Well, today is the big day. We’ll reach maximum westness while doing a giant U-Turn through Oklahoma and Kansas, then point towards home ending up in Branson Missouri. If it goes as planned that will put us about half a state north and a little east of our starting point this morning.
Ok, time to move. A little dicey down the driveway, supper steep then right (not left up 6200 😉 and a climb out of the valley and up on the ridge line. A little mountain road to be sure, and quite steep too, but nothing like yesterday. I am quite sure that will go down as the roughest terrain this bike will ever tackle. The first town along the route is St. Paul, it looked promising for breakfast on the map, but no cafe. As we rolled through Combs there was something on the right… Looked like a gas pump, open? food? I think so??? U-turn. Yep! Way too much to eat, but hey, long ride today right.
We made it! Well, we’ve been in Oklahoma for a bit heading north the photos here are at the border with Kansas. There’s no place like home?
Oh, look at this – we are on Route 66. Interesting, I had no idea, what a special treat! I’m somewhat interested but have not taken the time to try and figure out where it goes end to end. I’ve casually looked a couple of times and it seemed hard because over the years the route changed. From that research I also learned that it was not ‘a road’ but ‘a route’ comprised of many per-existing named or numbered roads. I suspect that’s also a factor in making it hard to pin down. At any rate, now I’ve been on a handful of miles of that famous route.
We didn’t know Route 66 had any part of our journey until today, but clearly that’s the theme in these parts! It just builds and builds. First a road sign, then a historic bridge, then a lovely park, then a small town where it’s pretty much everywhere you turn. Serendipity I suppose, what a joy to let things unfold, be there in the moment. Oh, and that map I was looking for? Well, there it is below ;-).
Leaving Route 66 behind, next stop Joplin. The city was, well, about as meh as they come from what we saw. After a lap taking a look see we gave up on the city and consulted the map, oh look a park showing “Grand Falls”. Also a dam, so it might be ruined, but one way to find out. Sure enough a waterfall, just look at this! Way better than the city, this is gorgeous. Not another soul out and about enjoying it, go figure. Totally missing out on life people.
Continuing on, and time to stop and stretch… oh look, a road side historical marker, I recon this is as good of a place as any. Well, son of a biscuit, we’ve stumbled on the famous Y bridge in Galena, Missouri! The sign reports that the bridge is 764′ long was opened in November, 1927. It also claims to be one of only three in the world that take this shape. Hummm, while extremely rare, that doesn’t appear to be true, snap I was kinda hoping it was. Perhaps they are referring to this specific, particular shape of three legged bridge. Of all of those I see on line most are only for foot traffic and those for vehicles do have different traffic flow patterns. Wow, crazy side note: the crew of the Enola Gay used Hiroshima’s T-shaped Aioi Bridge to target the city when they dropped the atom bomb.
Well, that was a HUGE day. Not in terms of miles, but certainly in experience. Such a variety, we could have easily spent several days along this route. One of the photos I didn’t get and wished I had was of a ‘Cowboy Church’. There were many, and some even included ‘Stampede Rodeo’ in the title. Be fun to go? Incredible country we live in, such a joy to explore these places and get a glimpse of the people who live here.
As always follow along on the map, and may you be encouraged to get out and explore this beautiful world we live in!