On the Road to Missouri

With no jacks down or slides out, it's fast and easy to leave a camp site. So we headed out of Twin Bridges State Park, heading towards a new state for the motor home. Even though Mark and Denisa have traveled in Missouri many times, this was the first time that our motor home had crossed over this state line since we started this journey over three years ago. Since we are on a back road, the state line sign was not very impressive, flanked by two beer sale signs.

We are headed towards Camp Mi Casa on Route 66 for a couple night's stay at their half-price Passport America rate. But once again, we're not putting out slides because we want to be ready to move at any time if we get the phone call that our granddaughter is about to be born. Camping along Route 66 means that there are some tourist sights in our neighborhood, and of course we needed to see them all. We were amazed to see a long line of cars pulled off Route 66 right by our campground. What could be so important that so many people would be lining up?

We are just down the road from the Route 66 Drive-in, one the last of the original theaters along this historic road. It's a popular place to be on the weekends--especially when the double feature includes the Avengers and Black Panther movies. We saw cars lining up at 4 p.m. This time of year, that's a long time before dark when the drive-in movies start.

Before there was a famous highway, there was a railroad that ran through this part of the state. That railroad has since closed, and has become a rail-to-trails bike path.

Just over a mile from our camp site, we found a trail head for the Ruby Jack Trail. It was a beautiful weather day, and we headed down the bike path for a nice ride. The rock surface doesn't allow for any coasting, so we were pedaling even on slight declines.

This is her first time on a bike since Denisa's crash. As we went up the first incline, her bike chain locked up and refused to turn. Bike parts get rusty and cantankerous from being in the weather on the back of our car. Denisa suddenly had a sense of deja vu, as she remembered the same thing happening as she went up that steep incline when she fell off the top of the wooden bridge. Now she seems sure that her clutzy riding-skills weren't totally responsible for her crash. It seems that equipment failure also helped. Once she found a gear that her rusty chain seemed satisfied with, we had a pleasant ride on down the wooded trail.

We planned to ride about four miles, then turn back towards home. But we kept riding to the little town of Oronogo, hoping it would be a worthwhile destination. Then we realized that the nice breeze that was pushing us there, became a head wind that we had to pedal against for the seven miles back to the car. We kept ourselves busy counting wildlife crossing the trail in front of us--15 cardinals, 5 rabbits, and 1 imaginary lizard (that Mark saw and Denisa did not).

We got some good exercise, even though we have to admit it was a pretty boring ride. The three pictures we used for today's blog all look alike, even though they were taken miles apart. We both decided that a 14-mile bike ride on a rock trail might be too far for people old enough to be grandparents at any moment. We have another day of activities planned around Carthage, unless we get that phone call tonight.