2ND POST - ARROW ROCK, MO

Thursday, we left Reelfoot Lake State Park and headed across Missouri. For those of you who are following along with Rand McNally, we came back south to Dyersburg, TN and hit I-155 west which took us across the Mississippi River into the Bootheel of Missouri and I-55 north.

At Sikeston, we took Hwy 60 west and followed it for 187 miles across the lower tier of Missouri to Mansfield.  The route was varied – lots and lots of flat wheat fields for a while, then into the hill country through unpopulated forests, then back into lots of hilly farm lands with cattle and pastures. The highway was a very good 4-lane all the way through the towns of Dexter, Poplar Bluff, Winona, Willow Springs, and Cabool.

At Mansfield, we took Hwy 5 north 54 miles to Lebanon.  This was a very curvy & hilly narrow little 2-lane highway – white knuckles when meeting big trucks. At Lebanon we went west 12 miles to Bennett Spring State Park and got a very nice campsite for the night.  All total, 356 miles – a long day!

Friday, we continued the journey.  We took Hwy 5 north again and was thankful that from Lebanon northward it was mostly 3 lanes and was a good ride.  However, at Camdenton we missed the turn for Hwy 54 and wound up going over some more hilly curvy roads in the area of the Lake of the Ozarks before we finally made it to Hwy 54.  Even had a toll bridge across the lake - $4.50 YIKES.

Once we were on Hwy 54, we made it to Jefferson City around 11:00 AM and decided to check out the Missouri State Capitol.  We found a big parking lot by a defunct bowling alley, parked the motorhome, unhitched the Jeep, and rode into downtown Jefferson City.  The capitol is an old and beautiful building and was under renovation.

After our sideline tour, we hitched back up, made it to Columbus, MO, and hit I-70 west – crossed the Missouri River, just one of several times we’ll see it.

Just past Boonville, we took Hwy 41 north to our destination for 4 days – Arrow Rock.  Hwy 41 is another narrow 2-lane, but at least it’s not as curvy as some of the others we were on. However, there are a couple of narrow bridges and you have to make sure there’s nothing coming so you can take it down the middle.

We arrived at the Arrow Rock campground and got set up in the site we had previously reserved.  Got birdfeeders out, some seed on the ground, and the birds started showing up –American Goldfinches, a few Chickadees, Titmice, House Finches, and a couple of Cardinals.  Put it out – they will come!

We won’t dwell on the historical town of Arrow Rock this time – this makes about four times we’ve been here and the history of the town has been documented in previous blogs.  Suffice to say it is a quaint little town that was on the route of all the explorers, pilgrims, and homesteaders headed west back in the 1800’s.  It has been designated as a State Historical Site and does draw a lot of visitors.

Saturday was a day spent doing one of our favorite things – riding the backroads!  There’s no traffic to speak of, so we can creep along looking for birds on the fences and power lines and sightseeing along all the farms and fields.  All the roads are named with letters which we find interesting.

The roads are very narrow and mostly very hilly – but again, we go slow and there’s hardly any traffic.  If we see an interesting sight or a bird we want to check out, we can just stop in the road.

We do see a lot of interesting things – from old churches to barns with ‘barn quilts’ on them, fields covered in “Henbit” (a really pretty purple wildflower), and a lot of spring newborns!

Sunday was a day of worship and rest.  We went into Marshall (about 20 miles) and attended a very nice worship service at the 1^st Baptist Church.  Afterward we went to lunch at Bloomfield’s Family Restaurant, stopped in at Walmart for a few needed items, then made it back to camp for an afternoon of R&R.

Today, Monday, we got up a little earlier and took off on the backroads again hoping that we’d see more birds & animals earlier in the morning.  However, it was about the same – most of the same small birds on the fences & powerlines -  sparrows, finches, cardinals & doves. Did see a couple of hawks, but they were too far away to identify.  After riding about a 20-mile loop, we stopped in the small store/grill in Hardeman for breakfast.  This is big deer hunting country and the store had a great display of trophy mounts around on the walls.

On the way back to camp we passed a house with a pond with a lot of Canada Geese.  Some of the geese were enjoying the green grass in the front yard.

We’ve been here since Friday and now it’s time to move on again.  Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading out – on across Missouri to Kansas City, then north on I-29 to Big Lake State Park. Until next time --------