Day 42 - Wednesday, June 30
Our day began as usual on the early side - woke up 3:57am then walked out the RV at 5:15am. While we parked on a busy road I ran in yesterday, I found a dirt road that went directly west along rice plantations to the Mississippi RIver and then turned to go along the levy until it came to the highway where I made a right hand turn onto the bridge that connected Illinois & Missouri.. The sunrise was brilliant.
The river was running muddy and fast from all the rain and debris, mostly trees, were bobbing up and down while moving at high speed down stream. The bridge looked new and did not allow pedestrians.- so Lucky and I jumped the rails and hit it!
I called Monica to let her know we just arrived in Missouri and at the same time she was listening to NPR and they announced that Missouri has the highest Delta COVID variant and the highest rate of unvaccinated people…
Cape Giraurdeau was founded as a trading post in 1733. In 1793 it was gifted to a sect of the Shawnee Indians who were later run out of town and “we” came in to take over. It boasts many beautifully restored historical buildings and is a college town to Southeast Missouri State University. I ended up running through town on the way to our ultimate daily destination of Millersville MO.
On a hot and humid day I began looking to a water spigot for Lucky who was telling me he needed water. I found a nice house in town and decided to give him some water from the hose. As I was doing this, a woman walked out to see what was going on with her water as she could hear it. I apologized for the surprise and explained that I depended on spigots for Lucky’s water. Her name was Lauren and she ran a business that sells underground sewer systems to municipalities. We chatted for a bit about Missouri and the Cape and I left feeling optimistic about the day because of her positive energy.
After the Cape for the next 15 miles I ran through what felt like suburbian sprawl with 2 lanes of heavy traffic each way and all the chains lining each side of the street - bummer.
Finally in the last 5 miles of the day of a 30 mile total, I reached the country roads again where Chris was setting up the rig at an RV park behind a bar in Millersville, population 1,136.
Time to head over to the bar for a beer and see if anyone is in the mood to talk…
Thank you for your continue support -
Cheers,
David..
Rice fields on the back roads and a brilliant sunrise.
A barn in the middle of the rice fields.
The main house -
And the warning sign!
Here we go across the bridge connecting Illinois and Missouri which prohibits pedestrians.
And we are in Missouri! The Mississippi is running fast and muddy - wouldn’t want to swim in it.
Many historical buildings that have been restored in town.
The river is walled up but there are gaps where pedestrians can go out and walk along the river. This was the main entry to the Cape for trade.
Lucky decided to take a dip in the Mississippi and even drank some of the muddy water.
Leaving the Cape into Jackson Missouri I saw a sign for The Trail of Tears “Auto route”. Nothing historical about this trail left…
In Millersvile Missouri, our ultimate destination, Chris writes: “I land at a remote and rural Missouri gas station, there’s a bar/grill attached to the service station, The Pit Stop Lounge. The room all except for the concrete floors is finished with aluminum siding floor to ceiling and ceiling. There is a bare bones RV park behind it. $100 a week $20.00 a night. I asked if there was space for a one night stand, it could work for us. I order a BLT, and a Diet Coke. The BLT is good. At the bar a half dozen locals sitting, smoking, and drinking. The country version of MTV is on the screen above the bar. I notice a little room with neglected slot machines off to the side. This is a purely agricultural community.
This older guy, his name I find out later is Mike Davidson.
Mike comes up to me, I’m on the phone but I feel it would be hard to explain that to him, so I decide to just hang up on the call. I imagine he thinks, I’m sitting here talking to myself. He asks a couple of questions. The RV draws a lot of attention, it really stands out here. The guy this old guy without even asking my name says “if you decide to stay here tonight I’d like to pay your docking Fee”. He insists. Every time I discount these people,
to be perfectly honest; I was sitting there judging a bit. I’m almost never not surprised by how thoughtful total strangers can be to the new stranger in town. Before he got up to leave he reminded me again of his insistence. He said he’d pray for David’s safety and success and went back to his beer at the bar.”
Another 10 hour day ends with smiles that portend a good evening -
Very happy we bought an extra pound of pulled pork from Salt & Smoke the other night.
The rain is coming at us again.