Ride report/good road in east MO

 Grab a drink of your choice on my tab. Might grab two, cuz I have a
tendency to get kinda windy when I'm telling a story.

The wife and I spent Friday night in Quincy IL. Rode there from Kansas
City "just for the fun of it." We took HW 6 east out of St. Joseph MO
clear across the state. HW 6 is a good road with plenty of small towns
along the way. I recommend it if you are going to traverse the northern
part of the state of MO. Beats the dickens out of HW 36...and
*especially* I-70. <spit>

Anyway...Quincy. If you ever have the opportunity to ride/drive to
Quincy I suggest taking Maine street (Maine like the state...not the
typical "Main" street name) east through town. Maine is a few blocks
south of the main drag "Broadway." It has a great number of old,
majestic and well maintained historic houses that must have been built
100-120+ years ago, though they look like they did they day they were
complete. It was like going back in time...except for all the cars on
the road. Wish we woulda had enough time to stop and walk along the
street to get a better look. I wouldn't drive across the country *just*
to see those houses, but if yer in the area it's worth it.

Links to some images of a few of the historic homes in Quincy:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2800/4462266773_59d89ed354_o.jpg

http://www.connecttristates.com/uploadedImages/khqa/News/Stories/1677%20Maine%20one.JPG?wD0&h30&aspect=nostretch

http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicv/vfiles8578.jpg

Next, we rode from Quincy to Hannibal MO via HW 57. HW 57 was a pretty
nice road in spite of a fair amount of industry along the river that
sometimes obscured what might have been a great view. Did all the
requisite "touristy" things in Hannibal, then took HW 79 south out of
town. Lots of curves and hills, but nothing that could be called
"aggressive" even by this Kansas boy's standards. 40-45 MPH was about as
slow as you'd have to go through most of the curves. (I'm a conservative
rider. Others might blast through them much faster. YMMV.)

Our plan was to go almost all the way to St. Louis on 79, but road
construction forced us to take a detour at HW T west near the Anderson
Conservation area about 15 miles south of Hannibal. (link below goes to
Google Maps showing the route.) The detour turned out to be a blessing
in disguise. HW T was a wonderful road that you wouldn't have considered
taking under normal circumstances. Very little traffic, lots of hills,
curves, trees, cows, didn't see a deer the entire time, well maintained
farms, etc. It was so nice that I thought I might have accidentally
ridden into a Norman Rockwell painting.

We rode HW T until we found HW V and took it west to New London. More of
the same great roads. After New London everything was less spectacular,
but still a nice ride south and west to Booneville. From Booneville we
took I-70 home to Kansas City. (That stretch of interstate is as boring
as a 2 hour Discovery Channel documentary on the history of the putty
knife, but it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to get
home before dark. Hammer down!)

Link to Google Maps of the route from Quincy to New London:

http://tinyurl.com/Quincy-to-New-London

or for you tinyurl haters:

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=S+3rd+St%2FGardner+Expy&daddr9.65087,-91.31445+to:39.578213,-91.247746+to:4th+St&hl=en&ll9.769492,-91.31012&spn=0.606933,1.058807&sll9.564412,-91.355438&sspn=0.306487,0.529404&geocode=FSRBYQId0CqN-g%3BFTYGXQId7qaO-iln-NSvZefdhzFb3-m2LZBHrQ%3BFWXqWwIdfquP-ilbTo-nI9_dhzGP2QTDvbwNeg%3BFdgFXAIdiEqN-g&vpsrc=6&mra=dme&mrsp=3&sz &via=1,2&t=m&z

I was just one of those routes that is best described as a "fine and
pleasant stretch of road."

Andy aka Big Stinkie

 On Oct 9, 1:54 pm, Andy aka Big Stinkie <"andy at bigstinkie dot com">
wrote:

 . I wouldn't drive across the country *just*

 > Andy aka Big Stinkie

How come that first house has white stuff all around it ????
the other 2 don't
OH yea thanks for the drinks, the  6th keg went dry last nite after
everyone left , helluva pace job

kickstart - the stuck in Jackson slug

 On Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:10:28 -0700 (PDT), kickstart


Must be that white fluffy stuff they spray on just before holloweenie
time!  Looks like they over did it!



Stuck, yea right!  Snicker.

 
"Andy aka Big Stinkie" <"andy at bigstinkie dot com"> wrote in message

http://www.connecttristates.com/uploadedImages/khqa/News/Stories/1677%20Maine%20one.JPG?wD0&h30&aspect=nostretch

Very fine old homes. They look like they would dress up nice and spooky for
Halloween.

--
74 CB 450 - Stolen; 74 Z1 900 - Traded; 76 FX 1200 - Stolen; 78 FX(E)
86 CI - Daily rider nice weather; 02 FXDX 88 CI - Daily rider other weather

 On 10/9/2011 1:54 PM, Andy aka Big Stinkie wrote:

Thanks, Andy.  You are right in the middle of my old stompin' grounds here.


Anything beats I-70.


In my misspent yout, I made the drive to Quincy from Hannibal to Quincy
many, many times.  Something about the drinking age in Illinois was 19
and Missouri 21.  Plus Quincy had the discos, and so that's where the
girls were.


http://www.connecttristates.com/uploadedImages/khqa/News/Stories/1677%20Maine%20one.JPG?wD0&h30&aspect=nostretch

Used to be a neighborhood bar on every other corner in the old part of
Quincy, sadly that tradition has fallen by the wayside.


You were blocked from the best part of 79 by the road construction (a
landslide wiped out a section of road and now they are rebuilding it.)


Damn it, Andy, now my favorite back roads around Hannibal will be full
of netscum whenever I go back for a visit.  Oh well, I know the spots
that have cold beer, and I'll make y'all buy.


If you had stayed on 19 south of I-70, and especially south of the
Missouri River, you would be on one of my all-time favorite roads, all
the way to Arkansas it is a fantastic ride.

Alternatives to I-70 might be US 50, which runs south of I-70, and US
24, which runs from Quincy to Kansas City.  Probably would have taken
longer to get home, though.


I've always considered you a fine stretch of road, Andy.  Not sure about
the pleasant part. (SFSF)  Thanks for the ride report.

Shirley, fill Andy's glass and set everybody up on me.



--
George
AH#139
BS235