Missouri - STR-2021-4

Thursday, 10 June

We woke up to the pitter patter of rain before first light. Our bodies are still on Eastern time zone, so it was an effort to try and stay in bed. After a couple of rushed mornings, we purposefully worked at a leisurely start.

We even contemplated sticking around until the office opened at 10 AM so we could pay for our camping last night. However we had places to go, things to do, people to meet. So off we went after verifying the phone number so we can call them later to make it right.

Our first adventure of the day was a stop at Walmart for groceries. Ordinarily not an adventure. However when we arrived it was raining pretty hard. When we came back out to Sprinty, the rain was less so Darrell put the awning out about 12 inches so that the inside of the sliding door would stay dry as we loaded groceries through the sliding door.  We packed the groceries and proceeded to drive 45 miles to Paducah, KY mostly on the Interstate.  When we got to Paducah and were out looking at the murals, I looked back at Sprinty in the parking lot and saw that the awning was still out 12 inches. We had driven over 45 minutes, mostly Interstate, at speeds between 60 to 74 miles an hour.

Upon discovering that the awning was out, we retracted it. No damage. Amazing. Just goes to prove that even seasoned RVers can make boo-boos.

Our original reason for visiting Paducah, KY, was the train museum. Friends had recommended it as a place to visit. However, in checking the museum website, we found that it is open by appointment only, and the earliest appointment was 1pm. Probably just as well as Sprinty already visited a train museum two days ago.

The other reason to visit Paducah was the Wall to Wall murals which are painted on the city side of the concrete flood protection wall along the Ohio River.

The 12.5 mile flood wall was erected following the flood of 1937 when 90% of Paducah was covered with floodwaters. After six weeks of rain in the Ohio River Valley, the river crested at 60 feet, nearly 11 feet above the elevation of the present sidewalk.

The flood protection wall has 47 painted murals, with some so detailed and the use of colors so well done, they were almost photographic quality.

At one end of the wall of murals was a steam locomotive from the Illinois Central Railroad. After reading the plaques, Darrell got an ear worm for the song "City of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMS_ykiLiQ)

Our next POI was in Bonne Terre, MO, three hours away. Unfortunately, our leisurely morning meant we would arrived about 4 minutes before the last tour of the day - too close for comfort. So Sprinty backed off a bit and enjoyed back roads to St Francois State Park Campground near Bonne Terre, MO.

After crossing the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, MO, we visited the riverside park to look at the bridge and watch barges going by on the Mississippi.

When we arrived at St Francois State Park Campground, the campground host seemed surprised that we did not have a reservation. And even more surprised when we requested a Basic site - no water, no electric. Later, we surmised that she was not looking forward to wrestling the computer into submission to check us in - probably our longest checkin time ever.

We selected a basic site as it was only $13 a night, minus $2 for being over 65 years old. $11 for a night of camping. Sweet.

With the weekend almost here, we firmed up the plans so we could arrange places to stay. Getting campsites during the week seems easy to do at the last minute, but weekends are more challenging. We also reviewed the POIs for the rest of Missouri and Kansas to verify operating schedules, find out if advance tour reservations were required, and even started purchasing tickets for next Thursday.

Friday, 11 June

The nighttime lows are getting warmer and warmer. We figured out a minor tweak to improve air flow using the Fantastic fan that has made a big difference as we typically opt to not plug in. Somewhat surprising for us is that we had not thought of it before. Both of us slept in until 6:30 this morning.

And with our stay at the St Francois State Park, Sprinty earns his Missouri sticker for his United States sticker map. This is the 37th state that Sprinty has camped in since being adopted by the Van Huttens in February 2017. And the first new state added since Nevada in February 2019. Only 12 more states to go (Hawaii does not count).

Our first activity was the Mine at Bonne Terre in Bonne Terre, MO. As we camped only 11 minutes away and they don't open until 9am, we enjoyed another leisurely morning.

Arriving just before 9 AM, we were the only guests there and at tour time it was still just us. We signed up for the first tour of the day at 9:30. Wow, imagine that a private tour. Our first guide was Levi (guide in training) and he gave us an overview of the mine.

