July 16, 2024 • 15 mins
On this episode of "Judi with an i for travel", we discover not just a hidden gem in the heart of the Ozarks, but a staycation vacation that is affordable and for everyone! Wether you are a hiker, mountain biker, lake loving floater, kayaker, camper, historian, love to shop, love unique and quaint shopping experiences and so much more!
You will fall in love with West Plains, Missouri! Judi sure has and now that she's been there once, she'll be going back again and again!
Listen to this episode with Melissa Whorton from the West Plains travel and tourism and you will be iching to dive into all that West Plains, Missouri has to offer!
AND make sure to subscribe to "Judi with an i..." because you never know what gems you'll discover when you get on the road with the diamond girl!
GET your FREE beautiful travel and guide book for West Plains, Missouri right to your mail box! Just go to their online site and request the book, in of itself a keepsake! Go to West Plains Website HERE!
You will fall in love with West Plains, Missouri! Judi sure has and now that she's been there once, she'll be going back again and again!
Listen to this episode with Melissa Whorton from the West Plains travel and tourism and you will be iching to dive into all that West Plains, Missouri has to offer!
AND make sure to subscribe to "Judi with an i..." because you never know what gems you'll discover when you get on the road with the diamond girl!
GET your FREE beautiful travel and guide book for West Plains, Missouri right to your mail box! Just go to their online site and request the book, in of itself a keepsake! Go to West Plains Website HERE!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well look at you. You stumbledupon Judy with an Eye for Travel podcast.
Thank you so much for joining me. I'm your host, Judy Diamond,
and today we're with Melissa Wharton withWest Plains Missouri. We're about to
travel to places we've never heard ofbefore, all these wonderful hidden gems.
So buckle up because we're going toWest Plains. I had never even heard
(00:20):
of West Plains, Missouri, andjust by going on your website, I
see all these hidden gems just waitingto be discovered. So let's start with
where is West Plains, Missouri?So West Plains is about three and a
half hours from Saint Louis. Weare down in the center part of the
state, but only about twenty milesfrom Arkansas. We're in the southern part
of the state. It's an easydrive from Saint Louis. You go down
forty four to Urala and then takesixty three south on into West Plains.
(00:44):
Super easy little getaway to the beautifulOzarks. When your little vak is over,
you don't have that far of adrive to get back home. I
love that. I love the ideabehind that and some of the things that
I noticed on the website is there'sso many any things to do there that
basically you're going to hit up everybody, whether you're a family with young kids,
(01:06):
teenagers, young couples, newlywedge retirees, girls weekend, guys weekend,
or the ever popular family reunions.I mean, it really is for just
about everyone. What Melissa is themost popular attractions would you say? We've
recently added a lot of murals,and we have a group that is very
actively working hard to revitalize our downtowndistrict. It is a historic district with
(01:30):
about close to fifty different buildings onthat National Registry. We've got some great
dining options downtown. Now, we'vegot a lot of events that are centered
downtown. Some cool things you cango throw access in the building where Porter
Wagner used to work in the grocerystore there and on his break he would
stand out on the corner and playhis guitar. So there's a lot of
(01:52):
fun things to do downtown. Wehave a lot of unique shopping as far
as boutiques and flea markets and thingslike that, wide variety of restaurants,
local businesses, and we do havea lot of local business a lot of
entrepreneurialship in West Plains. It hasbeen a really big entrepreneurial community. We
would love for people to come andstay here, you know, do your
(02:13):
shopping, do your dining, butthen also take our suggestion on about five
different day trips that you can takeand just go out and drive and see
the beautiful Missouri Ozarks. We've gotthose crystal clear, bright blue rivers and
streams. We have a lot ofhiking trails. We're surrounded by Marshwayne National
Forest. We have a pretty bigmountain biking community here that keeps part of
(02:38):
the Ozark Trail cleared for mountain biking. We have horseback riding on the trail
as well. That group has alsoestablished a mountain biking trail in one of
our city parks and they do aweekly ride on Thursdays and love to have
people join them. Getting out gettingon the rivers. You can travel and
see eleven historic watermills around and it'sjust a neat part of history. It's
(03:00):
something that anybody of all ages whenyou start really diving into that history of
those mills and towns that have justtotally disappeared, you know that used to
be thriving in a center part oftheir community. It's really neat to kind
of dig into that and see thathistory. I love hidden gems. I
love finding them. And there wasa study I was reading that said even
(03:21):
if parents take the kids I thinkit was twice a year, get them
out of the house to somewhere nearor close to it within their state,
that their mental health when they getolder is like sixty or seventy percent better
or something like that. It's becausewe're all on our devices. The only
way we're going to get out ofthis mental health issue crisis is to reconnect.
