After a day in Columbia, Missouri, we are heading further west and enjoying the rock walls and fall foliage here in central Missouri. We had beautiful blue skies, but once again we have gusty winds on a travel day. Welcome to the Midwest!
With the wind, we're glad that we're only driving about thirty minutes to our new campsite at the Katy Roundhouse Campground in New Franklin, Missouri. This picture was taken as the sun was setting over the campground. But it also pictures the main reason it is so popular. It is situated on mile 189 of the Katy Trail--Missouri's longest and most popular bike trail.
Besides riding bikes, we took a road trip to check out our surroundings. We're only a mile through the woods from the Missouri River, and three miles down the road from the little town of Boonville. As proof that Daniel Boone's family spent time in the area, we also made the trip to Boone's Lick State Historic Park. After driving for miles down narrow country roads, we then hiked to a secluded spot in the forest. This is where Daniel Boone's sons set up Missouri's first industry--producing salt. The spring water is salty here, and when the water was boiled away, it left the precious salt needed for preserving meat. We were disappointed that almost all evidence of the salt production is now gone, and we were just left with a walk in the woods.
After church the next day, we headed out on the Katy Trail. We could have started right at our campground, but since the bikes were on the rack attached to the car, we decided to drive them to the trail head in New Franklin. That will save ourselves a couple miles of pedaling.
The Katy Trail uses the trail bed of the former KT railroad, and it's the longest-continuous rail bed conversion path in the country. We love these rails-to-trails routes because they are so flat. Trains like inclines less than 2 degrees. The same could be said of Denisa's biking preferences.
This trail runs 240 miles--the entire width of the state of Missouri. We obviously won't be riding that far, but many people do. Our campground is a great stop for those people camping their way along the Katy Trail. This section closest to New Franklin runs along the edge of corn and soy bean fields.
We took a break from the bikes to wander along a path that runs perpendicular to the Katy Trail. The trail led to a camping site for those hardy riders going the entire distance. It also led to a creek where we realized we weren't alone.
It's a little blurry, but the wildlife picture of the day is an entire group of river otters, playing on the log right in front of us. Once they noticed us watching them, they dove silently into the water to continue their antics.
The further we rode our bikes, the taller the stone cliffs beside the path grew.
About nine miles into our ride we got to the only railroad tunnel on the entire Katy Trail.
On the other side of the tunnel is the Rocheport Depot and the next trail head. This would be a great place to start a short ride, because the scenery is so pretty here. Rocheport also caters to bikers, with places to stay and/or eat right along the trail.
We had to ride a little further to get our best look of the wide Missouri River, but it was certainly worth it. Just like the Mississippi, we saw that waters of this major river have flooded into farm land and low places in this area.
And that ride east of Rocheport also offers some of the tallest cliffs right beside the trail.
When you have the river on your left and the tall stone cliffs to your right, you know you are having a wonderful bike ride. It feels like we have wandered into another of God's wonders today.
We had several stops on the way back home, to rest our weary legs. We love the Katy Trail, but we've been spoiled with paved bike trails this summer. This rock trail means that you are pedaling 100% of the time. This was another resting place--this beautiful old tile granary is the only thing left of the tiny town of Pierson along the trail.
We're glad that we made it all the way to the Missouri River today, but the constant pedaling almost did Denisa in. By the time we got back to New Franklin, we had ridden 21 miles, and none of it was down hill. She was certainly glad that we opted to start at the trail head instead of the campground to save those two miles. We don't think she had another two miles in her! We have conquered another segment of the Katy Trail, so it is once again time to head down the road. We're pretty excited about the next wonder that we are wandering toward!
When we tried to get reservations at a campground near Columbia, Missouri, the woman on the other end of the line chuckled. They had been reserved up for months because this is homecoming weekend at the University of Missouri. With that nugget of information, we decided to boondock at Cracker Barrel in Columbia, and take in the homecoming festivities from there.
