Before You Go

• To plan your summer souvenir hunt, stop by your nearest AAA service office for maps, TripTiks and TourBook guides. Or, go to our online Auto Travel section.

By Margaret Dornaus
Published: Jul/Aug 2001

Before the era of frequent flyer programs, e-tickets and congested airports, summer vacations were leisurely drives across landscapes punctuated by catchy Burma Shave signs. Roadside attractions–from dinosaur parks to reptile zoos–beckoned travelers to explore a town’s sights before loading up the station wagon with souvenirs.

This year, spark your family’s vacation by returning to little-known locales and celebrated cities in the Midwest. This collection of late-summer getaways (while not definitive) encourages taking a piece of the road-once-traveled. Return home with a few trinkets to keep the memories alive past Labor Day.

For fans, baseball is summer and those exploring Midwestern major league stadiums can purchase an endless variety of mementos. Whether it’s a ticket stub to file between the pages of a scrapbook, a wacky, giant foam finger or something in between, there’s a wealth of souvenirs for sale in and around the Midwest’s most famous ballparks. Visit related museums or gift shops at Comiskey Park (Chicago White Sox), Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City Royals) and Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals) in between innings.

After a Royals game, visit another great Kansas City institution, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, located at 1616 E. 18th St. Photographs, videos and a wide range of other exhibits chronicle the contributions made to baseball by Negro Leaguers, including Buck O’Neil, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. The gift shop includes everything from posters and books to figurines and baseball cards.

At the Hoosier Bat Company, get a major league bat to go with that ball snagged from your seat in the stands. Tour the factory in Valparaiso, Ind., located 50 miles east of Chicago, that manufactures baseball bats for stars like Sandy Alomar and Sammy Sosa (he hit homers 64–66 in 1998 with a Hoosier bat). Then, pick out your own all-ash bat, or a patented three-wood beauty featuring an ash handle, a hickory sweet spot and a maple barrel end. Miniature bats also are available.

More Indiana picks

Mention Indiana and two words immediately spring to mind: basketball and racing.

At the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle, experience a collection of exhibits, photos, videos and memorabilia that celebrates the sport Hoosiers adore. Step into an interactive locker room to hear one of coach John Wooden’s inspirational pep talks before dribbling down gift shop aisles for an assortment of basketball-related items.

When in Indianapolis, don’t pass on the opportunity to explore The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum (4790 W. 16th St.). Here, more than 75 race cars–including the yellow Marmon “Wasp” that won the first Indy 500 in 1911–are on display. Although too big for your pocket (and too pricey for your pocketbook), many of the prize-winning racers are for sale in miniature at the museum’s gift shop.

Follow the buggy trail

In addition to an inherent enthusiasm for sports, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri are home to large Amish communities.

In northern Indiana, stop by Elkhart County Visitors Center for a free audiocassette or CD (compact disc) driving tour that will guide you through back roads in search of handcrafted quilts and furniture.

Jamesport in northwest Missouri hosts the largest settlement of Amish in the state. Explore area farms and handicraft stores with Hook & Eye Dutch House & Tour Service, which conducts 2 1/2 hour guided tours through the region from March through December. Reservations are required.

The neighboring towns of Arthur and Arcola comprise the greatest concentration of central Illinois’ Amish population. Shops in Arthur feature an assortment of local crafts–from oak furniture to fresh baked goods–as does the Illinois Amish Interpretive Center in Arcola.

Missouri pipe dreams

You don’t have to be a pipe smoker to admire the quirky history behind the world’s oldest manufacturer of corn cob pipes, the Missouri Meerschaum Company, located in the charming Missouri River town of Washington west of St. Louis. Here, displays depict the history of such famous pipe smokers as Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Missouri Meerschaum manufactured the general’s signature corn cob pipe to precise specifications. An assortment of inexpensive corn cobbers–easily converted into bubble pipes–is for sale at the factory store.

Washington is also the gateway to Missouri’s Weinstrasse, a wine trail that flows through the Missouri River valley along a portion of the KATY Trail State Park. Four family-owned wineries–Augusta, Blumenhof, Montelle and Sugar Creek–offer visitors a wide range of tastings and wine-related gifts.

In Missouri’s Ozarks, Bass Pro Shop’s Outdoor World store in Springfield makes even the steadiest angler’s head reel. In addition to its huge stock of sports-related items, the store includes four aquariums. Don’t miss daily fish-feeding shows at the main aquarium before searching for brightly colored jigs to catch your own supper.

Between Springfield and Rolla, motorists can’t miss the billboards for walnut bowls. Shepherd Hills Factory Outlet in Lebanon (exit 127 off Interstate 44) carries walnut bowls, knives, china, pottery and more.

Little House rambles

Missouri and Kansas offer Laura Ingalls Wilder fans the chance to visit homes immortalized by the “Little House” author. In Mansfield, Mo., the Laura Ingalls Wilder/Rose Wilder Lane Museum & Home illuminates the history of Wilder’s years as a writer. The Little House on the Prairie site in Independence, Kan., was the first of many homesteads the Ingalls’ family settled during their trek across America. Browse the gift shops at both locations for special “Little House” editions.

Kansas sightings

In the tradition of Chicago’s “Cows on Parade” exhibit, the Swedish community of Lindsborg has corralled traditional Dala horses to greet this summer’s visitors. A town icon since the 1940s, the brightly painted, wooden horses epitomize Swedish hospitality.

In a prairie state where farmland yields bushel after bushel of the nation’s wheat, not even the chaff is wasted. Ornaments and dolls are just two of the handmade items typifying Kansans’ love affair with wheat. Shop for these and other crafts distinctive to the Sunflower State at any of four Kansas Originals Markets displaying the work of homegrown artists in Wilson, Wichita, Towanda and Lawrence.

South of Oz

It may be Kansas, but the small southeastern town of Sedan lays claim to the longest Yellow Brick Road this side of Oz. Add your name to the brick walkway that meanders through downtown for a souvenir other visitors can enjoy. A summer festival and a Main Street gift shop offer opportunities for finding all things Oz, from ruby slipper suckers to T-shirts sporting Toto.

You can follow another road (the “Mother Road”) through Kansas, Missouri and Illinois by commemorating the 75th anniversary of Route 66. In St. Louis, a favorite confection is a concrete from Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. The real milkshake will melt before returning home, so buy a concrete made of–what else–concrete.

Bits and pieces

Visitors to Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, Mo., can take home a souvenir photo of themselves whitewashing a fence. /Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau photo

Need more inspiration? Head to Hannibal, Mo., for Mark Twain memorabilia. At Mark Twain Cave, children can whitewash a fence and take home a souvenir photo. Five new, permanent exhibits will open at the Mark Twain Museum, which sports a spiffy gift shop.

Take back a piece of the rock (limestone) from Bedford, Ind., a community famous for helping to construct such monuments as the Empire State Building. Fly through Superman’s adopted hometown of Metropolis, Ill., for commemorative comic books and a packet of kryptonite. Or mosey over to Dodge City, Kan., for a deputy sheriff’s badge you can pin on your shirt whenever you feel like rounding up desperadoes.

Before summer slips away, round up the family and find perhaps life’s most precious souvenirs–a season of memories.

Margaret Dornaus is a contributor from Springdale, Ark.