Under pretty much any circumstances, it doesn’t make any sense to stop in Springfield, Missouri on the way from Denver, Colorado to Los Angeles, California. It’s almost 800 miles in the opposite direction, but apparently someone in Springfield has some pretty persuasive powers. Working as tour managers in the field of mobile marketing, schedules and routes can be unpredictable. Clients change their minds, and part of our job is to go with the flow. While it may not always be logical, these surprise changes to our route sometimes result in our driving routes we never would have otherwise.

Since there really is no direct route between the two cities, we ended up on some very rural highways toward the end of the drive. We passed mostly hay bales, cornfields, and an occasional cluster of cows munching for the last few hundred miles. We really felt we were out in the country when we started seeing more “lettered” routes than numbered. There were many of these heading toward Missouri Route 96 on the way into Springfield. (See County Road D heading toward 96 in the photos.)