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Missouri


My first view of Missouri. Two Hercs. A better view of one of them. I first encountered coal trains at the exact place where I parted from highway 20 in Orin, Wyoming, ... Google recommends coming this way. It's gravel but I'm going to try it because the main road goes ov... A water treatment facility. The water is very green. I'm over two inches. Does that mean I can't park here? A stream. The gravel road has brought me to the pretty little town of Weston. It feels like a secret town beca... Weston. Weston. Weston. Weston. Weston. These signs are giving mixed messages about whether I can go this way. I'm going to try it. This woman was out for a run with her baby when I overtook her but she's stopped now. This track doesn't look like it gets much use but it has information boards in several places. These look like some sort of cabbage leaves. A cross in a flooded ditch next to the road. Some machinery. A fork in the road. I remember this from 2007: instead of having numbers, the state highways in Missouri are each identi... Another little town. This one is Parkville. Parkville. Parkville. The building with the windsock on top is something to do with the water supply. It's quite noisy. The Farmers Market. Parkville. Park University, in Parkville. Now I'm in an industrial estate. Most of the buildings are big warehouses and distribution depots bu... A sign on the motorway. An unusual vehicle. Here, motorists get to choose between Kansas City, the largest city in Missouri, and the adjoining s... I want to use section 3. It took me a while to understand the sign but I think that if a section is ... On top of the levee, the raised bank to stop the river flooding the surrounding land. Kansas City. The levee brought me to a casino. Geese. This is the biggest population sign I've photographed, although whihle driving on my 2007 trip I did... Unfortunately, the route now becomes rather hilly. An area called Briarcliff. Just a house. I was going to take the road on the far left, which is what Google recommended. It eventually rejoin... The remains of a bike. I'm crossing the Missouri again, next to what looks like a lifting bridge. Downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The Southern edge of the path of totality is about three blocks beyo... Independence Avenue. A lot of the surface of this road is in quite poor condition but I had to keep ... There are quite a lot of signs in Spanish around here. A church. Specifically a "Christian Church", which it says in two places. This is a drive-in restaurant like the one that I used in Grand Island. You probably can't see it bu... Between Kansas City and Independence. They've got an Aldi! I like the crocodiles next to the steps. For people who are interested in changing religion, but not enough to bother getting out of their ca... A lot of cranes. This road has no consistency. It just feels like it was thrown together. Sometimes it had a shoulder... A high school marching band. Kansas City. I'm past Kansas City! The modern temple on the site of the first dedicated Mormon temple. The building on the right was originally a school. I don't know what it is now. I occasionally get ideas for possible tours that I could do, in the style of my football ground tour... This seemed like an ideal place to lock my bike. As soon as I got to my room though, the owner phone... The hotel is a bit strange. The walls, stairs and doors resemble a functional, cheap hotel like a Fo... The corridor is a square loop but the walls are different colours in different sections, which helps... Some Harry Truman stuff. My room is on the pale green part of the corridor and has walls of the same colour. One section of t... I can see part of the Truman house from my window. The lounge on my floor. Reception. The downstairs is quite strange. It actually feels a bit like the basement of a museum. After the ow... The room on the left is locked off. This is where my bike is. The breakfast room. Truman. Here, they don't just fold the toilet roll, they also frank it. The Truman house by night. Some other houses nearby. This city has a phenomenal number of churches. I've come into the city centre to try to get something to eat but everywhere is closed. The bowling ... Big John's bar is open but I don't know if it does food. I didn't much like the look of it. I didn't expect that. Independence, Missouri. This sign marks the California Trail and Santa Fe Trail but doesn't mention the Oregon Trail. All of... A memorial for some 19th Century wars. The Game Cafe is still open but it doesn't really look like a place to eat. Independence. The inside of the "Wild About Harry" shop. A soda fountain bar. Closed, obviously. Strange. Dog Boarding and Daycare. Independence. Sausage Street! That's a very specific bin. I didn't find anywhere to eat. That doesn't really matter because I've got loads of sweets and nuts ... Another church and the memorial to Wars since 1900. There are quite a few other churches which I haven't shown. Just some houses. I won't be moving on today. This is my rest day here in Independence. If only I could think of a sna... Outside my hotel today are a Mustang and a car with a smashed-in back bumper on which is written &qu... A group of tourists just starting their tour of the Truman house. I would go on a tour