon, on the courthouse lawn?
	An old building dating back to 1876. Now converted to a historical center, this building stood when this was cowboy country, and these were all little cow towns.
	Great low slung buildings from a century and a half ago, which held the businesses that catered to the cowboy's every need.
	Really, we are nearly out of the Ozarks now, but this is a stereotypical tourist stop, so we have to look. What is surprising is that, among all of the typical tourist fare, we actually found (and purchased) some pretty nice things.
	A Missouri back road, formerly part of old Route 66.
	Joplin Missouri, and we are very nearly in Kansas.
	A train greets us as we are just coming into Kansas. It is coming around a slag heap produced by the smelter works of Galena.
	Another nearly disused back road, which had formerly been a part of old 66. This time it is in Kansas.
	Downtown Galena kansas. Like most of the old highway towns, it has seen better days.
	Route 66 B-B-Q, at the up in smoke diner.
	The Galena museum, formerly the galena rail Depot. I highly recommend a visit, if you happen to pass this way. It is full of odds and ends from the past, and is a very fascinating and intimate place. A couple of hours spent, makes you feel as if you have lived here for years.
	I bit more of Galena,. Bloody but unbowed.
	Cornerstones, and head pieces from Galena's past.
	My brother finds a new friend in front of the converted railroad depot, which has become the Galena museum.
	The museum extends outside to a back yard, and a side yard. the yards feature trains, a tank, a helicopter, and some other machinery too big to fit inside.
	Our guide is a retiree from the lead smelting plant which gave Galena it's start, and made the town, briefly, wealthy.
	A desperate character trying to look tough. The number board was taken from the local jail, when they updated to a photographic (and latter on to a computerized) method of putting numbers on mug shots.
	Woodworking tools, or devices of medieval torture? Well, the second answer might seem closer to the truth for people who have been on the wrong end of these devices. These are old dentistry tools from the turn of the last century.
	A tank from the sixties. I believe it is an M-60, or possibly an M-48. Mt. Vernon only had a canon in it's square.
	A railroad service car. Unlike the ones seen in cartoons, they are run off of small motors, and do not have the big hand levers.
A naval antiaircraft gun, and a tribute to the Joplin Missouri centennial (in 1973) and then we are back on the road again.
	The past is commemorated with this plaque, and with the preservation of this bridge and of the 13.2 miles of Route 66 which passed through Kansas.
	A great old Concrete suspension span bridge. This part of old 66 is rarely traveled on except by the locals and a few tourists.

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