(03:43):
Whether it's with our family or yourparents or your friends. We need
to get out and connect, andI think this is a great way to
do it. I love the ideaof taking kids hiking and then showing them
some of the history. I alsolove the idea of getting my friends together,
the girls and just going on alittle day or in overnight. Yeah,
and we can definitely help you withall of those different things. We
(04:06):
have some beautiful hiking trails and whereyou end up it's just amazing. One
of my favorites is hiking down toGreer Spring. It's a little bit less
than a mile hike, going downa breeze. Coming back up it's a
little bit more difficult. But itis the second largest spring in Missouri,
which is one of the largest springsin the world. Massive spring that is
(04:28):
in the bottom of this ravine,you know, so it's a very small
space that all this water is comingout, but it is just it's breathtaking
any time of the year. Imean, you don't have to just visit
in the summer. Fall hikes,fall motorcycle rides on our curvy highways that
we have around here are great.I love to you know, even when
it snows, we get out andgo down to the different mills and the
(04:49):
springs because it's beautiful in the snow. And so there's a lot of outdoor
things to do and a lot ofhistory to discover. There's also a lot
of history to discover right here inWes. We've had some unique situations.
We had a historic marker put upa couple of years ago for Polly the
parrot. She spoke like to havevisitors and sing along when somebody play the
(05:12):
piano. And she is a nonhuman that's buried in our city cemetery,
where as we know, the onlynon human that's buried in cemetery that you
know that we know of. Andthen you know, kind of more on
the tragic side. In nineteen twentyeight, so we're coming up on almost
one hundred year anniversary of the BondDance Hall explosion. There were thirty eight
(05:38):
people killed, you know, severalinjured. It was kind of a really
changing part of West Plain's history becausethere were so many young, upcoming,
prominent people that were killed in thatand to this day we still that is
a mystery that's not solved. Wow. I love learning about that kind of
stuff in history, and you know, it's what makes a community that robby
(05:59):
stuff. Yeah. And then alsolike Sheriff Kelly was shot by member of
the Mall Barker Gang all on thatsame street, like right where the I
think East Main may be cursed.So oh man, I'll love to walk
in and see if I found anythingat Paliyuigi's. You know, yes,
definitely. I love that they have. We have like a history tour that
you can do, and we've gota guidebook that we put together every year.
(06:21):
It's one hundred and twelve pages,so it's quite an undertaking. I
would love to send guidebooks out toyour listeners. It's free of charge.
All they have to do is goto our website, which is explore Westplaines
dot com and there's a form onthere they can fill out and I will
get a guidebook in the mail andthey can start planning their trip here and
again it'll be in the show notes, so you'll be able to just click
(06:43):
on the link as well. Ihighly recommend it. We didn't even talk
about fishing yet, or boating oryou know, getting out and camping.
Do you have a lot of differenttypes of camping or is it just tent
or are there RV there's several RVparks. There's a lot of outfitters and
resorts down on the rivers. Andwhen I say rivers, I'm talking Norfolk
Rivers about twenty minutes from West Plainsand that's going to be to our west.
(07:05):
And then on the eastern side wherewe like to send people to,
you know, the rivers and themills and stuff too. On that side
you've got the Jacks Fork, theCurrent, and the eleven Point. Wow.
