Rock Bridge Memorial State Park; Day 1

I found Rock Bridge Memorial State Park on the map.  It is located just south of Columbia, MO and it looked like a good park to explore and do some hiking (https://plus.google.com/photos/104542123131082631220/albums/6138117296576217857?authkey=CKe3gJbq8OXRiAE).  We had a couple days available so we took off.

The TV weather folks told us this morning it would be wet along our route.  They were right but it was all mist and very light rain – nothing terrible.  It was 55 degrees when we left home at 10:15.

We left Shawnee and made our way to Hwy 24 eastbound out of Independence, MO.  Just east of Levasy I intended to take Hwy 224 east along the Missouri River.  As soon as we turned, however, there was a MODOT sign flashing the message that the road was closed daily during a time span we could not decipher due to numerous burned out lights.  We decided to return to Hwy 24 just to be sure.

We toured through Lexington, MO after being lured off the highway by signs advertising 4 different historical sights.  We did not do an exhaustive search but the only one we found was the location of the Battle of Lexington.

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The next stop was Waverly, MO.  Chris was in dire need of a bathroom break and it was close to lunch time.  She did not want to undress (a significant effort when wearing coat and rain gear) for a bathroom break, redress and undress a short distance down the road for lunch.  The only restaurant we saw was Waverly BBQ.DSCN6393aChris is not normally a big fan of BBQ but she decided it was the best choice so she could download liquids and upload chow at the same stop.  It turned out to be a fortuitous stop.  Waverly BBQ had many food options besides BBQ and it was LARRAPIN good.  We split the hand breaded tenderloin dinner and an appetizer of hand breaded onion rings and enjoyed it immensely.  I’ll remember this place if ever through here again.

We rode through the north end of Marshall and as we headed towards Slater we saw that Hwy 240 was called the Steve McQueen Memorial Highway.  Slater claimed to be the birthplace of actor Steve McQueen.

At Rocheport, MO we stopped to walk a small section of the KATY Trail (https://mostateparks.com/park/katy-trail-state-park).  There was no rain here and we enjoyed our walk with bluffs on one side and the Missouri River on the other.IMG_0343

A short distance down the road we stopped for the night at a Quality Inn in Columbia, MO.  We enjoyed a dip in the indoor heated pool and a soak in the hot tub before calling it a night.

We rode 177 miles today and about half our ride was in mist or very light rain.  The temperature ranged from 55 to 68.  Tomorrow we will visit Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

For more pictures from today click on the following link: https://plus.google.com/photos/104542123131082631220/albums/6138117296576217857?authkey=CKe3gJbq8OXRiAE

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