June 15, 2009

Start: Owensboro, KY
End: Pella, IA

A fat bastard breakfast under my belt I got underway but was confused because the radio gave all times in both eastern and central time. Whenever, I cut from Kentucky north into the southwest corner of Indiana and jogged along on the state roads and crossed over the Wabash River on the most rickety bridge I’ve seen in a long time – which was scary because it was actually a bridge made out of rust and peeling paint. And then it started raining- and it rained like nobody’s business for the next six hours so when it was clear it wasn’t a passing shower, I stopped at an underpass and crammed all the non-water friendly luggage into the cab with me.

Somewhere north of Fairfield I came across a hippie standing next to a field with a thumb-out. I hope for a better world where drivers and hikers are not creepy – without a healthy helping-hand environment what would Jack Kerouac or Douglas Adams have written about? So I pulled over and met Bryan from Wisconsin. He seemed non-threatening in his flip flops and tremendous limp, so I invited him to ride in the bed of my truck and he indicated that he just wanted to get to the next town, Flora, about twenty miles up the road. So he sat in the back for the half hour or so it took and I pulled into town and dropped him in front of a diner. I would have felt bad if I left the guy standing in the rain – and hopefully he will pay it forward.

The day was uneventful otherwise – I drove through the rain all the way across Illinois, and finally found a bookstore in East Saint Louis (for a paperback copy of “how the states got their shapes”). Around that time the sun came out, and I made my way north through Missouri. Unfortunately the roads in Missouri are good (strange saying that) so even the state highways bypass the towns so I made good time all the way up to Hannibal (home of Mark Twain), then cut across the northern border of the state so I could get into Ottumwa around supper time – where I had a steak sandwich special (an 8oz ribeye served on a piece of bread) at the Riverside Restaurant before finding lodging up in Pella.

Did you know: the northern border of Missouri was defined by a surveyor named John Sullivan set in 1816? Unfortunately Mr. Sullivan’s East-West line wasn’t straight – it veers to the north at its eastern end until it ends at the Des Moines River. It was unclear who asked Sullivan to draw his line, but Congress then got caught in the interpretation of where the rapids of the Des Moines river are (there are none) and competing surveyor lines as Missouri (State) and Iowa (Territory) vied for 2,600 sq miles of geography – eventually the Supreme Court weighed-in and in an 1849 ruling let the veering line (north, not right/left) line stand.

Pics: a) not Jack Kerouac; b) my future’s so bright I have to block the rays; c) god’s rays over Iowa



Day Miles: 537
Trip Miles: 1,872
Cities: KY – Spottsville, Henderson; IN – Evansville, Blairsville, New Harmony; IL – Fairfield, Cisne, Flora, Iuka, Salem, Odin, Lebanon; MO – St. Louis, Troy, Hannibal, Luray, Memphis; IA – Milton, Fairfield, Ottumwa, Pella
Cost to cross White CO Toll Bridge (IN to IL): $1.00
Toll paid by car behind me: $0
Other famous resident of Hannibal, MO: Bill Lear
Invention attributed to Bill: Car Radio, the “Motorola” (portmanteau of “motor” & “Victrola”)
Billboard near Luray, MO: “Flies spread disease – keep yours zipped!”
Price of 8oz Steak Sandwich, fries, bowl of chicken dumpling soup, sierra mist, and coffee to to, in Ottumwa, IA: $11.05
Population of Pella IA (2000): 9,832
Percentage of town employed by Pella Windows: 41%
Famous residents of Pella: Wyatt Earp (birthplace of Warren & Morgan Earp)