Bonne Terre Mine, also known as the St. Joseph Lead Mine at Bonne Terre, is a historic lead mine located at Bonne Terre, St. Francois County, Missouri. It was built starting in 1864 by the St. Joe Lead Company, and is located below the city of Bonne Terre. The mine closed in 1962 due to declining demand and depressed lead prices.

What makes the Bonne Terre mine so unique is it size and the fact that is entirely man-made. Saint Joe Lead actually built the mine from the bottom up, using a technique called "room and pillar" method of mining.

The Bonne Terre mine was on National Geographic's list of the Adventure 100 has the best diving adventure

The tour started by entering the mule entrance (now has steps) and descending to Level Two. Our guide took us on paths between the pillars.

There was some water dripping from the ceiling, so the man-made mine was slowly becoming a cave as the calcium in the water was being deposited just like in a natural cave. We saw some small stalactites and beginnings of stalagmites. There were also evidence of flow stone from the deposits.

Before we reached the lake, Brenton took over from Levi. Brenton introduced us to Terry, one of the two remaining fish in the lake. The fish depend on guides feeding them, so every hour, they show up at the boat landing to be fed. Brenton said they sometimes follow the boat.

Brenton guided the boat around the pillars and explained that the lake is popular for divers. The lake has 17 miles of shoreline, and is one of the largest man-made lakes. At 160 feet deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in Missouri. Brenton pointed our where one of the scenes from the move "The Abyss" was filmed.

The New Madrid fault line runs right through the mine also. Brenton pointed out the crack in the ceiling, saying it was a remnant of an earthquake in the area.  Our friend Tom illuminated the feature by sharing that the fault line in the ceiling is from the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 that were so strong they rang church bells in eastern cities and the Mississippi River ran backwards temporarily as the land surface was tilted:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%931812_New_Madrid_earthquakes.  A similar earthquake today would devastate cities like St. Louis and Memphis.

They lead Scuba tours on Saturdays. The water temperature is 62 degrees, which is almost 20 degrees colder than the coldest dive we did in the Pacific back when we were diving.

To maintain the lake levels, they have to pump about 1 million gallons a day out of the lake in order to keep the water level constant, it rises about an inch a day if unpumped. Back when the mine was in operation, they pumped about 15 million gallons a day so miners could work.

We knew there was a reason The Mine at Bonne Terre was on our list, but the initial impressions from the parking lot made us wonder. Both of us found it fascinating and we were so glad we did the tour.

For new blog readers, Sprinty has taken us to an abandoned gold mining town (near Yuma, AZ), a former copper mine (in Bisbee, AZ), and a former anthracite coal mine (Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine, Ashland, PA).

For a short (less than four minutes) video about the mine, here is a link to a 2015 Today Show segment: https://youtu.be/hxOJNzknVMc

We had made a reservation to stay in a city campground in Hermann, MO. We chose the back roads and took our time. As we headed northwest, the temperature climbed until it was 95 degrees when we got to Hermann. Along the way, we started to follow the Missouri River, and started seeing signs along the road indicating we were on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Our plan was to go bike riding on the Katy Trail, which was on the other side of the Missouri River from Hermann. At nearly 240 miles long, Katy Trail State Park spans nearly the full width of Missouri and is the country's longest continuous rail-trail, intersecting with rural farmland, scenic small towns, and centers of commerce and government on its route paralleling the Missouri River. However, upon arrival in Hermann, we decided it was just too warm to enjoy riding a trail out and back. So we decided to explore the city of Hermann by bike. One of the many advantages of an electric bike is that you get to decide how hard your want to work. Being hot, we both decided we did not want to work very hard. Crank up the pedal assist. It was also pretty hot for just wandering the city on foot - and by riding a bike, we created our own 10mph breeze.

