More College of the Ozarks

Today we returned to campus, this time to visit the Ralph Foster Museum. It's impossible to adequately describe this place. It's three floors of very eclectic collections and displays. Some are related to the history and culture of the Ozarks. Others just seem pretty much off the wall.

Here's the most famous display: the original Beverly Hillbillies car.

In another area we found this 1/4 scale model of the Wright Brothers' first airplane. The model was made by students.

An extensive taxidermy collection is dispersed throughout the museum. These polar bears are the most arresting exhibits. The standing bear is nine feet tall.

We have never seen such a diverse collection under one roof.

The college chapel, the Williams Memorial Chapel, was built by students. "[It] is an outstanding example of neo-Gothic architecture. The structure, dedicated in 1956, measures 150 feet long and 80 feet wide, with an 80-foot-high vaulted ceiling and impressive stained glass windows."

This evening we went back for dinner at the Keeter Center. It's a farm to table operation. Students produce most of the ingredients in the campus greenhouses, farms, dairy, etc. Students also serve as wait staff and assist in food preparation.

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College of the Ozarks--"Hard Work U"

The College of the Ozarks was founded in 1906 as the School of the Ozarks. It's only a couple of miles from our RV park, so we decided to go bike ride there for exercise. It's a lovely campus and a great place to bike, with just enough up and downhills to keep things interesting.

From Point Lookout on campus you can see for miles. Lake Taneycomo lies below, and you can see Branson in the distance.

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Unique Unit

We often see unusual camping units as we travel, but some really stand out. There's an unusually decorated A-liner at Turkey Creek RV Village, the Escapees RV park we are staying at near Branson, MO.

Snoopy the Flying Ace especially caught our eye because Ken's son Jeff is a big Snoopy fan (and who isn't?).

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The MKT Nature and Fitness Trail

We took our last bike ride today, since we're leaving tomorrow. We chose to ride the MKT spur from Columbia south to the Katy Trail. It's a crushed gravel trail and mainly wooded. The section near Columbia is popular with cyclists, runners, dog walkers, and walkers.

Farther south we biked across the through truss bridge over Perche Creek, one of the creeks we had crossed on the Katy Trail earlier.

Where the MKT meets the Katy Trail is the Hindman Junction. We biked west a short distance from there to the McBaine Trailhead, where we ate our picnic lunch before biking back to Columbia.

We saw a Prius in the McBaine parking lot that caught our attention.

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Columbia, MO

We went to Pizza Tree in Columbia for dinner tonight and then strolled around "The District"

Situated between three colleges, The District (50 not-so-square blocks downtown) is a hip, active and artistic area. The District's friendly and energetic vibe is up early and stays late, with a lively mix of historic architecture, sidewalk cafes, retail shops, and restaurants.

The streets were bustling, mainly with students. The bar near the pizza place had $2 drinks, so you can imagine the crowds.

We were struck by the "Keys to the City" sculpture outside the City Hall Addition.

We saw lots of interesting public art and architecture.

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Total Eclipse of the Katy Trail

The big day finally arrived as we woke at 6:00 a.m. to get ready and drive to the Rocheport Trailhead for the start of the Total Eclipse of the Katy Trail Ride. We joined 498 other riders on the 31.5 mile ride from Rocheport to North Jefferson City.

The ride started at 9:00 a.m. About 9:15 a.m., Ken had a flat tire! Fortunately we were near a trailside bench where we started to change the tire. An experienced younger cyclist stop to help, and we were back on the trail in about fifteen minutes. Our first stop was 8.8 miles down the trail at the McBaine Trailhead, where volunteers and staff provided ice water, bananas, and salty snacks. Next stop in seven miles was Easley (more water, bananas, and granola bars).

Another 8.9 miles took us to the Hartsburg Trailhead, where lots of riders gathered to view the eclipse. Everyone got out their eclipse glasses to check the progress of the eclipse. Even partial eclipses are quite impressive when viewed through the glasses, although it still looked like a bright sunny day until totality grew closer.

You can still see clearly defined shadows at 1:07 p.m., only five minutes before totality, although the temperature had dropped, and the light had a strange cast.

Then came totality. Just amazing! Even Ken's camera with no special filters was able to capture some of the experience, but nothing can match being there in person and seeing it with your own eyes.

Afterward we cycled on another 10.4 miles to the North Jefferson Trailhead, where our bikes were loaded in Ryder trucks. We had chili dogs and chips before boarding our motor coaches for the trip back to Rocheport.

