2025 MOORE Expo and Midwest Discovery Route (Kansas City)

[85_Ranger4x4]

MOORE EXPO OVERLANDING AND OFF-ROAD EXPO // APRIL 25-26, 2025 // SPRINGFIELD, MO

Join us at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds, the premier destination for overlanding & off-road enthusiasts in the Midwest.

mooreexpo.com

We stayed at SMORR

Due to rather limited cargo room in the Bronco and rather limited seating in the Ranger... we did the right thing and just drove both.

We struck off Thursday after work with the plan to hit Lee's Summit (east of Kansas City) for the night. That would put us within 10mi of the starting point of the Midwest Discovery Route.





Ended up with a vibration in the front so we pulled over almost into Missouri and I rechecked the wheel torque. Then I remembered I added 5psi to all the tires after winter... so I dropped the 5psi and it was much better.





Made it to the hotel for the night.



Gorgeous view from our room!





Little guy shifted to my truck after we got thru driving interstates in the dark in the rain in big cities.



Starting point was at The Battle of Lone Jack memorial.









Memorial for the Confederates on the right, Union on the left.



There was a small museum, it wasn't open yet when were there though.



This poor tree...



Kind of funny, these things are just catching on around home. They are called some variation of "Missouri Rock Crossing" depending on who you are talking to. And Missouri is actually full of them.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

There was a facebook group for the route, we happened to run into them along the way. Not sure if we could have came up with a more diverse group of trucks if we tried...

























Then we stopped for a break at a park.














We didn't quite finish the route, it was starting to get late and we had to go about an hour beyond the finish point to set up camp yet. It was a lot of fun though.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Set up camp basically in the dark which is always fun.

One thing that is neat about SMORR, night rides are common. The camera did a nice job of making it look otherwise but it was almost dark when these guys were headed out behind our camp.



That next morning a friend that lives in the area swung by and hung out for awhile which was a lot of fun.

Then we did some rock crawling while waiting for breakfast burritos.











I need to do some googling on this... that is a winch mounted on the (un)capable bumper. I have never seen that before. Kind of weird had my wife's Cactus Gray Black Diamond Bronco ahead of me and a second Cactus Gray Black Diamond Bronco parked beside me.



I didnt see anything close the age of my truck in the parking lot LOL





New Land Cruisers







There was a lot more, thats all we walked by

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Not very overlandy but cool anyway.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

If wishes were fishes...



That was a really cool idea...







Kinda neat, this guy came up with the discovery routes. Neat to see another first gen out there. Talked to him for awhile, super cool guy.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Back to camp.







There was a Jeep club having a big shin ding, they had a big grill going and music. Looked like fun.









Steak sandwiches for supper



We had the stuff for smores... but no sticks. Life finds a way...



The ol' Coleman 228 didn't miss a beat.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

It rained all night which you can't beat for sleeping in a tent. Tent did great for keeping the rain out... but somehow a pole broke while were there. It was raining off and on that morning. Rather than wait for it to end or carefully roll the tent up... just kinda loosely folded it and threw it on top the totes in the back of the Ranger and beat it out of there.





Landed at Waffle House for breakfast.



Then to Bass Pro because why not?















The NRA has a really cool firearm museum there. Lots of historical pieces. The movie gun section was really cool though.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

My dad's favorite movie when we were kids, I am pretty sure we watched it enough I could act the whole thing out.

















After that it was time to get headed back north again. Swung into Sugerfoot BBQ for lunch, it was really good.



And then Mexican in St Jo.



After a certain point... this was a relief.



And finally... home.



It took about 12 hours but we didn't really stay on task super great. We blew a couple hours at Bass Pro alone.

 

[TripLeader]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

 

[4runnerteq]

Cool. You guys didn’t camp at the fairgrounds? Kept an eye out for ya. We were up at the top of the hill against the fence.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Cool. You guys didn’t camp at the fairgrounds? Kept an eye out for ya. We were up at the top of the hill against the fence.

We camped at SMORR, it's a lot cheaper. Especially when we ran two rigs. We really like their campground too.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I did get a video of most of the group crossing that old bridge. In addition to sounding horrible I could feel it moving around as well.