2025 Summer Road Trip – Part 2

Sometimes you just need to hit the road, to get away and get back to your roots. For me, the towns of rural America is my roots. As successful as last year’s road trip through Kansas was, I decided to take another this year, but through the Show Me State. There were a number of communities in Missouri that I had been eyeing to check out for a while now, and this past August, I got my chance.

Provided below is the second part of my summer road trip. To read up on the first part, you can check out 2025 Summer Road Trip – Part 1.

Hermann, Missouri

My first stop of the day was in the town of Hermann (@VisitHermann), just south of the Missouri River. This town of roughly 2,200 sits in the heart of the Missouri Rhineland. They don’t shy away from letting others know this either. The link to visithermann.com specifically states: Visit Hermann The German Town in Missouri. Between their German heritage and the glut of wineries in and around the community, Hermann is a Destination Town with plenty of draws for visitors.

During a nice afternoon right before Labor Day, Hermann was busy with throngs of visitors walking the sidewalks. It was an ideal day and the community was benefiting from it. The shops and restaurants along 1st Street were quite busy. Nearby, tourists lounged in outdoor seating at the Hermannhof Winery as they sipped on the winery’s offerings. Not only did the town have a definite German feel, but it was also clearly welcoming to visitors.

Perched above the Hermann City Park rests the historic Hermann Rotunda. Built in 1864 for the whopping cost of $2,000, the rotunda was used as an exhibition hall for agricultural fairs and other community events. The unusual octagonal shape of the rotunda was traditional for barns in northern Germany.

It’s highlighted in my article on Missouri’s DREAM program. The program helped the community acquire funding to renovate the unique structure. Still in use, it can now be rented out as an event space.

Sitting atop a hill near the western edge of town is Stone Hill Winery. According to their website, Stone Hill is the most awarded winery in Missouri. In addition to tours of the winery and tastings, there’s a retail store and an outdoor seating area that looks over the vineyards and for miles towards downtown and beyond. Though the vineyard’s grounds are quite a distance from downtown, there is ample parking as well as a trolley that serves it. This trolley also serves six other wineries and the five distilleries in and around Hermann as well.

New Haven, Missouri

My next stop of the day was New Haven. With the great weather that weekend, I thought it would be a sure bet that New Haven would be hopping, much like Hermann. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. The town has a nice little downtown area between the railroad and the Missouri River. It is quite obvious they’ve made a number of improvements to their downtown, with more planned. But it was quite dead. Most of the businesses downtown were closed. It was a Sunday, though, and the townspeople may be perfectly fine with it. It shouldn’t be a slight to the community to not have businesses in their downtown seven days a week.

Despite the relative lack of activity, New Haven’s downtown is a great little gathering of structures along the shores of the river. Several well-maintained buildings front streets with period lighting and good landscaping. Pinkney Bend Distillery and Paddle Stop Brewery are nice draws to the community.

There’s also Astral Glass Studio, a park, and a memorial to John Colter. John was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but is known best for the exploring he did after that famous expedition. Considered one of the first mountain men, he became the first person of European descent to explore the area now known as Yellowstone National Park and to see the Teton Mountain Range.

New Haven is also home to the Riverside Short Film Festival. Each year, the festival furthers the art and craft of filmmaking by supporting, promoting, and recognizing the art of short film and its artists.

An Abrupt Pit Stop

Unfortunately, my time wandering through Missouri had to take a pit stop. The thermostat on my truck broke at some point in the morning, and my truck started showing the impacts as I was driving to New Haven. After letting it cool off in New Haven, I limped it down to Washington, the next town down the road, and the one most likely to have a shop that could get it in…two days later. That’s what happens when you break down on the Sunday of a road trip over Labor Day weekend!

More to Come…

After two days in Washington, I was ready to hit the road again. Due to time constraints (I do have a regular job to get back to), I had to remove a few of the towns from my list. However, there’s more from Missouri to see. Check out next week’s post as I wrap up the Summer 2025 road trip!