Sunday, 25 April 2021
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| today's route |
Not far from Oak Grove this morning, I passed a place with a sign saying it was Kansas City's Botanical Garden. And when I looked that phrase up, sure enough I came up with this place called Powell Gardens. It's 30 miles outside of Kansas City, so I don't know why they're billed as KC's garden. They say they've got 6,000 species of plants and they're open to the public, for a fee.
I passed Pittsville, the turn for Higginsville, and came to Warrensburg. Missouri has a whole lot of place names like that - lots of -villes and -burgs.
The sign for Warrensburg didn't include a population figure, but online they say the 2020 census gave them 20,139 residents. And it's the county seat.
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| Johnson County Courthouse in Warrensburg |
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| a close-up |
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| the back side, showing some architectural details |
This building was completed in 1896, and there's an unusual statue on the grounds.
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| Old Drum (that's the name of the dog) |
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| top half of the plaque on the front of the statue |
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| bottom half of that plaque |
And here's the explanation the Missouri Secretary of State gave of the incident. https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/Old-Drum After all, as Hagrid said in one of the Harry Potter books, people can be a bit stupid about their pets.
As I was leaving town, I passed a large plant for a company called EnerSys, which turns out to be a maker of batteries and other supplies for defense and aerospace applications. That may help explain the unexpectedly large population here.
I passed the town of Knob Noster, with 2,709 residents in 2010. I was curious about that name, but it means just what I thought it meant: a knob is a small hill and "noster" is a Latin word meaning "our." Though I don't know who the "our" referred to originally.
Luckily, today I got the kind of light traffic I hope for on a Sunday morning.
Old Drum Real Estate Company advertises heavily in this area. Now that I've seen the Old Drum statue, I understand the outline of a dog's head that appears on each of their ads.
I saw a lot of signs in this area that said, "No Waste Park Landfill," plus one that said, "Farms Not Landfills." I couldn't find anything online but I'm guessing some company wants to create a new landfill in this area and that the locals have concerns - probably about toxic runoff and concerns about groundwater contamination.
I've noticed that the price of gasoline is almost exactly the same statewide, regardless of the brand. Almost everywhere I've seen gas for $2.65 or $2.69. It's not often I can find a name brand for less - or even an off brand, for that matter. This isn't something I've seen in any of the other states I've visited.
I came to the town of Sedalia, pop. 21,387, established 1860. This is one of the few towns that US 50 runs right through, instead of bypassing. Here it's called Broadway.
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| Pettis County Courthouse in Sedalia |
There's a large Pepsi plant in town, which I'm sure helps the local economy. Also facilities for Neet Archery Manufacturing. They say all their products are handmade - not an everyday claim, these days.
I passed sheep and the first cows of the day. Rolling farmland and a heavy presence of purple flowers in plowed fields.
I passed the town of Fortuna, named for the roman goddess of fortune. It has a post office, a fire department, churches and a U-Haul dealer, and yet it's an unincorporated town.
I drove 155 miles today and saw only 2 Trump signs, with the first one here.
At Tipton I turned south on Missouri Highway 5, and started finding steep hills, narrow lanes and no shoulders.
On a mailbox I saw the message, "Live Soberly, Righteously and Godly." Really. It was all on a regular-size mailbox.
I passed a chicken farm or ranch or whatever they are and more cows. I saw several Red-tailed Hawks.
This is serious farm country. I saw a huge facility and, based on the vast number of pieces of large farm equipment I saw, I thought it might have been a business for renting out this equipment, mostly Caterpillar brand. There wasn't a sign so I couldn't tell for sure.
There are wineries all over the state.
I came to Versailles, pop. 2,482, established in 1835. I understand the town's name is pronounced "ver-sails" by the folks who live here, despite the town having been named for the royal palace in France. It's a county seat.
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| Morgan County Courthouse built 1889 in Versailles |
There was a historical marker on the courthouse square about the moderately interesting county history.
