May 9, 2026
Dear Adventure Avenues,
Ever since I was little, I have wanted to go to Missouri. I know that may seem a bit odd, but I am a HUGE Little House on the Prairie fan, and Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the books in her home in Mansfield, Missouri, just an hour outside Springfield, Missouri. This trip is making little me soooo happy!
Day 1: Flight in & Springfield Cardinals Game
The day started out with a super early flight out of Ontario, California. We took a 6 AM flight out to DFW. Since Ontario does not have an American Airlines lounge, we had to settle for Chick-fil-A at 4:30 in the morning as we waited to board our flight.
I thought there was no way that I would be able to get an upgrade because I am only platinum status on American right now. However, after we had boarded, I saw the flight attendant talking to a couple in front of us asking if one of them wanted to move to First class but they said no. I knew this meant that I was next in line so I was gonna get upgraded. Sure enough they came over and asked me if I would like to move to first class and of course I said yes!
I enjoyed my fruit plate in first class and then we landed at DFW and headed to the American Airlines lounge where we waited for our flight into Springfield, Missouri. Our flight was slightly delayed, but we still got to Springfield within 10 minutes of our original arrival time.
We then picked up our rental car from National and drove to our hotel room in Springfield. We were staying at the Doubletree Springfield airport hotel in Springfield, Missouri.
My dad and I had agreed if we weren’t too tired and our flight wasn’t delayed, then we would go to a Springfield Cardinals game. Lucky for us. We still have plenty of time before the baseball game in order for me to buy tickets and for us to make our way over there.
I got us super good seats right next to the Cardinals dugout in perfect view of home plate. These tickets cost $52.06 total for 2 tickets, which I thought was a STEAL!!
We arrived at Route 66 stadium (recently named this as it was previously something else) and paid the $10 to park in the lot across the street. We were there about an hour before the game which we figured would be plenty of time (which it was), but the line to get into the stadium was super long. It was a giveaway night so that could have been why. (We got a free Tshirt that says Coca-Cola on it).
The seats we got were in the sun when we arrived, so we grabbed hot dogs and ate those in some different shady seats while the sun moved enough for us to go to our sheets – which were as close as I’d hoped.
The game was high energy with an almost fight by the Cardinals coach with the umpire who didn’t see the batter get his foot hit by the ball. I could hear the coach yelling that’s how close we were.
My dad also got us an ice cream in a helmet to split which was about a 3 scoop sundae.
It was a high scoring game, but in the end the cardinals pulled off a win!
My dad and I headed back to our conveniently located hotel after the game and called it a night!
Until tomorrow,
A