Another quickie

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zzzzip

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"Well, I'd like to stop and see Arrow Rock and maybe a few other things on the way," Sweetie said the night before our ride to Rocheport, Missouri, which is on the Missouri River. My son and his wife had given us a night at a Bed & Breakfast as a Christmas gift, and we decided to use it to mark our 36th anniversary.... 36 long miserab.... er, magical years of marital bliss.

I countered with: "OK, but why don't we just make straight for the B&B and, you know.... cuddle, until dinner time?" Cuddling is good. Now she had a choice: shop or you know,....cuddling. So she had to think about this important decision.

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Being a romantic and all, she thought for about 3 seconds and...

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"I'm sorry Sweetie, but it won't fit on the bike. Well, yeah, the tank and tail bags do expand..."

We take some back roads from Hannibal to Centralia, Mo. We zip into town looking for a Mom&Pop coffee shop and stumble upon the A.B. Chance house and gardens, which were started about 1940. Chance made his fortune, I understand from making bricks, and the business is still making them. I'm playing loose with history, because I didn't take the time to do much research, so forgive me for errors.

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The house is a museum, open on Wednesday and Sundays, and the rose gardens are beautiful. I regret my photo skills do not do them justice. The Japanese water gardens are behind the house and it is like a mini botanical gardens. Not bad for a town with a population of 3774, kind of in the middle of nowhere. Well, not every town can be a mecca for tourists like Hannibal.

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Below the rocks making the waterfall is a small door to a dome that looks like the inside of a geode-- again it looks better than the camera shows.

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We leave Centralia on MO 124, and after crossing US 63, it gets hilly and twisty... enough so that I have to pay attention to the road rather than what is roadside. We ride through Fayette, Mo. and pass Central Methodist "Bring a covered dish" University. Then it is on to Glasgow, Mo. on MO 240

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Some of the houses of Glasgow. Strangely enough, for a town with a big population of Germans and Irish, bars and beer gardens are in short supply. I noticed bikers were in short supply, too. It's a nice town with some very interesting architecture. But no good bars...

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This railroad (and highway bridge behind it) spans the Missouri River at Glasgow. Believe it or not, I worked with a guy who, as a kid used to jump off the bridge as a kind of right of passage. Today that would be about a 6 story drop. Show your manhood, bravery, and all that. I also understand males from Glasgow have a higher rate of sterility and flat feet than the national average. I suspect a correlation with that right of passage. We use the bridge to cross the river and head for Arrow Rock Historic Site.

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More to come about the ride....

B)

 
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We take a couple of State lettered roads into Arrow Rock, and rumble in to terrorize the locals. But first...

A cookie break.

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Arrow Rock is a town with a full time population of about 70 and is a State Historical Site. The State Parks system has an interpretive center that is modern, and air conditioned. It features artifacts, uniforms, weapons and the history of the local native Americans and Civil War facts. You can see it all in about an hour.

Though not as big and bloody as the battles of the east and south, there was their share of brutality. Missouri had both Union and Confederate supporters. Quantrel raided from the west, and you didn't need to be in the wild west to be bushwhacked. I found very interesting the hand written letter (weren't they all back then?), more like a note, from the Governor of Missouri to the Secretary of War in the early 1860's. In it he calls the Secretary and his requirement for soldiers to be sent from Missouri to the Union Army, some very unflattering names. He is very much against the war against the South. Now, it is a short note, and the Gov. makes a mistake on the spelling of Missouri, but rather than rewriting the note, I suspect he shows his contempt by simply crossing out the word and writing "MO."

The rain gutters on the main street were laid by slaves.

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In the mean time, I notice an 18 wheeler stuck on the main street of the historic district, trying to traverse the stone gutters, and blocked on the corner by a Jeep whose owner is attending the Arrow Rock Theater. No problem: one of the locals has a scoop and chain, so we'll just pick it up and straighten it out a little. Have a nice day. :lol:

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Some of the houses in Arrow Rock. You can walk the whole town. The Arrow Rock Lyceum has plays that bring people from as far away as Kansas City and St. Louis, and a few from Hannibal.

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They even had a jail built way back when, that is known as "One Man Jail". Story has it that after they built it, they finally had to put someone in it. He hollered and made such a ruckus that the neighbors complained about the noise. So they let him go... and apparently never used it again.

Sweetie doing her "Band on the Run" album cover imitation....or maybe "Chicken Run" escape scene... you never know with her. She can be so Wallace and Grommit sometimes.

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Finally we make it to the School House Bead & Breakfast in Rocheport. They have 7 rooms and their own web site. Check it out... I recommend them, and they have been voted #1 four years running. It was great as, being the middle of the week, we shared the whole place with one other couple.

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Forget about the snuggling... I'm ready to taste some wine and have a good steak!

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The Bistro Restaurant part of the winery at Rocheport. The winery is next door in the vineyard and also over looks the Missouri.

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The Missouri is almost as impressive as the Mississippi.

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Thanks, kids. It was a good time. :wub:

:bye: :bye:

 
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Nice write up, all the more interesting with decent piccys. Thanks for that. Don't know who the people are that kept turning up in the pictures. The guy with the moustache looks like a cop to me, very shady! ;)

 
Nice ride report...now where was the quickie? :) Never mind, I really do NOT need that info.

Oh yeah feejer222, definitely sumpin' shady 'bouts that character...

 
I sent this link to a buddy (non-rider) who gave me semi-hell for dissing Sweetie over, you know... cuddling. He is a sincere guy who was concerned about what people think about me and my... attitude.

So for the record, a very good time was had by all that night, and I love her as much after 36 years as I did that first year. Shopping and all.

So there, Bud. :p

B)

 
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