So there's four river options fairly closedresorts you know that have cabins,
tent camping, RV parking, allof that West Plains also had. We
(07:27):
have six hotels. We have justunder four hundred hotel rooms, and we
do have a pretty active Airbnb offeringsto here in town. I think there
should be something for everybody, youknow, depending on what type of experience
you want to have. What wouldyou say is some of the things that
you hear when visitors come, andyou know that surprises them the most things
(07:48):
that you hear. We're here atthe Welcome Center, so we have visitors
every day traveling, you know,from all all different states coming through,
most of them. Our surprise thatyou know, Porter Wagner was from here,
Van Dyke was born here. We'vegot, you know, baseball legends,
Preacher Row and Bill Verdon both haveWest Plains ties, so that's kind
of always something that they're surprised tosee. We've got one of Porter Wagoner's
(08:11):
suits here in our case, andwow, I think it's one of the
last suits that he had ordered.It's beautiful. The beadwork is just amazing
on it. I think most ofwhat people are shocked to find about West
Plains is that there is so muchavailable. We are the largest town in
one hundred mile radius in Missouri.We do have very large healthcare system.
We've got all these businesses and factoriesand things like that. But there is
(08:35):
a lot of amenities here for atown of twelve thousand that you typically don't
find. Again, this show goesout to all over and because it is
in the middle of the United States, it's pretty much a great road trip
from just about anywhere. And partof the fun is the road trip right
on that road and eating the junkfood and even you know, stopping at
(08:56):
places that you just these little treasuresand what would be some of the things
that you would suggest for a family. Let's say there's a ten year old
and a twelve year old and youknow tweens can be what do you do
you see or recommend for families?Well, I totally would want them to
stay here in West Plains at oneof the hotels. They're going to have
easy access to all sorts of differenttypes of food to please those different the
(09:20):
kids that want different things. Andthen we've got some activities here in town
that they can do. We've gota movie theater, we've got a skating
rink, we've got ax throwing.If you're here in the fall, we
have an amazing pumpkin patch just westof town. It has all sorts of
different activities. There's things to dohere. Get out and see the art
that's around town. Possibly catch aconcert or a play. We've got Avenue
(09:45):
Theater, which is a historic theaterin downtown that has different productions. Our
Civic Center we bring in concerts andlarger events like that. But then definitely
take one of those road trips oneor two and get out and see the
out doors and hike down to aspring and you know everything. You know,
for that young family, for theretired people, there's so many of
(10:07):
these things that you can go visitthat it is basically I mean, you
pull up and park. It's nota very far walk or sometimes it is
right there. So you know,even if you have some accessibility issues,
a lot of these things are goingto be available for you to go and
see. Is this the kind ofthing like if you want to go to
one of the parks or the lakes, is there an entrance fee for all
(10:28):
the places or do you just likeyou said, just go apart. I
can't think of any of our placesthat's in our book in the outdoors that
has an entrance fee. Wow,it is very rural. You're talking about
unconnecting or unplugging, but you willdefinitely have to unplug in a lot of
these locations because you are not goingto have service. So a beautiful thing
it is. It is. Youknow, there's so many different springs,
(10:52):
so many of the mills, Turnermills. One of my favorite. There
is a twenty five foot huge wheeljust standing on its own in this little
spring runoff that goes into the elevenpoint. So I'm thinking of all the
selfies. Oh yeah, a lotof pictures you could take. And I
love the idea of there's a lotof times the grandparents during especially the summer,
(11:13):
but even in the fall a yearround, are watching the grandkids.
It's really great when they're bored.I'm bore Gramma, I'm bore Grandpa,
and they're like, what do wedo? Well, let's go, let's
go, let's go day. Isay, overnight. Take them overnight,
give the parents a break would beamazing. And there's so many things you
could do. I mean, Ilike the idea of staying in a hotel
(11:35):
downtown. And then I love havingmy car and then I can go and
drive to any of the lakes oror hikes or whatever, because I camped
as a kid and I would doit again. But you know, I
kind of like hotels just getting startedbecause I'm going to be taking a little
trip there a few of them.What would you suggest the first thing that
I should go see? I mean, I'm so excited. There's I mean,
(11:58):
there's five different loops that I cansuggest, and depending on you know,
some are longer, some are shorter. Some you can do, you
know, just in a half aday. You know, Gosh, I
would want you to do all fiveof them when you're here, but you
would need some time. But yeah, you could knock a couple of them
off on just an overnight visit.It's perfect. I love that. And
it's safe, which I love thattoo. Yes, And that's another thing
(12:20):
about finding these hidden gems. Itseems to me whenever I go to these
kind of communities, they really watchout for each other. We do,
we definitely take care of each otherdown here West Plains, Missouri. If
you are listening to this, there'sso much to do there. We've just
gotten started. And Melissa, what'sthat website explore westplanes dot com. You're
gonna have all sorts of photos ofall the different locations. You'll have turn
(12:43):
by turn directions if you like tohave a paper version of that, especially
if you're out on the road andyou don't have sales service. When you
get so far out, be sureand go on our website and request that
guidebook. We will mail you onefor free, and all of it has
turned by turn directions, all theinformation you to get you started on the
(13:03):
historical aspects of the mill, howmuch water is produced daily at the springs.