We started with the Friday evening event at Greektown. By walking up and down the streets in front of the sorority and fraternity houses, we could see the colorful displays they built for this event. We figured out that the homecoming theme was "Game On, Tiger Strong!" We soon found that most people lovingly call this university "Mizzou." We also figured out that the Mizzou tiger mascot was named Truman. Getting all that local knowledge helped to make more sense of the bright displays we were enjoying.
Each group started with a board game, and made its theme the upcoming homecoming football game. Some of the games were a little awkward since it was the University of Missouri tigers vs. the University of Memphis tigers.
Hasbro would be proud to see so many of its games become giant boards for homecoming.
After sunset, the crowds got bigger. The hay bales in front of the displays were filled with spectators as the large-scale games were "played." We noticed that the Mizzou tigers always won each board game.
We finished our evening at the student union on campus, eating with the students for another taste of college life. Let's just say that the single cafeteria option that we had when we were in college is long gone from the campuses of today. We had a hard time choosing from all the choices available to the students.
The next morning we were up early to get a spot on the curb for the homecoming parade.
We watched as the long line of Mizzou band members marched by, led by not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR drum majors.
The Missouri School of Veterinarian Science had a team of horses pulling the school's wagon. We really liked the tiger stripes painted on the golden horses' legs to make them look more like the school's mascot.
Since we go to so many parades, we have to note our favorite give-away at each. For the Missouri Homecoming parade, the best was a bag of kettle corn compliments of the alumni association.
The same greeks that built flat game boards in front of their houses for last night, are also showing off the float versions of the same games.
We saw the battleship game last night, and a new version of it is rolling down the parade route. The fraternity and sorority members are following the floats, yelling greek letters in chants. We got the loudest cheering from the floats and the best performances from the bands because we were situated right beside the "judge zone" which they were trying to impress.
Since we're not familiar with the local spirit calls, we weren't aware that when someone yells "M-I-Z" the appropriate response is "Z-O-U!" Since Mark misunderstood the Mizzou chant, the first time he thought they were yelling, "M-I-C" so he robustly responded with, "K-E-Y!" He figured out pretty quickly that was not very Missourian of him.
This Chutes-and-Ladders float is decorated by six columns, and we didn't understand that local landmark until we took a tour of campus later.
It was a beautiful blue-sky day at the quadrangle on campus. That's where we found the six columns from the Academic Hall, the first building at Mizzou. When it burned down in 1892, only these columns were left standing. The plan was to bull-doze them, but a group of fans fought for them to remain on campus. That was a good decision. Today they are a great gathering place in the middle of campus. Mark is almost lost with the crowds taking pictures today. If you're playing "Where's Marko," here's a clue: he's in the lower right hand corner.
Facing those columns is another iconic building on campus. Hanging from the front portico is a new source of pride for the University of Missouri this year. One of their faculty received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies."
It was a great weather day for a homecoming, even for wanderers like us that have never been on this campus before. But we still enjoyed the architecture and the festivities.
We were filled with Mizzou spirit, but didn't have tickets for the football game. So we moved the motor home from its spot at Cracker Barrel, and headed down the road to more adventures, still singing the theme from the Mickey Mouse Club--M-I-Z "zee you real soon" K-E-Y "Why? Because we like you!"
We are making our way across Missouri, and today's travel took us right into the heart of the state. When Missouri was shopping for a home for their capitol, they wanted a central location, high on the bluffs over the Missouri River. Such a town didn't exist, so a new city was born right around the new state capitol. We are in Jefferson City, the state capitol of Missouri, where all our pictures today will be covered with scaffolding and plastic because of a comprehensive refurbishing plan.
This is actually the third state capitol building. After the first two burned down, the Missouri legislature approved this stone and steel structure that has stood the test of time. Now in need of a face-lift, we though it was interesting to see that the only thing visible from this side was the city's namesake--a statue of Thomas Jefferson. The bad news is we couldn't see the grand staircase and the majestic entrance that usually surrounds President Jefferson.
