Day 9 ( Aug 2 ) - Destination - Lewis & Clark State Park, MO - 165 miles

Well,  car camped the previous night in rest area on I 70 - near Boonville, MO.
Woke up to find awesome Spider Bike n trailer in parking area.

Rest area was nice and had some nice/unique features. Picnic shelter,

More interesting to see was the "Soda machines locked up behind bars!!!! YES, behind bars....This makes it interesting to think that there were earlier attempts by people in either stealing the entire soda machines or so. hhmm....

Another interesting feature in rest room was "Automatic Handwasher / Dryer" ( single unit that can do both). Think of "locked up soda machines Vs modern automatic handwasher/dryer" !!!!! You can't beat that probably....





Ok, so after freshening up in morning and looking at all these interesting features of rest area, had to feed the hungry person in me. So had to drive about 30 - 40 miles to find the next McDonalds for full feast of Breakfast + Coffee and where I could connect to internet and check the things out.
Since it was Saturday, I didn't had to work so that was good thing.

 And then it was straight drive to Kansas which was about 3 hrs or so.

Passed Kansas city and wanted to stop and take a look at "Riverfront Park" that was on Missouri river. While passing thru Kansas city saw empty streets, not sure my route was just passing that one stretch of empty streets..to Riverfront park.

Anyway, Riverfront park was entrance was stuck up behind a big casino which had lot of cars. Riverfront park was big and had
walking trails and lot of area for picnic etc. But since it was 2 pm or so at that time and though being on Saturday and in summer ( Aug 2 ), there was hardly 1 or  2 cars which scared me a little.


Also the fact that I passed the empty streets on the way coming over to park as well as this park has no people at the peak weekend time, made me bit unclear on why so. Park was well maintained and was good. But looks like all people were in the Casino next door rather than being in outdoor park.:)


 Further on way to "Lewis & Clark State Park, MO", I passed thru a small town junction where local

people had Car show. Not bad, something interesting to see how small town people keep it energitic arranging these kind of events and having people socialize/gather and have fun.

Passed thru another electric generation facility, looked from far like a atomic power plant, not sure though.

 Just 15 miles before historic "Lewis & Clark State Park", there was another interesting state park called "Weston Bend State Park". This had walking trails and had uphill where you could glance thru the scenic area.

 

Unfortunately, I was bit short of time and so did not venture further here. And headed to my rest stop for the night the famous "Lewis & Clark State Park"

As I was approaching Lewis & Clark State park on Rt-273, the entrance suddenly appeared on left and I had not judged that it was so close. I was around 50 miles / Hr speed I guess over there as it was straight highway and no traffic on the highway absolutely.

Had a split second to think and reduced speed with immediate braking and turned  left in about 50 mts I guess only to realize there was a SUV or minvan behind me at some distance that honked seeing my sudden turn. Probably he wasn't expecting me to make so sudden turn(without left signal ofcourse!!!!...I told ya...had split second...to decide). My turn wasn't that bad and I had all things in minivan still intact in their place(including me!!!). So I guess my turn wasn't so bad:)


I had called in earlier just to check the campsite availability since it was weekend.

And after arriving, I found plenty or more than 50 - 75 campsites empty. The place was excellent, flat campground, had excellent facilities, was next to river. Had a nice picnic shelter, electric outlet etc. And this was the "one and only time I took my bike off the rack" from van and drove it till rest room to have shower and come back:) . All the other time, I carried my beloved bike behind my van without its tires touching the ground.....taking such a care of my bike so that it should not worn out :) hhhha hhha

Since today I had determined to finish cooking food etc early before it gets dark, I immediately setup my kitchen stove and quick supplies and made rice in electric cooker and had with puliyogare mix and yogurt that I got on the way. And ofcourse Coke to quench the thirst:) you know what I mean:)

So sat down with my computer connected to internet ( tethered via mobile) and watched a netflix movie while  quenching thirst and having food. It was so relaxing to after long time to sit with some time and have food and watch movie and relax.

And once it became dark, headed inside my camper and continued watching movie and then off to bed.

Miles reading on Odometer: 1865

Day 8 - Friday 1 Aug 2015 - Gateway to West, Big Arch St. Louis, MO

St. Louis, MI  - Gateway to the West, Big Arch, St. Louis, MO

After working for 1/2 day from hotel, took afternoon off from work and headed to Big Arch location in downtown St. Louis, MO.
It was bit cloudy/rainy weather for the afternoon. Location of Big Arch next to the Missisippi river is gorgeous. The surrounding park and the gigantic Big Arch in the plain ground makes it amazing to see. So tall with stainless steel exterior and inside this steel tube, there is elevator(kind of space capsule type of squeeze in) that could carry approx. around 40 people at every 5 mins. And all these was designed and built in around 1960's !!!! This is one of classic example of Great Architecture and Engineering.