I mean, it's just it's anamazing world out there, and we
live in a beautiful, beautiful partof it. I'm excited to share it.
And if you are looking to eithera family reunion or maybe a wedding,
because I know, I'll bet youthere's a ton of locations that are
so beautiful, and there are somewedding venues here that are just fabulous.
(13:26):
Are there wineries or distilleries? Thereis one winery. It is in Mountain
View, Missouri, which is abouttwenty minutes from West Plains. And then
we've got a couple of breweries herelocally. And you had the Clydesdales in
we did we had the eclipse comethrough in April and we got the Clydestales
down here for that week of theeclipse and it was it was amazing act.
(13:48):
That's how special West Plains is.We had a Neon parade on that
Saturday night the eclipse, and itwas our town just really went all out
the floats that they came up with. We had an eighties theme and a
sci fi theme, and then theClydesdales were in the parade and the Budweiser
distributor here, he was like,we know how much work you and my
(14:09):
assistant put in on the eclipse,and so they let us ride the Budweiser
wagon in the parade. No isYeah, it like a bucket list thing.
Yeah, that is fantastic. Yeah, it was very little. We
had a balloon glow and I thinkthat event is going to become an annual
event in the summer and fall eventscoming up. So you said, Pumpkin
(14:31):
Patches, do you have any kindof fares or festivals for fall? We
have a fall block party that's onour downtown historic district. I believe it
is on September fourteenth. They'll havelive music and vendors and food, trucks
and all that. But yeah,our full event calendar is on our website
and then on social if they'll followus on Facebook, we post a weekly
(14:54):
post on Tuesdays that list all ofthe upcoming events for the week. I
highly suggest you follow them and allso that you go online, get that
free guidebook. You're gonna want togo, see everything. You're gonna want
to go more than once. Yeah, every season, I'm there, I'm
ready. All right, Well,we're excited to have you, Melissa.
Thank you so much, and I'msure we'll talk again soon. All right,
thank you, Thank you so much. Melissa Wharton with West Plains,
(15:18):
Missouri. Find out all the informationabout West Plains in the show notes and
their website. This has been theduty with an Eye for Travel podcast,
showcasing local and regional travel destinations.Leave your comments, maybe you know some
hidden gems, and remember, subscribeand follow where the Eye for Travel goes
next. It's a real trip.
Well look at you. You stumbledupon Judy with an Eye for Travel podcast.
Thank you so much for joining me. I'm your host, Judy Diamond,
and today we're with Melissa Wharton withWest Plains Missouri. We're about to
travel to places we've never heard ofbefore, all these wonderful hidden gems.
So buckle up because we're going toWest Plains. I had never even heard
(00:20):
of West Plains, Missouri, andjust by going on your website, I
see all these hidden gems just waitingto be discovered. So let's start with
where is West Plains, Missouri?So West Plains is about three and a
half hours from Saint Louis. Weare down in the center part of the
state, but only about twenty milesfrom Arkansas. We're in the southern part
of the state. It's an easydrive from Saint Louis. You go down
forty four to Urala and then takesixty three south on into West Plains.
