Gritty industrial: A "loft district" is sprouting up in downtown St. Louis, which always makes us very excited and jealous.

You can't go home again: The 2200 block of Carr Street in St. Louis, where the Corrigans and Slatterys lived from 1850s until the 1870s. This probably isn't the same building.

Signage 1: Driving across Missouri is such that this is an exciting sign.

Signage 2: But at least there's always Stuckey's.

Arthur Bryant's: If you go to Kansas City, you've got to eat barbecue. And that means Arthur Bryant's. Not at lot of atmosphere, but if you want to eat half a pig or cow, this is the place to do it.

Bryant's 2: A small bite to eat.

By the side of the road: The Swayback Cemetery, in Linn County, Kansas, with a plot right next to US-69 where a number of Jacqueline's Hibbard ancestors are buried.

JD in her element: Yes, another cemetery, but honestly, how many more times in our lives are we going to be driving through Trading Post, Kansas? Here we found gravestones for JD's Storm ancestors, including her great-great-great grandfather. (We're sparing you pictures from the third cemetery of the day, even though we found JD's great-great-great-great Hibbard grandparents there.)

Born in a small town: La Cygne, Kansas, a pretty unremarkable town, but with great flags!

Boutique hotel, KC-style: The Phillips Hotel in downtown Kansas City was definitely the most upscale overnight stay of our trip.

Phillips 2: Someday we'll look at this picture and probably giggle about how it's so dated, so "Early 2000s Pottery Barn." But right now we're suckers for it, in hotels anyway.

Phillips 3: Three pictures of this hotel is probably overkill, but it's better than showing you pictures of the dinky casino where we lost money and ate a horrible dinner.