later in the ... Here's the bike shop. It's open and has sold me a pair of good-quality kevlar-reinforced tyres prett... The Truman House is maintained by the National Park Service. This is their visitor centre, where the... This big queue is mainly people buying some king of pensioners' annual pass to the National Parks be... There is a film about the Truman house which you are meant to watch before going to the house itself... A horse-drawn carriage. And again. The courthouse in the daytime. Independence. It was flying nicely while I was walking towards it but now that I've got here, it's stopped. A railway. I thought I would try to look smart today so I put on the second of my shirts, the one which I have ... The home of Harry Truman's aunt and uncle, the Nolands. It is next door to my hotel, across the road... Some maintenance work going on. After Harry Truman's time as president ended, he returned to live in Independence full time and had ... Independence. According to the opening hours on the door, this underground restaurant is open until ten o'clock at... This is the ... A replica of the Liberty Bell outside the Truman Library and Museum, about a mile away from the hous... For a moment, I got excited thinking that this was the actual copy of newspaper which he was holding... The telegram from Joe McCarthy demanding that Truman investigate alleged communists working in the S... The exhibition on the ground floor of the museum goes through Truman's presidential term in chronolo... An eternal flame. I was not responsible for this entry in the visitors' book. The graves of Harry and Bess Truman. This would have been a very strange place to watch the eclipse. The museum courtyard. After Truman's term as president ended, he started working normal office hours here at the museum. H... These are all the furnishings from Harry Truman's Oval Office. I think most are original but some th... There are rather more drawings of biplanes on the walls than I would have expected. There are more o... The Oval Office. But where does the buck stop? He has a corn on the cob encased in acrylic. Here it is, the famous sign from the desk. I've heard a rumour about what's written on the other sid... That's it! Apart from the Oval Office, the exhibition on the ground floor was one which anybody could have crea... These doors are unnecessarily clearly labelled. There are plaquese like this outside homes all over this part of the town. There really are an incredible number of churches around here. I've continued to see more all day. H... The home where Harry Truman lived as a schoolboy. At the Truman boyhood home. Suburban Independence. At my hotel. I saw signs like this in New York on my previous American trip. Independence was a key point on my trip. Just as hisorically, it was the beginning of the trail for ... A little lake. A locust riding on my panier. The Little Blue River doesn't look any more blue than the Big Blue river which I saw a few days ago. If you take it apart, you can make two roads. A couple of little frogs which had been sitting in the road hopped into the water in the ditch when ... My road away from the Kansas City conurbation. Fields. For the next day or so, I'll be spending most of my time riding alongside the Interstate. Unlike the Interstate though, my road has all these little hills. The gear shifters get a lot of use... A bit further along. The car park of a car-share scheme. I've seen these loops on lots of overhead power lines but haven't worked out what they are for. The flag of Missouri, backwards, like most of the others have been. A water tower. Flowers. I've seen a lot of antique shops over the last few days, although I didn't notice many in Independen... Now the Interstate crosses a river but there is a break in road alongside it which I have been using... Gravel roads. The cows got excited when they saw me. I'm not sure if they are trying to run towards me or away fro... Things were already going badly today because the road is very hilly and there's a slight headwind. ... I don't want another puncture so I'm walking the rest of the gravel road. The stones are hurting my ... It's been over an hour since I rode away from that McDonalds. Back on tarmac. This severely faded sign says "Recession proof your business. Rent this billboard". That i... This must be a place which makes garden ornaments. At the moment, I am being chased by a dog. It's q... Concordia. A mailbox in the shape of a small horse box. I'm only four miles away from tonight's hotel but it looks like there might be a problem with the ro... I'm now near the point where the gravel roads separate from the one which I was using. It looks like... I've come along some gravel roads, which in some places were smooth enough that I risked a little bi... Looking backwards. Oh. After exactly an hour, I'm back here again. The only remaining option now is to use the Interstate s... Okay. I can see now. The Interstate doesn't deviate onto my road; it just deviates to the right a bi... It's my only option. I'm through! Sweet Springs might resemble a giant junk yard but it's being bathed in lovely warm eve... There are no green walls tonight. I had hoped to be here before four o'clock but what with the hills... One other minor problem is that a big hole has appeared in the lining of my wallet so now all my cha... I was already