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| side 1 |
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| side 2 |
A sign on the square told me that on May 1st I would have to miss a Made In Missouri fair, featuring vendors with products that have been made and grown in Missouri. I'd have enjoyed that.
This is what downtown Versailles looks like on a Sunday afternoon.
At Eldon, I switched from MO 52 to US 54, from farmlands back to dogwoods and redbuds.
I was nearing Lake of the Ozarks, so along here there's a series of small towns, all called Lake-something - Lakeland, Lakeview. So I took the wrong exit. What I was looking for was Business Rt. US 54, but I hadn't realized that this string of little towns along the road each has a branch of Bus. Rt. US 54. The wrong branch I took gave me no choice whatever but to cross Bagnell Dam, and I'm here to tell you that's one narrow dam. Only passenger cars can pass each other without worries. Get in a pickup, and you've got to pay attention to the width of your side mirrors. Tow a boat or trailer, as someone coming toward me was doing, and it's really hard to stay in your lane. My RV, of course, could fit in the lane okay but was still a lot wider than anybody - including me - was comfortable with. But there wasn't even a hint of a place to pull off, let alone turn around. I had to cross that dam.
But getting to the other side wasn't an improvement. I came to another Lake-something, this one called Lakeside, pop. 37, which was a complete resort area and, on a pleasant Sunday, was packed to the gills with tourists. Besides the usual tourist stuff, I saw a shop that displayed only flags supporting Trump. If they had other flags, I didn't see them. (I didn't count this in the daily total.)
In Lakeside too there was no place to turn around, but I was desperate because the road wasn't getting wider and I didn't know where it'd get me to, plus there was all the traffic and pedestrian tourists, so I created a place: I turned onto a side street - which immediately started a steep climb up a hill - and then I stumbled on a parking lot for a business. The parking lot had signs saying parking for customers only, but it was empty and I decided I wasn't parking anyway, so I managed a turn and crept down that hill back to the Bus. Rt. Even then, the only reason I was able to make a left turn back onto the road was because some tourists were crossing it, so traffic stopped to let them do it and I quick like a bunny made my turn at the same time. Piece of luck.
Then back across that dam to the road on the other side, which had rock walls many stories high on either side. But going in this direction, I discovered the rock actually overhung the road a bit in places, and the walls were so close to the road anyway, I actually had to swerve into the oncoming lane to be sure my upper sections avoided those overhangs. Again I got lucky, because there was a drop in the traffic flow just then, and I made it back up to regular US 54 in one piece.
I passed Lake Ozark (1,586 residents in 2010), crossed the Osage River, and came to Osage Beach, pop. 4,351, "The ♥ of the Lake of the Ozarks." And the RV's cabin door opened again while we were driving. And again I was lucky that I was in an area where I could pull over. Gracie seems to be getting used to it because she no longer even moves a muscle, either when it happens or when I get up to fix it, so I'm lucky there too.
I stopped at a CVS in Osage Beach to pick up a refill on my asthma inhaler. The doctor had anticipated me using one per month, but I got the first one this past December, and this is just the 2nd one, so I don't feel like I'm overusing it, which is good.
On the 12-mile drive to the campground, I passed a billboard showing an American flag and above it were these words: "Do You Miss Me Yet? Trump 2024." This was my 2nd Trump sign for the day.
Lake of the Ozarks is one of those long, narrow lakes created primarily from damming the Osage River, but also including some of the Osage's tributaries. The result is about 1,150 miles of shoreline. Wikipedia says its long serpentine shape has earned it the nickname Puff, the Magic Dragon. I couldn't find a map online and the one on my AAA map is too pale for you to see it clearly, so I'm putting in a link to the Wikipedia page because it includes an aerial photograph of the dragon. https://en.wikipedia.org/Lake-of-the-Ozarks
Despite having the lake's name in its name, tonight's campground doesn't have any lakeside frontage or access. The office was closed - for Sunday, I assume - but they'd left a campground map with little arrows showing where we were to go. We went, and found it to be fairly comfortable.
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