Touching down at Joplin Regional Airport in Joplin places you close to cities like Springfield, Tulsa, and Bentonville, all easily reachable. Joplin sits at the corner where Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas meet, a Route 66 town that grew up on lead and zinc mining. The feel today is friendly and unpretentious, with a rebuilt downtown, a strong arts scene, and the Ozark foothills starting just east of the city.

Worth your time in Joplin: - Snap a photo at the Route 66 Mural Park on Main Street - Walk to Grand Falls, the largest continuously flowing natural waterfall in Missouri - Explore the chert glades and creek trails at Wildcat Glades on Shoal Creek - Look at the Thomas Hart Benton mural inside City Hall, his last big work - Dig into mining history at the Joplin History and Mineral Museum in Schifferdecker Park - Catch a show or exhibit at the Spiva Center for the Arts in the Cornell Complex - Tour the George Washington Carver National Monument near Diamond, about 20 minutes away

Carthage, twenty minutes up the road from Joplin, has a grand Victorian courthouse square and the Precious Moments Chapel. Pittsburg, Kansas, is half an hour west and famous for a pair of rival fried chicken restaurants that have faced off for decades. Grand Lake in Oklahoma is under an hour for boating, Springfield is a bit over an hour east, and Crystal Bridges in Bentonville makes an easy ninety-minute museum day. Around Joplin the local order is a family-style chicken dinner with German potato salad, and the local pastime is ticking off four states in one afternoon.