Missouri Capital Trip - Day 2 - June 8th 2012 - 320 Miles

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I arrived in Hannibal the night before around 6pm, which was an hour after the Missouri Welcome Center had closed for the night. Since they were opened at 8am this morning, I planned on leaving the hotel as close to this time so I could pick up my complimentary Missouri state map. I pulled into the lot around 8:15am, and entered the building. I was quickly greeted by a friendly Tourism Associate, who quickly provided me with my free map.

"Is there anything else I can help you with? Do you need any other maps?" she asked.

"Do you have an Iowa map?"

"Absolutely." she stated as she reached under the counter and grabbed one for me.

"WOW, thanks! That saves me a trip to the Iowa Welcome Center!" I proclaimed as I made my way out of the center with my booty of free maps.

I was having much better data service on my phone, so I glanced over Google Maps to see where I would be able to catch Missouri's Great River Road. I just had to follow 61 back towards downtown Hannibal, and hook up with route 79. After a few u-turns downtown, I finally found Route 79. About 10 seconds into being on 79, there was a scenic lookout sign pointing to the left side of the road. Since I was in no hurry, I started up the steep hill to the top of a bluff overlooking Hannibal. I parked my bike, and made my way towards the chain link fence guarding the edge of the bluff. Turns out that this was "Lover's Leap", as detailed by the placard below:



Here is the actual "Lover's Leap:"



And here is a view of Hannibal and the Mississippi from this excellent stop off:



I proceeded south on 79, and by no surprise, this portion of the road was absolutely amazing. There were very few vehicles in the area, and PLENTY of other scenic overlooks and public parks to stop off at. Here are a couple more pictures I took of this amazing route:





This is my 5th state's Great River Road that I've been privileged to ride, and it lived up to it's name. As has been the case with all of these roads; they are the best motorcycle roads in the Midwestern USA. Twisties which seem to go on forever, and elevation changes that go from 45 degree declines right back to 45 degree inclines. A pleasure to ride, as you can see:


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My plan was to catch 54 in Louisiana, MO, which would bring me all the way to Jefferson City. I was VERY tempted to continue on 79 towards Saint Louis, but really needed to make time for a visit to Lake of the Ozarks. I jumped on 54, which was a typical country highway, weaving through many farms and small towns along the way. The greatest thing about the Missouri highways are the speed limits: 65mph-70mph almost everywhere. The realization set in as I got closer to Jefferson City: there are exits off of these highways, but PLENTY of cross roads! This means drivers crossing these highways from gravel roads, dragging gravel onto the highways, not to mention vehicles pulling out onto the highway at around 5mph! This made for a pretty scary experience the rest of my journey through the Show Me state.

I made it to Jefferson City just after noon. As I was crossing the bridge over the Missouri river, the Capitol is clearly visible over the city. I followed the signage to the Capitol. This would be my first trip to a state capital on a weekday, which meant I was going to experience traffic for the first time. Sure enough, as I made my way to the front of the building to find parking, I realized that there was a protest taking place on the front steps. Apparently, requiring businesses that are owned and operated by religious organizations to cover birth control for women warrants a hundred folks to gather on the steps to protect their own "religious freedom." I was very tempted to shout things at these people, such as inquiring if stoning sinners to death was protected by the first amendment. However, I bit my tongue, and took my pictures:





As I was packing up, a crazy looking fella approached me from the protest area. He was walking up with his dog on a leash, and had a t shirt on with some sort of religious message. I was thinking "here we go."

"Where you coming from?" he asked in the prevalent drawl I've been experiencing the last 24 hours.

"Chicago." I replied.

"No your not. Where in Chicago?"

So I explained to him I was actually raised in Carpentersville, but spent 1/3 of my life, 12 years, living in the city.

"I know Carpentersville. Out near Elgin, right?"

"Yeah, you know it?"

We continued our conversation. Leonard is running for Governor of Missouri. He has family and history in the Chicago area. He even went on to claim that his mother's family owned most of State Street at the turn of the 20th century. Much to my surprise, the conversation stayed comfortable. Leonard proceeded to inform me of the statue of the lady perched atop the Capitol dome.

"Do you know who that is? It's not Pocahontas." he said.

"Is it Sacagawea? Cuz that's the only other famous Native America woman I can think of!" I replied.

"Nope. It's actually Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility. See those lights around her? It was my job to change those for over 20 years."

Leonard had a funny political anecdote about why she smiles: something about being surround by nuts since the state senate and state house are on her left and right. It took all of my will power to not ask Leonard how he felt about a goddess of a polytheistic religion being perched upon the building, but decided to give him the same respect he was giving me by not discussing religion.