(00:44):
Super easy little getaway to the beautifulOzarks. When your little vak is over,
you don't have that far of adrive to get back home. I
love that. I love the ideabehind that and some of the things that
I noticed on the website is there'sso many any things to do there that
basically you're going to hit up everybody, whether you're a family with young kids,
(01:06):
teenagers, young couples, newlywedge retirees, girls weekend, guys weekend,
or the ever popular family reunions.I mean, it really is for just
about everyone. What Melissa is themost popular attractions would you say? We've
recently added a lot of murals,and we have a group that is very
actively working hard to revitalize our downtowndistrict. It is a historic district with
(01:30):
about close to fifty different buildings onthat National Registry. We've got some great
dining options downtown. Now, we'vegot a lot of events that are centered
downtown. Some cool things you cango throw access in the building where Porter
Wagner used to work in the grocerystore there and on his break he would
stand out on the corner and playhis guitar. So there's a lot of
(01:52):
fun things to do downtown. Wehave a lot of unique shopping as far
as boutiques and flea markets and thingslike that, wide variety of restaurants,
local businesses, and we do havea lot of local business a lot of
entrepreneurialship in West Plains. It hasbeen a really big entrepreneurial community. We
would love for people to come andstay here, you know, do your
(02:13):
shopping, do your dining, butthen also take our suggestion on about five
different day trips that you can takeand just go out and drive and see
the beautiful Missouri Ozarks. We've gotthose crystal clear, bright blue rivers and
streams. We have a lot ofhiking trails. We're surrounded by Marshwayne National
Forest. We have a pretty bigmountain biking community here that keeps part of
(02:38):
the Ozark Trail cleared for mountain biking. We have horseback riding on the trail
as well. That group has alsoestablished a mountain biking trail in one of
our city parks and they do aweekly ride on Thursdays and love to have
people join them. Getting out gettingon the rivers. You can travel and
see eleven historic watermills around and it'sjust a neat part of history. It's
(03:00):
something that anybody of all ages whenyou start really diving into that history of
those mills and towns that have justtotally disappeared, you know that used to
be thriving in a center part oftheir community. It's really neat to kind
of dig into that and see thathistory. I love hidden gems. I
love finding them. And there wasa study I was reading that said even
(03:21):
if parents take the kids I thinkit was twice a year, get them
out of the house to somewhere nearor close to it within their state,
that their mental health when they getolder is like sixty or seventy percent better
or something like that. It's becausewe're all on our devices. The only
way we're going to get out ofthis mental health issue crisis is to reconnect.
(03:43):
Whether it's with our family or yourparents or your friends. We need
to get out and connect, andI think this is a great way to
do it. I love the ideaof taking kids hiking and then showing them
some of the history. I alsolove the idea of getting my friends together,
the girls and just going on alittle day or in overnight. Yeah,
and we can definitely help you withall of those different things. We
(04:06):
have some beautiful hiking trails and whereyou end up it's just amazing. One
of my favorites is hiking down toGreer Spring. It's a little bit less
than a mile hike, going downa breeze. Coming back up it's a
little bit more difficult. But itis the second largest spring in Missouri,
which is one of the largest springsin the world. Massive spring that is
(04:28):
in the bottom of this ravine,you know, so it's a very small
space that all this water is comingout, but it is just it's breathtaking
any time of the year. Imean, you don't have to just visit
in the summer. Fall hikes,fall motorcycle rides on our curvy highways that
we have around here are great.I love to you know, even when
it snows, we get out andgo down to the different mills and the
(04:49):
springs because it's beautiful in the snow. And so there's a lot of outdoor
things to do and a lot ofhistory to discover. There's also a lot
of history to discover right here inWes. We've had some unique situations.
We had a historic marker put upa couple of years ago for Polly the
parrot. She spoke like to havevisitors and sing along when somebody play the
(05:12):
piano. And she is a nonhuman that's buried in our city cemetery,
where as we know, the onlynon human that's buried in cemetery that you
know that we know of. Andthen you know, kind of more on
the tragic side. In nineteen twentyeight, so we're coming up on almost
one hundred year anniversary of the BondDance Hall explosion. There were thirty eight
(05:38):
people killed, you know, severalinjured. It was kind of a really
changing part of West Plain's history becausethere were so many young, upcoming,
prominent people that were killed in thatand to this day we still that is
a mystery that's not solved. Wow. I love learning about that kind of
stuff in history, and you know, it's what makes a community that robby
(05:59):
stuff. Yeah. And then alsolike Sheriff Kelly was shot by member of
the Mall Barker Gang all on thatsame street, like right where the I
think East Main may be cursed.So oh man, I'll love to walk
in and see if I found anythingat Paliyuigi's. You know, yes,
definitely. I love that they have. We have like a history tour that
you can do, and we've gota guidebook that we put together every year.