We rode our bikes to the Historic Hermann Museum which is in a located in the 1871 German School Building, and home to an extraordinary collection of treasures from Hermann's past. The building was constructed with private funds, and completed in 1871 for the intended purpose of accommodating a bilingual school where courses would be taught in both English and German. That method of instruction continued successfully until 1914 when the onset of World War I made all things German verboten. The building continued to function as a conventional elementary school through 1955 when students were moved to a new, larger building

Hermann was established by settlers of German descent looking for a place to go from Philadelphia as the German immigrants were concerned about losing their "germanish". This area was picked over places in nearby states (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky) as the terrain reminded them of their homeland in the Rhine Valley.

The area had good soil for growing grapes, which became the basis for several wineries, including Stone Hill Winery which grew to be the second largest winery in the U.S.

After the museum visit, we rode our bikes through the small town to the riverfront. There we saw a Lewis and Clark historical marker.

On the way back, we saw the Gasconade County Courthouse, designed by the same architect as the German School. An interesting fact we learned was that the courthouse is believed to be the only courthouse in the United States built entirely with private funds. And it is still used as a courthouse today.

We headed back to the city park, riding a total of only 4 miles. Short by our normal standards, but we had ridden the town, it was hot, and neither of us wanted to ride down Highway 100 to get to the Katy Trail. Returning to Sprinty, we were happy we had electrical hookups (as Sprinty is parked in the sun) and we had turned on the air conditioning before heading out on the bike ride.

Saturday, 12 June

Along with the fifty other RVs in the City Park, we enjoyed air conditioning for the night, the first time we have used it this year. As we enjoyed the quiet air conditioner, we were thankful we had the original air conditioner replaced two years ago.

Fulton, MO, had been a planned stop on our Alaska trip last year to visit the National Churchhill Museum. However, the museum was closed for "renovations".

Golf today was at Tanglewood Golf Course in Fulton, MO. We selected this course based on location (about an hour away) and reviews. We arrived about 9:30 for a 10:30 tee time, and based on GolfNow, we knew we were going to be paired up with two other golfers and there would be no starting early.

We practiced chipping and putting, and immediately noticed the better grass conditions on this course. The fairways were green, filled in, and mowed to near perfection. The greens rolled nicely, albeit much faster than anything we have played in weeks. The rough was punishing - a sticky grass that made you pay for missing the fairways.

We were paired up with Kirby and Nate. They were fun to play with. They were good hitters, but struggled a bit with directional control. We both hit good first drives, better than Kirby and Nate. Nice to make a good golf first impression.

Darrell made par and took a one stroke lead. Picked up two more strokes on the next hole, and with his birdie on the third hole, was up by 4 strokes. With two birdies in the first nine holes, Darrell made the turn three over par and leading. Kris played the back nine better, while Darrell goofed up three holes. Still, he took honors on the day. He says he played 15 (of 18) holes well.

Our destination for the night was Knob Noster State Park in Knob Noster, MO, two hours away. Getting a campsite on Friday and Saturday nights is always a challenge in summer, more so this year with the increased popularity of RVing and camping. So when a site was available for Saturday night a couple of nights ago, we reserved it.

We enjoyed a fairly uneventful trip on US 58 and. US 50 to Knob Noster. As we passed through farm fields and agriculture-based small towns, we struggled to identify anything that made Missouri more unique than say Virginia.

From the state park brochure:

• Knob Noster - where prairies and forest meet. Indian legend relates that the two hills, or "knobs", in the area were raised up as monuments to slain warriors. Settlers to the area later added the Latin word, "noster", meaning "our". The local community has been called Knob Noster, "our hill", ever since. The park itself was originally named Montserrat National Recreation Demonstration Area. It was created by the national Park service as an example of how marginal agricultural land that have been cleared or mine could be reclaimed for recreation.
• By the time the land was transferred to the state in 1946 and renamed for the nearby town, much had been done to develop the park. In the late 1930s, Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers had built a campground, picnic areas, roads, bridges, service buildings and two large camps for use by organized groups. These accomplishments can still be enjoyed in the park and many of them are listed in the national register of historic places.
• The 3,567-acre park lies in a transition zone where prairies and forest meet. At the time of the Civil War, it was described as a countryside that was neither totally forest or totally prairie but one were tall grasses and diverse wildflowers mingled beneath widely spaced trees. This type of landscape is known as savanna.