expecting quite a long day tomorrow. Later tonight, I would revise the route to make i... It's the Moon! It's back! You can see the underwater section of road on the left. I suppose I'll have to go for "NOT BREAKFAST". The weather here isn't as hot as when I was in Oregon but it's much more humid. It's not even eight ... The flooded Blackwater River, seen from a nice high bridge which I took a special diversion to use. I had better be careful not to drop my camera down one of these drain holes. A caterpillar. They are quite common on the road shoulders. Some of them are very hairy. Another picture of my road. This place used to be something. There's some kind of cycling event going the same way as me. A downhill section. One of the cyclists. The sign on the left shows that this is route OO or, as my map calls it, "MOOO". The "... Some more of the cyclists. They are having a rest stop at this petrol station. Cyclists. I have seen a few of these but haven't worked out what they are yet. Boonville. The courthouse in Boonville. Boonville. The street name signs are quite classy. My third crossing of the Missouri. Soon, I will start using the Katy Trail which is a state park along the route of the old Missouri-Ka... This is where I join the trail. The pictures represent some early settlers. The concrete balustrade on the ground in front of them c... The Katy Trail. A huge cobweb. The Katy Trail. The railway line can't have had to go over a levee here. Those cyclists must have come this way. The corner of a field. The Katy Trail. A short tunnel. Wherever the trail passes through a village, there are cafes catering to passing cyclists. Alpacas. Rocheport. Boaters on the Missouri. The sign says that this is where Lewis and Clark camped on the 6th of June 1804 on their transcontin... The Katy Trail. My bike. The Katy Trail. A tributary to the Missouri. The Katy Trail. Flat land next to the river. Some long grass. This tortoise, or possibly turtle, retreated into its shell as I passed. It's the first live one tha... Tortoise. Sunflowers. Another rest stop. I should be thankful that there are no hills on this route but crunching across t... The river carrying a log downstream. Hartsburg. The Missouri State Capitol, near my destination for today. I don't know what's happening here. There's a barbecue just out of shot. The route to the bridge is clearly marked. The Jefferson City bridge will be my fourth and fifth crossings of the river because I will cross it... This is how to get up to it. Drainpipes like the one which I was looking down this morning. Jefferson City. Jefferson City. Barges of concrete. Locks on the bridge. I get the impression than Jefferson City welcomes cyclists. Jefferson City. Jefferson City. Near my hotel. The view from the lift. I predicted that I would be using a lift here. I would have looked for the s... That's a waterfall between the two lifts. I've now phoned last night's hotel and they said that they... I don't think it's possible to get up to the rooms in this hotel without using lifts. I've just come... It's a zebra crossing but with a button that you can press to turn on lights to make it even more vi... The State Capitol. The figure on the top. Parking spaces for journalists outside the Capitol. In the grounds of the Capitol. That's not this weekend. Jefferson City. To me, Jefferson City's main street feels a little bit like ... Dinner. I wonder if the Missouri Concrete Association regulates custard concretes. After returning to my hotel, I will book a room for Friday and Saturday night, check that it's okay ... The method of finding the stairs in a hotel by looking for the exit signs definitely doesn't work he... Just something that I saw from the Katy Trail. I'm making a late start this morning because I was up... Now this is a problem. My right pedal has just sheared off. I think on one previous trip I did carry... Somebody suggested that the long grass which I saw yesterday was horsetail reed. Here's a closer loo... The curved twig with a leaf in the middle of the picture is hanging above the track, presumably susp... Another view of the state capitol. These remind me of ... It didn't take me as long as I expected to get back to Jefferson City because I found that it is sor... A tandem which has been adapted to carry two babies and an umbrella. A building in Jefferson City. I'm just going to stay here for a few hours and see what happens. It's like magic. My driving licence has arrived from a hotel a hundred miles away, and I've got new ... I've effectively made no progress at all today and am ending in the same hotel where I started. It's... Tonight's room is the mirror image of last nights, which is confusing me more than it should. It's a... In Idaho Falls, I bought a box of apriums. I've now found that there are also things called plumcots... It's not raining but there is some very low cloud. Another picture of the same thing. Sorry. Washington must be the least windy place I've ever known. Yesterday, the forecast wind speeds were z... I'm going to be bold and throw away the old left pedal. If the new left pedal breaks now, I'll be an... I thought this road might be busy on a weekday but it still isn't. In the pavement outside an Irish pub. The chicken crossing the road. The woman approaching on a bike is the first mammal of any kind that ... Chickens. This one doesn't