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Day 3 - Thursday April 1st (and this is no-foolin'!) - We left Shamrock close to 7 am, knowing that we didn't have as long a drive as Wednesday and no time changes. We also knew that our daughter was not going to be available on Thursday evening, as it was Maundy Thursday, and as a church leader, she was at church that evening.
Our first stop was Weatherford, OK, where we needed to fuel up. As always, we let my fingers do the walking over Gas Buddy to find the best prices for diesel. Weatherford was a prime candidate. We also found a good place for breakfast there, Lucille's Roadhouse. It's a 50s style diner, Route 66, but when we walked in, we commented, "Flo's Diner in CarsLand!" (Disneyland's California Adventure) which is also a Route 66 diner style. The food was great, too -- much better than the Iron Skillet the day before.
I dislike the I-44 turnpike system in OK. The first length cost us $5. Then we hit Tulsa, a terrible traffic jam because of construction. We probably lost about a half hour in that. Then the second length cost us another $5. We started to debate the pros and cons of moving ourselves this summer and finding a way to avoid this turnpike because more axles meant more money.
Once we crossed into MO, we felt like we were almost there, but of course we weren't. A little fuel in Joplin, and one of the rest areas (mm111 is set up in a Route 66 theme), gave us a stretch of the legs. We then took I-44 up to MO-5 in Lebanon, which took us to US-54 and up to the Lake. It was a 543 mile day in 9-1/2 hours. Probably would have been 9 hours without that construction!!!!!!
We situated ourselves in the town of Lake Ozark where it meets the town of Osage Beach, at a Quality Inn where we've stayed before. It was a good place to light for 7 nights, close enough to our daughter (or, as she says, the closest non-fleabag motel to her) and to reach any place in the Lake area. It had a working indoor pool, which we took advantage of right away, but the hot tub was closed for repairs. The hotel is in sections with corridors indoors so that you can reach the office without going outside. The indoor pool was near the back of the building. The outdoor pool, only open during the summer months, is closer to the front. We were in a room very close to the back end of the building. Going to the office and breakfast room meant about a 350 step walk.
Hotel breakfasts - we don't generally use them unless we're staying in a place for several days. Often times, on travel days, we leave as they are opening or even (as in Holbrook) long before the breakfast room opens. The breakfast room was open at Shamrock and indicated that there was "breakfast to go". The Lake's Quality used to serve a great breakfast which included biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, either bacon or eggs; since COVID-19 hit, they've reduced themselves to the same bagged "breakfast to go" that every other hotel has gone to.
For dinner on Thursday, though, we were on our own. Hubby felt like going to a bar, probably because the Lake was "wide open". We drove into Osage Beach and went to Backwater Jack's for dinner. Food was okay, just bar food, but the drink he ordered was amazing. We took the empty container with us and eventually gave it to our granddaughters to play with. Oh, if the name sounds familiar, Backwater Jack's was the place reported as a "super spreader" last Memorial Day weekend. Don't ask the staff about it. They all rolled their eyes.
Photo of the day: the drink we shared at Backwater Jack's.
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