The heartbeat of the highway continues through its shopkeepers, motorcyclists, and road-trip travelers.
Route 66 is more than neon lights, diner bites, and highway sights; it is also the people behind the Mother Road. Behind the glitz and glam of the age, the iconic culture and timeless history of the route were built on the backs of hardworking average Joes. Today, the Route continues to be preserved by stewards with the same heart and hospitality of those along Route 66 when it was first paved. Meet the people along Route 66 and embrace their stories, which include authentic hospitality, road-trip adventures, and historic stops given new life.
Donut Drive-In, St. Louis
Inside a narrow donut shop brimming with trays of fresh pastries and furnished with steel countertops dotted with pieces of dough, Nova Dent stood behind a glass display case.
Nova, a gentle-spoken employee of Donut Drive-In in St. Louis, started working at the shop a few years ago to get free donuts while on the clock. He didn’t hesitate jump in and start chatting about his love for the donut shop, beginning with its legacy.
“We opened in 1953, and not much has changed. We still hand cut all of our donuts. Our donuts might vary a little in size, but that is because everything is done by hand.”
He works Monday through Friday each week, and one of his favorite parts of working for a legacy business is the regulars who visit the shop. “There are some customers I see every day, and there are customers I see twice a day. One of my people who comes in twice a day never gets a donut; the customer just gets coffee.” No matter the weather, the dedication of the shop’s customers stays the same. “It’s funny, if it gets gloomy or rainy or snowy, our business goes up,” Nova laughs. “I always figured it would be the exact opposite.”
While Nova doesn’t really like coffee, he occasionally enjoys a cup of the fresh-brewed coffee from Donut Drive-In. Its coffee is so well known that it is advertised on every donut box: “Serving the best coffee in town.”
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis
Travis Dillion, owner of Ted Drewes Frozen Custard shop for the past 12 years, slid a metal cuff onto a bright yellow paper cup. Inside the bustling shop, Travis, wearing a yellow Ted Drewes baseball cap, placed the cup under the custard machine and held on tight as it filled with the creamy dessert. Despite being the owner, Travis acted as if he were just another employee as he handed the custard to a customer on the other side of the shop’s window.
Ted Drewes was started in 1929 by Ted Drewes Sr. and grew to have two locations in St. Louis. The business was then passed down to Ted Drewes Jr., Travis’s father-in-law. Both Ted Drewes locations, housed in buildings with small serving windows and faux icicles dripping off the roofs’ overhangs, have welcomed famous visitors such as John Goodman and Katy Perry and been featured in major news outlets like The New York Times. Even though Ted Drewes is world renowned, when Travis married Ted Drewes Jr.’s daughter, Christy, in 1977, he “didn’t know anything about the family business” and worked as an
accountant at the time.
“When we got married, my wife made me promise not to get into the family business because she knew what it was like, meaning you talk about it every time you get together, and it’s seven days a week of work,” Travis said.
Despite the promise, Ted Drewes Jr. asked Travis to help part-time as needed. As the business grew, so did the need for help. “Over time, it grew on me, and I got involved slowly,” Travis says. “Here I am 50 years later, and I am still involved.”
Travis learned his business model from Ted Drewes Jr.: be an active participant in the business. “You can look at almost any family business that you come across; they are involved,” Travis said. “If you want that business to be successful, you have to be there. It is not the type of business where you can stand back and watch everyone else work.” Most days, Travis can still be found working at the shop and handing out the custard upside down—because it’s so thick—with a smile.
Uranus Fudge Factory and General Store, St. Robert
Outside the Uranus Fudge Factory and General Store jail exhibit, Laura Huffman, marketing manager for Uranus, popped out from around the corner. Laura, who has an Aquarius horoscope sign, started working for Uranus in 2021. “Aquarius is ruled by the planet Uranus. If I had known that, I would have started working here sooner,” she said.
She wore a bright tie-dye T-shirt that stood in stark contrast to the dark, empty jail exhibit beside her. The jail features a metal bar maze and photo opportunities. “Welcome to Uranus!” she exclaimed while gesturing to a strip mall of wacky installations, a sideshow museum, miniature golf, neon signs, and a candy and souvenir store.
After a warm welcome, she started casually chatting about Uranus’s history while strolling through the campus of curiosities. As she peered inside the sideshow museum, which fea- tures live two-headed animals such as two-headed turtles, she explained that Uranus, located in St. Robert near Fort Leonard Wood, was started by Uranus’s mayor, Louie Keen, in 2015.
“Louie purchased the property and actually started it as an adult cabaret,” Laura said. “Those are the types of businesses you would normally find outside the main gates of military installations at that time. That is what made the money possible for us to be able to build Uranus.”
It is not entirely clear what inspired the cheeky name for Uranus, but of course, people have their speculations. “I think he was just sitting around with his buddies one day, and they were cracking jokes, and the next thing you know, he built this,” Laura said.