The good news is that the refurbishing is only happening outside. The inside of the capitol looks good, and the rotunda is too tall to be captured in one picture.
We enjoy state capitol tours, because we always learn so much about the culture and history of the state. For example, we see that the state has deep roots in Christianity with the rotunda decorated with "LORD GOD OF HOSTS BE WITH US YET, LEST WE FORGET." We also learned that while the state wanted grand murals decorating that rotunda, they wouldn't pay to bring a European artist all the way to Jefferson City. So these unusually-shaped murals were painted on canvas in Europe, and then attached to the walls.
That same thrifty mind-set is in use today. This huge room is the chamber of the House of Representatives. Since they are recessed this time of the year, this expansive room is not lighted, even though there are tour groups entering every thirty minutes. This is the second-largest of all the state capitols, so saving a little on the lighting bill is good fiscal policy.
Murals adorn many of the walls in this huge capitol building. Our tour guide invited us to sit in the House of Representatives waiting room, where this mural encircled the room. This larger-than-life mural was the work of Thomas Hart Benton, a very famous artist that also just happens to be a native Missourian. Our guide pointed out the different historical events that the mural depicts, and how those events affected Missouri. There is a mistake in this section of the mural, and Mark spotted it right away. We'll give you a few minutes to spot it yourself.
The picture above is less than a quarter of the mural that encircles the large room. Mr. Benton used real people as models for this picture painted in 1936. Our tour guide mentioned that the little boy on the ground visited the capitol not long ago. He is now 91. The baby getting his diaper changed is a local, and is now 83.
We know you are still wondering what the mistake in the mural is. But in the meantime, our tour of Jefferson City continues. Lewis and Clark followed the Missouri River on their expedition to the west, so they are immortalized on this bluff overlooking the river.
We are surprised to see that some of the bright-colored annual flowers are still blooming here. But we have to say that the bright-colored fall leaves are prettiest right now.
Just down the street from the capitol is the governor's mansion, all decorated in fall finery like pumpkins and mums.
We enjoy visiting state capitols and mansions, but Tripadvisor says that the #1 thing to visit in Jefferson City is neither of those. It is the prison! The Missouri State Penitentiary was in the business of incarcerating maximum security prisoners from 1836 until 2004. With that long history, it has many stories to tell. We got a peek at some of the stories when we walked through the museum housed in the warden's old home across the street. We didn't take the 2-3 hour tour of the prison, but it really gets good reviews.
Our motor home is parked at the Cracker Barrel in Columbia, Missouri. So after our tour of Jefferson City we made a stop for a hike on our way back to Columbia. We are in the Rock Bridge State Park, where we hiked to--you guessed it--the rock bridge. That big rock ledge behind Denisa is the opening to a cave with an exit on the other side that bridges to another section of the park.
We really like Missouri State Parks because they don't charge admission fees, making this quick hike a cheap possibility. The board walk took us down many stairs to the opening of yet another cave.
If we would have had more time (and the required three light sources for each person) Mark would have loved to go spelunking through this cave system.
This underground cave runs for 6.5 miles in this area. A river runs through the cave, making it necessary to swim or canoe through many sections. There are also sections like this one, where the cave roof has collapsed allowing some light in. It looks like quite an adventure!
It was an interesting park, and a beautiful place for a hike on a cloudy day. We had lots of stairs and changes in elevation, as we can see Denisa high up on the rocks from where Mark was standing near the caves.
Have you figured out the mistake in the mural at the state capitol? Since you have been so patient, we reward you with the tale of the mistaken tail. The tour guide pointed out the old plow, that the artist originally intended to be pulled by an oxen. But when he changed it to a mule, he forgot to change the back end of the animal. That is definitely not a mule's tail! And that's the end of our tale of the tail we saw during our trip to Missouri's state capitol.
We just traveled through Illinois--"The Land of Lincoln." We have now determined that eastern Missouri must be "The Land of Mark Twain." On this edge of the state, we spent the day in Hannibal, Missouri, to explore all things Twain.