(06:21):
It's one hundred and twelve pages,so it's quite an undertaking. I
would love to send guidebooks out toyour listeners. It's free of charge.
All they have to do is goto our website, which is explore Westplaines
dot com and there's a form onthere they can fill out and I will
get a guidebook in the mail andthey can start planning their trip here and
again it'll be in the show notes, so you'll be able to just click
(06:43):
on the link as well. Ihighly recommend it. We didn't even talk
about fishing yet, or boating oryou know, getting out and camping.
Do you have a lot of differenttypes of camping or is it just tent
or are there RV there's several RVparks. There's a lot of outfitters and
resorts down on the rivers. Andwhen I say rivers, I'm talking Norfolk
Rivers about twenty minutes from West Plainsand that's going to be to our west.
(07:05):
And then on the eastern side wherewe like to send people to,
you know, the rivers and themills and stuff too. On that side
you've got the Jacks Fork, theCurrent, and the eleven Point. Wow.
So there's four river options fairly closedresorts you know that have cabins,
tent camping, RV parking, allof that West Plains also had. We
(07:27):
have six hotels. We have justunder four hundred hotel rooms, and we
do have a pretty active Airbnb offeringsto here in town. I think there
should be something for everybody, youknow, depending on what type of experience
you want to have. What wouldyou say is some of the things that
you hear when visitors come, andyou know that surprises them the most things
(07:48):
that you hear. We're here atthe Welcome Center, so we have visitors
every day traveling, you know,from all all different states coming through,
most of them. Our surprise thatyou know, Porter Wagner was from here,
Van Dyke was born here. We'vegot, you know, baseball legends,
Preacher Row and Bill Verdon both haveWest Plains ties, so that's kind
of always something that they're surprised tosee. We've got one of Porter Wagoner's
(08:11):
suits here in our case, andwow, I think it's one of the
last suits that he had ordered.It's beautiful. The beadwork is just amazing
on it. I think most ofwhat people are shocked to find about West
Plains is that there is so muchavailable. We are the largest town in
one hundred mile radius in Missouri.We do have very large healthcare system.
We've got all these businesses and factoriesand things like that. But there is
(08:35):
a lot of amenities here for atown of twelve thousand that you typically don't
find. Again, this show goesout to all over and because it is
in the middle of the United States, it's pretty much a great road trip
from just about anywhere. And partof the fun is the road trip right
on that road and eating the junkfood and even you know, stopping at
(08:56):
places that you just these little treasuresand what would be some of the things
that you would suggest for a family. Let's say there's a ten year old
and a twelve year old and youknow tweens can be what do you do
you see or recommend for families?Well, I totally would want them to
stay here in West Plains at oneof the hotels. They're going to have
easy access to all sorts of differenttypes of food to please those different the
(09:20):
kids that want different things. Andthen we've got some activities here in town
that they can do. We've gota movie theater, we've got a skating
rink, we've got ax throwing.If you're here in the fall, we
have an amazing pumpkin patch just westof town. It has all sorts of
different activities. There's things to dohere. Get out and see the art
that's around town. Possibly catch aconcert or a play. We've got Avenue
(09:45):
Theater, which is a historic theaterin downtown that has different productions. Our
Civic Center we bring in concerts andlarger events like that. But then definitely
take one of those road trips oneor two and get out and see the
out doors and hike down to aspring and you know everything. You know,
for that young family, for theretired people, there's so many of
(10:07):
these things that you can go visitthat it is basically I mean, you
pull up and park. It's nota very far walk or sometimes it is
right there. So you know,even if you have some accessibility issues,
a lot of these things are goingto be available for you to go and
see. Is this the kind ofthing like if you want to go to
one of the parks or the lakes, is there an entrance fee for all
(10:28):
the places or do you just likeyou said, just go apart. I
can't think of any of our placesthat's in our book in the outdoors that
has an entrance fee. Wow,it is very rural. You're talking about
unconnecting or unplugging, but you willdefinitely have to unplug in a lot of
these locations because you are not goingto have service. So a beautiful thing
it is. It is. Youknow, there's so many different springs,
(10:52):
so many of the mills, Turnermills. One of my favorite. There
is a twenty five foot huge wheeljust standing on its own in this little
spring runoff that goes into the elevenpoint. So I'm thinking of all the
selfies. Oh yeah, a lotof pictures you could take. And I
love the idea of there's a lotof times the grandparents during especially the summer,
(11:13):
but even in the fall a yearround, are watching the grandkids.
