Today, Thursday, we are at a bed and breakfast in Eminence, Missouri, and this is the first wifi I've had for a week.
We arrived in Kirbyville Missouri at Jeannine's family farm last Friday and spent a wonderful few days there. Thank you Muriel and Hank for such wonderful hospitality. We also got to meet our cousin Robert again, which was a great surprise and treat, but unfortunately his wife Phyllis is ill and couldn't make it. Phyllis, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery. Hank and Robert got in some bass fishing, and each one caught a bass (catch and release).. I was the witness..Oh, I was told that even though Walleye is often associated with small mouth bass, it is really part of the perch family. We don't care. It is still GOOD!!! Muriel, could you please forward this note to Robert?? I don't have his email address..
We scheduled in our second oil change and a new rear tire at Hollister Cycle, near Branson, Missouri. I recommend this place. They do one thing, motorcycle repairs, and have lots of customers, that's for sure. Anyway, I explained that we were on our way home, and we were 6000 miles into a trip from New York to Colorado and back with a few detours.. I said our miles were a lot more than we expected and I needed a new 180/70/15 rear tire, two oil changes and a checkup on our motorcycles. . They had three tires in stock! Could I be there at 8:30am the next morning "before we open"? Well, they had our two motorcycles done by eleven, completely checked out for our next 3000 (????) miles.
Wednesday morning we set out to ride through the Missouri Ozarks. We took highway 76 east, which was the same route our son Marc took us on two years ago. We even stopped at the same gas station in Ava... but we kept heading east on 76 and I'm happy to report that 76 gets even curvier and more delightful.. We joined onto 60 at Willow Springs, and I'm sad to report they are turning 60 into a four lane highway.. .... We wanted to get up into the hill country and do some canoeing, so we got onto a back road and went to Eminence which is right in the middle of the "Ozark National Scenic Riverways" area of Missouri. This is also in the heart of the region depicted in the Civil War historical novel "Enemy Women" for history buffs... The original city of Eminence (probably also called Shannon Court House) was 20 or so miles north of the present location and was burned to the ground by guerrillas in 1862. I don't know whether it was a Union outpost due south of the Rolla railhead and burned by the Confederates, or a Confederate stronghold burned by Union sympathizers. Bothcould have happened in this area during the Civil War. Anyway, in 1868 the city was moved and rebuilt at its present location.
This morning we got up bright and early and we were dropped off with a canoe and paddles at Alley Spring on the Jack's Fork river. Alley Spring is quite a spring. Right now it is flowing at 100 million gallons of water a day!! We had a glorious and wet time canoeing from Alley Spring back to Eminence.. Right now with the high water, canoe trips are very popular, but even the outfitter said it is a bit hectic on weekends.. In his Ozark country drawl he said "Some call it wall to wall canoes. I call it combat canoeing."
Jeannine just told me that she has never been in the boot heel region of Missouri, which extends a bit of Missouri south down the west side of the Mississippi River. We are fairly close to the boot heel so maybe we could make the trip. Now if we do that, it might make sense to cross the Mississippi near Haytt, Mo to Dyersburg, Tn.. ...then we could ride across Tennessee west to east.. We've already motorcycled in the Nashville and Memphis areas, but never near Knoxville.. ahhh.. Could this be a Deal in the making? There is (Is there??) a Gap in our motorcycling experience...??... ;-)
Harris and Jeannine
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