Museum cum visitor facility is located under the Big Arch, there was big queue and allotted times for groups of people. Museum had nice Indian history and artifacts, life of the wild west etc which was fantastic with big wall size paintings that depicted the wild west history so beautifully. There was a fudge shop which had so yummy fudge that made me to take a small pack that I carried with me for couple of weeks in car and had the awesome taste of the smooth creamy fudge.

Since I was alone, I got a priority to squeeze in any of the available lifts for climbing up the Big Arch elevators. Another single person like me also had that lucky chance to miss the long lines of queue.
Elevators looked like cramped space capsules...barely able to fit us in. It made a slow ascent/descent in its curved path to up / down. View from the top was not as great as I expected due to rainy/stormy conditions on that day. So came down and took pictures all around and walked around the grounds.

And then headed back to car to be back on road to continue on the journey to what was once wild west !!!!!

Drove on I-70 West for couple of hours and just before 10.00pm, found a Pizza Hut express in a truck stop and was lucky to have the pizza. After energizing with pizza, drove further and spend the night in Boonville @I-70. Totally drove around 150 - 200 miles or so.

Day 7 - Thursday - 31 July 2014 - on road towards St. Louis, MO

After the morning routine(courtesy of rest area I-64 in Indiana state), started back on I-64 West in search of Breakfast at McDonalds:)

And did find one after about 15 - 20 mins drive and had full breakfast and worked till noon sitting there. And then it started getting crowded for lunch time and so anyway it was time for me to stretch out my legs. So pack of laptop and back on road again.

But this time, looking at the Ohio river scenic road maps found in I-64 rest area, decided to deviate my driving on the Ohio river path instead of making it straight via I-64 West. So took the local road as said there in map following the Ohio river path.
  It was a country setting thru the river path. After an hour of relaxing drive, stopped at a town called "Troy". There was a kids play area/park next to river, a boat dock, an old concrete pier or something and it looked like a perfect setting for picnic and saw couple of families having lunch/picnic.

On the river bank, saw 2 barges coming from bit far distance hauling what looked like coal or so. Looking at them thru my binaculor, waited for them to come near....and I waited...waited....waited.
The barges were sure moving....but at snail speed really...It was probably heading upstream and though the water current didn't seem like to be much, river was wide and was full of water. After the barges came near, it looked like they were fully loaded like 9 month pregnant woman due for  delivery:). Well, past that...headed back to car back on the Ohio river scenic road path further.

On the way, saw a thermal power plant which was cool to see just beside the road.

After a while got back onto I-64 West and headed towards St. Louis, MI to make the night stop.
While nearing St. Louis, MI it looked like I had to take a motel to stay close to downtown to see the Big Arch of St. Louis, MI. So had to take the motel here close to downtown as an exception in the trip. The motel was owned by Gujarathi guy and it looked bit weird with extra security signs/ cameras etc.  Was thirsty as well as hungry. Motel room had microwave and so I could heat my MTR instant masala rice with some khara mixture and a beer of course and what a combination.
Later saw a police car do its routine rounds and another car asking for a beer if I had extra one. It was bit cool/thrilling. Stayed overnight in motel waiting for the Big Arch visit next day.

How can this be!!!! Truck in other lane in opposite direction!!!!

Seriously.....Which Way to go !!!!!

Day 6 - Wednesday - 30 July 2014 - Charleston, VW - Lexington, KY (on road towards Kentucky)

Good Morning to Sheetz folks(20 miles ourside of Charleston, VW)
Freshened up and breakfast, courtesy of Sheetz. And back to my remote office in Park n Ride parking lot. Half day of work as usual from the remote office.

Post lunch at Sheetz around 1pm EST,  back on the road to Lexington, KY.
Reached Lexington, KY ....my original hometown of USA.
Passed thru the familiar streets and visited the Rain Tree apartments ( # 1616, #1106 - 175 North Locust Hill Dr, Lexington, KY), my first home in America. (Sorry, pic shows the next apt #1618.)

IBM office - My first office location in USA. Sad to see IBM had closed the facility and building is vacant.

Had a chilled beer at Hooters(my favourite:) and purchased few things at Walmart.
Headed back on road again at around 7.30pm EST or so and drove on I-64 to Louisville, KY.
Crossed into "Indiana" state and rested in a rest area on I-64 after driving about 200 miles for the evening.