It's really great when they're bored.I'm bore Gramma, I'm bore Grandpa,
and they're like, what do wedo? Well, let's go, let's
go, let's go day. Isay, overnight. Take them overnight,
give the parents a break would beamazing. And there's so many things you
could do. I mean, Ilike the idea of staying in a hotel
(11:35):
downtown. And then I love havingmy car and then I can go and
drive to any of the lakes oror hikes or whatever, because I camped
as a kid and I would doit again. But you know, I
kind of like hotels just getting startedbecause I'm going to be taking a little
trip there a few of them.What would you suggest the first thing that
I should go see? I mean, I'm so excited. There's I mean,
(11:58):
there's five different loops that I cansuggest, and depending on you know,
some are longer, some are shorter. Some you can do, you
know, just in a half aday. You know, Gosh, I
would want you to do all fiveof them when you're here, but you
would need some time. But yeah, you could knock a couple of them
off on just an overnight visit.It's perfect. I love that. And
it's safe, which I love thattoo. Yes, And that's another thing
(12:20):
about finding these hidden gems. Itseems to me whenever I go to these
kind of communities, they really watchout for each other. We do,
we definitely take care of each otherdown here West Plains, Missouri. If
you are listening to this, there'sso much to do there. We've just
gotten started. And Melissa, what'sthat website explore westplanes dot com. You're
gonna have all sorts of photos ofall the different locations. You'll have turn
(12:43):
by turn directions if you like tohave a paper version of that, especially
if you're out on the road andyou don't have sales service. When you
get so far out, be sureand go on our website and request that
guidebook. We will mail you onefor free, and all of it has
turned by turn directions, all theinformation you to get you started on the
(13:03):
historical aspects of the mill, howmuch water is produced daily at the springs.
I mean, it's just it's anamazing world out there, and we
live in a beautiful, beautiful partof it. I'm excited to share it.
And if you are looking to eithera family reunion or maybe a wedding,
because I know, I'll bet youthere's a ton of locations that are
so beautiful, and there are somewedding venues here that are just fabulous.
(13:26):
Are there wineries or distilleries? Thereis one winery. It is in Mountain
View, Missouri, which is abouttwenty minutes from West Plains. And then
we've got a couple of breweries herelocally. And you had the Clydesdales in
we did we had the eclipse comethrough in April and we got the Clydestales
down here for that week of theeclipse and it was it was amazing act.
(13:48):
That's how special West Plains is.We had a Neon parade on that
Saturday night the eclipse, and itwas our town just really went all out
the floats that they came up with. We had an eighties theme and a
sci fi theme, and then theClydesdales were in the parade and the Budweiser
distributor here, he was like,we know how much work you and my
(14:09):
assistant put in on the eclipse,and so they let us ride the Budweiser
wagon in the parade. No isYeah, it like a bucket list thing.
Yeah, that is fantastic. Yeah, it was very little. We
had a balloon glow and I thinkthat event is going to become an annual
event in the summer and fall eventscoming up. So you said, Pumpkin
(14:31):
Patches, do you have any kindof fares or festivals for fall? We
have a fall block party that's onour downtown historic district. I believe it
is on September fourteenth. They'll havelive music and vendors and food, trucks
and all that. But yeah,our full event calendar is on our website
and then on social if they'll followus on Facebook, we post a weekly
(14:54):
post on Tuesdays that list all ofthe upcoming events for the week. I
highly suggest you follow them and allso that you go online, get that
free guidebook. You're gonna want togo, see everything. You're gonna want
to go more than once. Yeah, every season, I'm there, I'm
ready. All right, Well,we're excited to have you, Melissa.
Thank you so much, and I'msure we'll talk again soon. All right,
thank you, Thank you so much. Melissa Wharton with West Plains,
(15:18):
Missouri. Find out all the informationabout West Plains in the show notes and
their website. This has been theduty with an Eye for Travel podcast,
showcasing local and regional travel destinations.Leave your comments, maybe you know some
hidden gems, and remember, subscribeand follow where the Eye for Travel goes
next. It's a real trip.
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