really seem to have noticed that I'm here. Tebbetts. The old shop on the left looks almost inaccessible now. Tebbetts. Tebbetts. An acorn. Looking across the floodplain. One of many little bridges. The trail. The number is a mile marker. Mokane. Another caterpillar nest. A dustbin lorry kicking up dust. Standing Rock, the remains of an old cliff. The numbers "1943" and "1903", showing how high the floodwater came in those yea... I didn't see it. A different barn. One of the things in it is a boat. Scenery. Rhineland. Rhineland. A baseball ground. I don't know what this stadium is for. A travelling funfair. The bank in Rhineland. This is the Loutre River so effectively it has the same name as ... I'm going to stop here for some drinks. McKittrick. The big mural is advertising the Katy Land Trust. Along with the new pedals, I bought this mirror. They seem quite popular in America. I've been on th... Rocks. This is called Lost Creek. The Lost River in Idaho was so called because after flowing like a normal... This was a very peaceful place to sit and watch the river lazily making its way past. I wished I cou... This was on the seat. I've been wanting to try to get a picture of a butterfly for a long time. They keep flying into me. I'm sticking to the low road. Treloar. Marthasville. A pump and bike tools for anybody to use. A parked grass cutter. A lizard. It's been 3697 days since I was last here. I've now ridden to this spot from both coasts. There's a lot of dust over there. When I saw it, I feared that the road which connects the Katy Trai... Oh. Half-way to the bridge, the tarmac gave up. These crops are in a bad way. As well as being covered in dust, their leaves are full of holes. I crossed this bridge in 2007 and I seem to recall then being pleasantly surprised at how easy it wa... This is the road which came over the bridge and here it has great provision for bikes. It looks like... Today, I've gone from a city named after the third president to one named after the first. My room seems very proud of it's state. I'm almost expecting to find a sign on the desk saying "... According to the information pack in this room, because of something to do with the cable television... What a ridiculously fancy way of presenting the bath towel. This will be dinner. I don't think I've ever been to an Applebee's before. What I would really like ... Just some shops. I've learned that Steak'n Shake now cover quite a large part of the US. They have them as far away a... It's misty this morning. Where has the colour gone? I can see it. Today is a hilly day. I'm cutting across from the Missouri River to the Mississippi. Just a property that's for sale. I was going to take a picture of the woman standing heroically in t... A railway. It looks like that car hasn't moved in a while. Water lilies. Rolling hills. Another example of a hilly road. It's a bridge but it's so low that it's almost a ford, and it's got a rough surface. Just a view from a junction. The Big River at Cedar Hill. The baseball ground at Hillsboro. The home of Thomas Fletcher, Governor of Missouri in the 1860s. Fugitive transport? A fire station. My tyre is now covered in these scratches. They weren't there a couple of hours ago. It's also almos... This is the hotel where I had planned to spend last night, before the pedal debacle. I'm now on the Mississippi River Trail, a signed bicycle and pedestrian route which runs the whole l... Here's another example of those loops of cable, this time with some equipment in the picture. I stil... I left route 61 for a while but now I've rejoined it. At first, I was annoyed that a road which is a... This place has a good view. It's for sale, if you're interested. A funny little park next to the road, which is still deserted. Sorry if you think there are too many pictures of rivers. I like them. The rock has been cut away to allow the road to have a smooth gradient. Near my hotel in Ste. Genevieve. Here, three roads form a triangle and the local businesses seem ine... Two other cyclists arrived just after me and took their bikes into their room. I've locked mine in t... Generally, it seems like a nice hotel but the night service window at reception and the signs about ... These people are having a barbecue on the tailgate of their vehicle in the hotel car park. They are ... A little plane. Founded around 1740, Ste. Genevieve is the oldest European settlement West of the Mississippi. I've ... The Moon is now a quarter of the way through its next cycle and at the moment it's joined in the sky... The air conditioning on this room is on much too cold. I've just changed it but until the room warms... I don't much like this huge tinted mirror. It looks like there might be people on the other side wat... If you were having any kind of bet on when my camera would break this year, it's happened. This time... I'm on my way to the bridge which will take me across the Mississippi River to Illinois so I was con... Dropping down into the flood plain of the Mississippi. The hoop suggests that there was once some kind of commercial property here. The crosses commemorate... I had originally intended to cross the Mississippi using the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, which has... I'm briefly using the Transamerica cycle route. I used a different part of it for a couple of weeks ... The bridge at Chester.