Laura, with a red-and-blue Route 66 tattoo on her arm, finished her tour by proudly opening the door to the restroom of the candy store, which features a detailed mural of aliens. As she did, she mentioned that Uranus has quickly become one of the most visited attractions on the entire Route 66 highway. Laura thinks people are attracted to the globally known Route 66 stop because it offers so many attractions. As Laura says, “It’s the sum of the parts.”
Fanning 66 Outpost & Feedstore, Cuba
A shadow from the world’s second-largest rocking chair blanketed the Fanning 66 Outpost & Feedstore in Cuba. The rocking chair, which was completed on April Fools’ Day in 2008, is an iconic symbol of the Mother Road in Missouri. While many Americans traveling Route 66 in Missouri like to stop here for a photo opportunity, Ryan Thompson, owner of the outpost and the rocking chair, said most visitors to this towering piece of furniture are from other countries.
“Ninety to 95 percent of our visitors are international,” said Ryan, who purchased the outpost in 2017.
“I think we just don’t learn about Route 66 like they do. I grew up outside St. Louis, and I bought this place just to sell popcorn. I never expected Route 66 to be what it is.”
Ryan explained that with the majority of visitors being international, the pandemic hit Route 66 attractions hard.
“Old owners of attractions could just sit on their porch and enjoy it. But us newcomers have to make those mortgage payments, so you better do something to make money,” Ryan said.
The trading post sells Route 66 memorabilia, gourmet popcorn, and boutique-style clothing. It also has a feedstore in the back; the previous owner used that space as an archery hobby area.
“Everywhere is seeming to close,” said Jennifer Brennan, Ryan’s girlfriend, referring to Route 66 attractions. Ryan then chimed in that international travelers still love Route 66, “It really hasn’t died. It’s only in the US that it has.”
In front of a painted Route 66 mural on the side of the outpost, Ryan finished the conversation by smiling and waving at a passing car as he said, “I’m here for the people who drive down the road.”
Wagon Wheel Motel, Cuba
The double yellow lines on a freshly paved Route 66 highway in Cuba separated the glow of the Wagon Wheel Motel sign from Chris and Cheryll Dill, who were parked alongside the highway on their motorcycle. Arms outstretched, Chris took a photo of the iconic sign from afar.
After snapping a photo, Chris drove the motorcycle in front of the iconic sign to take another.
The retired couple is from Oklahoma and was driving Route 66 throughout the country.
“We are doing it one piece at a time,” Chris said with a smile and slightly southern twang.
So far, the couple had already completed Route 66 from Oklahoma to Arizona.
“We eventually want to go all the way on Route 66,” Cheryll said. “Our plan is to eventually visit all the states in the US. We’ve done almost all the states in the middle. We still have to do all the corners.”
They have road-tripped to almost 40 states.
The couple was staying in room 11 at the almost-empty Wagon Wheel Motel. Chris, a former police officer, had a fatherly presence, and Cheryll acted as his right-hand woman. Both of them had kind eyes.
“We got inspired by Facebook and following famous motorcycle rides,” Chris said. “I mean, any biker will tell you to do this ride.”
Before they rode off in a cloud of dust toward their room for the night, Cheryll added, “It’s nice to be able to stay off the beaten path and go through little towns like this. I mean, all those murals down the road,” she smiled in awe. “The whole town is covered with them.”
Gary’s Gay Parita, Ash Grove
Gary’s Gay Parita in Ash Grove, a replica Sinclair service station, has a web of trinkets and character. The amount of things to touch and see is seemingly endless: a four-foot tall lime green dinosaur, windows plastered with stickers from across the world, an old-school phone booth decked out in vintage Superman memorabilia, gleaming vintage gas station pumps, rusted vintage cars, stoplights flashing yellow, green, and red, and a small antique child’s carousel. Michelle and Jeremy McGaw were traveling Route 66 especially to find treasure troves like this.
The couple—who are from a small town in New York that has fewer than 1,000 people— was traveling Route 66 through Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. This was the first Route 66 stop on their trip after flying into Springfield. “I told him we just have to turn around to see this,” Michelle said. Usually, Michelle, who is trying to visit all 50 states, travels with just her four daughters, but the couple was celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary solo.
“It’s easier without the kids sometimes,” Jeremy said. “They might be interested for one minute to take a picture of a car, but they don’t care as much about the history of it.”
Michelle takes about six trips a year, yet Jeremy typically tags along on only one or two of them, he said. Michelle can travel so much because the couple owns several small busi- nesses that offer flexible scheduling, such as a food truck, storage units, an ATM corpora- tion, and a furniture store they run part-time out of their house. “A lot of it is done so we can be with the children,” Michelle said.
With her daughters, Michelle has traveled along Route 66 through California, Arizona, and Nevada. “You know they watched Cars growing up,” Michelle said, while standing next to a cardboard cutout of Tow Mater from Cars. Michelle attributes her daughters’ interest in the Mother Road to the popular Disney/Pixar film.
All photos by Andrea Kaneko
This article was originally published in the February 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