"Where you headed now?" Leonard inquired.

"Well, I'm thinking Lake of the Ozarks."

Leonard proceeded to provide me with detailed directions to get back out to 54. "Don't follow the signs. They're bull shit!" I laughed at this statement, shook his hand, and proclaimed "Good luck in the election! Sorry I'm not able to vote for you." I got on my bike, and followed his directions to the tee. Leonard was right on the money!

I jumped back on 54 towards Lake of the Ozarks. In this portion of Missouri, pretty much most of the land south of Interstate 70 is hills, so the ride was very scenic and quite enjoyable. In no time I was seeing the exit signs to "Osage Beach." I got off on Bagnell Dam Blvd, which was recommended that I do by a co worker. I proceeded across the dam, and was blown away by the already beautiful views of the water all around. I crossed the dam, and kept riding, since my belly was telling me it was lunch time. A few miles up the road I noticed a Pub style restaurant; "JJ Twigs Pizza and Pub." Much to my surprise, this was a clone of the local pizzeria I grew up with: "Village Pizza." I sat down at a table by the bar, and dug right into the basket of peanuts on the table. I ordered the Filet Mignon sliders (only $9.99!) and had a couple pints of Blue Moon. Separating the bar area from the rest of the restaurant were large aquariums with indigenous fish inside. Blue Gill, Catfish, Small mouth Bass. And then I saw my new buddy:



As I was eating, I looked over a few minutes later, and he was getting some air!:



He did a good job of hiding that neck!

I proceeded with my ride down Bagnell Dam Blvd after deciding I was going to try to find a couple of motorcycle routes I had found at motorcycleroads.us (this is where I get most of my suggestions). I took County Road MM, which for some reason had a $3.00 toll bridge. I was pleasantly surprised by the enjoyment this road provided, and the toll was worth it!:


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I went south on Route 5, when I should have went north. Route 5 is another 70mph highway with a lot of cross roads, so I rode carefully through the hills. I stopped in Camdenton since I had a feeling I was heading the wrong way, and needed to fuel up anyhow. Unfortunately, my phone battery was dead, so I pulled out my crisp Missouri State map I acquired earlier that day. Of course, this means I'm lost, so a local that was walking past asked me; "You lost?" My mind raced as I was about to explain that I was on walkabout, so there really was no such thing as "lost." However, I just responded "Sorta. How can I get to SR135?" He provided me with excellent directions, and within minutes, I was heading north on Route 5. Sure enough, almost exactly 20 miles up the road (as this nice gentleman had stated), SR135 veered off to the left.

I picked this route for a reason: 135 is the address of the house I grew up in, and currently reside. Also, this was the number my father played on a daily basis in the Illinois Pick 3. I felt that he was definitely there with me in spirit (he passed away November 29th, 2009).

The road was paved with that weird asphalt that is very shiny. However, there were very little issues with the road, and it was great riding. SR135 is very twisty, and as far as I'm concerned: laid by the riding Gods themselves. This is a very narrow road, with no shoulder at all. A few times as I was leaning into turns, I looked out in the opposite direction of my turns, and noticed the tops of trees about 10 feet out. There were very steep drop offs only a few feet from my tires; and virtually NO guard rails!


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I headed back to Jefferson City after enjoying this portion of the ride, and made it to my hotel in just over an hour. Since my phone was dead, I was worried that I was going to have an issue finding it. However, I pulled off at the exit pointing the way to the Capitol, and my hotel was right there at the first stop light!

This was the nicest hotel of my trip, and there weren't many guests. However, there was a "Fire School" taking place this weekend, and it appeared that the lounge area had been overrun by guys in their late teens and early 20s, all wearing their respective fire station's apparel. I brought my luggage up to my room on the 5th floor, and headed down for dinner around 8pm. I enjoyed a few more Blue Moons, and a surprisingly delicious Greek Chicken wrap. It was well worth the $25 tab. As I headed out of the lounge, I checked the pool area. Luckily, all of the students in for the training were sticking around the bar area, and I was able to sit in the hottub for a good 30 minutes. I went back up to my room, and was asleep by 11pm.

I ran into quite a few friendly people on this trip; too many to mention. Most were my biker brethren, and all were surprised I had ridden solo all the way from Chicago. I had some good conversations with the local people, and crossed many bridges in the Lake of the Ozarks area. This is an amazingly beautiful area, and I plan on making a trip down there sometime in the near future to stay for a few days.