We bought groupon tickets for the Mark Twain Museum, which includes his boyhood home. The picture above is the kitchen of the two-story white house where a little boy named Samuel Clemens spent most of his youth. The picture below is the outside of young Samuel's boyhood home.
That ornery little boy had a knack for getting in trouble, but then finding his way out of it. Samuel Clemens's pen name would become Mark Twain, and his childhood would become fodder for the antics of a character named Tom Sawyer. A display in the museum reminds us of the day that Tom Sawyer's punishment was white-washing the fence, but he manged to talk his young friends into doing the work for him.
A statue in town reminds us of the two mischievous boys with ties to Hannibal. That's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn on that pedestal beside Mark.
Our museum ticket also took us to the homes of two of Samuel Clemens's friends when he grew up in Hannibal. They also would become characters in Mark Twain's books. We went to Huck Finn's house . . .
as well as Becky Thatcher's house. In celebration of the success of Tom Sawyer's adventures, this entire section of town has been restored to the way it looked when Samuel Clemens was a boy back in the mid-1800s.
Of course the author changed all of his characters' names. In fact, he changed his own name when he started writing. After a time on a Mississippi River Boat named "Alonzo Child," Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain.
We never knew where that new name came from, but we learned about it in one of the museums in Hannibal. Because the Mississippi River has tricky shallow areas, a leadsman is assigned to the front of the boat holding a long rope with a lead weight attached.
The rope had knots tied in it at regular intervals, so the leadsman could tell how deep the water was according to how many knots were under water. If two knots were under water, that was two fathoms or a "mark twain." So it was a good thing when the captain heard the leadsman sing out, "Mark Twain!" because that meant the river was deep enough to handle the bow of the river boat safely. We learned something new today!
After great success with Mark Twain's books, his publishing company sent Norman Rockwell to Hannibal, to get a feel for the town. His assignment was to paint pictures to illustrate the reprint of the book "Tom Sawyer." The picture below is Norman Rockwell's version of that white-washed fence chapter.
Before he died, Mr. Rockwell donated these priceless originals (in both pencil and oil) to the museum in Hannibal. He knew this city would take care of them since they love all things about Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain.
For example, this city built a lighthouse at the top of the hill overlooking Hannibal in honor of Mark Twain.
We walked up all 244 steps to get to the lighthouse. As proof of our accomplishment, we have the refrigerator magnets provided by the Hannibal visitor's center for hardy visitors like us.
Our walk to the lighthouse took us high above the Mississippi River, for this view of the Mark Twain Bridge. Did we mention that this town loves their favorite author?
For shoppers, this little town also offers a nicely restored historic downtown where every store front offers another shopping experience.
We ate at the Mark Twain Diner, home of the tenderloin sandwich that far exceeds the bun!
In the last blog we showed the flood gates that are protecting this downtown section of town. When we got to the fringes of town, we saw that the flooding waters of the Mississippi River are covering lots of real estate. For example, at the sports complex they are thinking of adding water polo, and taking basketball from the list of sports available here.
We found out that Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was actually born in a little two-room shack 15 miles from Hannibal.
The little shack was moved to the nearby state park, so it could be carefully preserved.
This building was actually built around the little shack, and the Mark Twain Memorial Shrine also includes a museum.
The museum includes bits of memorabilia from the Clemens family. One interesting piece was this button string from Mrs. Clemens. Young women of the 1800's collected pretty buttons and threaded them onto a string. Legend has it that after collecting 99 buttons, her love would appear.
Wait! Did we make a wrong turn? Aren't we in Missouri?!?
The only turn we made was to arrive at the tiny town of Florida. The marker below is actually in Forida, Missouri, the location of the little shack where Mark Twain was born before it was moved to its new site at the shrine.
After a long day of touring all things about Mark Twain, we headed back to our camp site at Mark Twain Landing Campground, just down the road from Mark Twain Lake and around the bend from Mark Twain Cave. Yes, this part of Missouri loves Mark Twain!
