You don't have to see the reborn "Oklahoma" musical, now back on the Broadway boards, to know that everything is up to date in Kansas City. Because it is, always has been, always will be, they say in the "Show Me" state of Missouri (where the real Kansas City is located, in my admittedly prejudiced opinion). In addition to big "thea-aye-ters and burley-cue," Missouri now has its very own, and quite sophisticated, network of Bed & Breakfast inns, some as cheap as $50 a night per room.
You can get a free brochure from the B&B Inns of Missouri, then plan your trip to nearly anywhere in the state, which they conveniently divide up into five districts: Central, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. In the Central area, around the state capital of Jefferson City and the university town of Columbia, you can find rooms as low as $50 at the Cliff Manor B&B Inn, Jefferson City, which boasts a hot tub and an inroom fireplace for its higher-priced lodgings, ranging as high as $120.
In the Northeast, LulaBelle's, in Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal on the Mississippi River, has rooms ranging from $60 to $125, and also sports a hot tub. Kansas City, in the Northwest, has several inns, the lowest-priced being the Mulberry Hill B&B, which charges from $60 to $110 per room, also claiming a hot tub on the premises.
In the Southeast, you could stay in Kimmswick (24 miles south of St. Louis) in an historic inn, the Wenom Drake House, again from $60. At least one of the rooms has a fireplace. In the tourist-heavy Southwest, there are a dozen inns in Branson, home to so much country music, where the Lakeshore B&B has rooms starting at jut $55.
You can get a copy of their nicely-illustrated brochure, showing all 90 inns throughout the state, by writing to Bed & Breakfast Inns of Missouri, 204 E. High Street, Jefferson City MO 65101-3207, phoning them at 800/213-5642 or going to their Web site, www.bbim.org. The Web site can be searched by city, region, map or amenities, and there are full descriptions of each property as well.