After months of preparation and jitters about how the ride would go and the possibility of adverse weather, everything was wonderful. Can't wait for totality on April 8, 2024!

We later watched the NOVA special Eclipse Over America. The science being done was impressive, but one of the things that impressed me most was that one scientist,  Williams College astronomer Jay Pasachoff, counted this his 66th total eclipse of the sun!

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Hartsburg to Jefferson City on the Trail

Today we started our ride at the Hartsburg Trailhead, which is where we are hoping to be to view the eclipse Monday afternoon.

It's Saturday, and we definitely encountered more riders on the trail.

When we got to the North Jefferson Trailhead, we were met by some Mizzou grad students doing a survey. We're in favor of education, so we agreed to help them out. It turned out to be the longest survey I have ever filled out! (We think the Ryder trucks are the ones that will transport our bikes back to the Rocheport Trailhead on Monday.}

When we got back to Hartsburg, we found a picnic table in the shade to eat our lunch. A neighbor with a very nice garden offered us some tomatoes to eat with our lunch. When I said we lived in our RV and couldn't have a garden, he brought us several more tomatoes to take home. Delicious!

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Katy Trail, Rocheport to McBaine

We drove to the Rocheport Trailhead today. That's where the Katy Trail Eclipse Ride will begin on Monday, and we wanted to be familiar with it. Rocheport is west of Columbia, and the drive there includes 16.4 miles of I-70. Because this area is in the center of the eclipse path, Missouri is expecting lots of visitors. Lighted signs along the highway warn: "Expect delays Monday 8/21." It took us 24 minutes today, but on Monday we'll allow at least an hour.

We rode from Rocheport to McBaine today, for a round trip of 17.6 miles. We've done a lot of longer rides than that, but today we were trying to move quickly and not stop. Unfortunately our ride was interrupted by a flat tire, then a bike pump that didn't work, and finally a tube that seemed to be blowing out the tire. We were lucky that we had another tube and that some cyclists stopped to help. Read more!

Sunday Music on the Patio with Friends

We joined Jean for a morning hike at Southwestway Park near her home. It's a lovely wooded park with hills, so it made for an interesting hike. The trails are shared with mountain bikes, and some are also used by horses. We didn't see any horses, but we encountered plenty of mountain bikers, all of whom seemed to be having a great time.

This afternoon Jean took us to Mallow Run Winery for Sunday on the Patio. Kay and Mary joined us for a relaxing afternoon with friends. We shared some wine and snacks and conversation and listened to some fine music.

Steve Michaels played a mix of bluegrass and folk on acoustic guitar and harmonica which we really enjoyed.

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Moving on to Indianapolis

We left Summit Lake State Park this morning and headed to Indianapolis. On the way we stopped at Costco and Trader Joe's. After we got set up at Lake Haven Retreat, we went to Jean's house. She had invited fellow hikers Kay and Mary to join us for dinner and cards. We met Kae and Mary when the Indianapolis Hiking Club came to the Rio Grande Valley to hike.

Jean made Tuscan Turkey Slow Cooker Pasta for dinner. It was really delicious (I had three helpings, and we all asked her for the recipe). Then we played a game of Play Nine (Golf), which Mary seemed to be winning until the very end, when Ken sneaked past her for the win. Kae claimed to be the winner since she had the highest score. Nice try! Read more!

Cardinal Greenway

The Cardinal Greenway is the longest rail-trail in Indiana and spans 62 miles from Marion through Muncie to Richmond in East Central Indiana. This morning we put the bike rack on the truck and headed to the Losantville Trailhead. It's the nearest trailhead and is 9.5 miles from here.

It was 12:30 p.m. when we got on the trail. We asked a guy at the trailhead for advice, and he suggested that heading south would be preferable. It’s his favorite section, and he said that the section going north to Muncie is just open fields, whereas heading south there’s tree cover. So that’s what we did. We looked at the map and decided to go to the Williamsburg Trailhead at MM 74. The Losantville Trailhead is at MM 86.5, so that makes a round trip of about 25 miles.

The route is mostly straight and nearly level, with slight grades that made us work some. A cardinal flew across our path—the first cardinal we’ve seen recently, despite having heard many. Guess it knew it was on its namesake trail! We ate lunch at the Williamsburg Trailhead, which has a picnic shelter.

Much of the route is through farmland, with soybeans the predominant crop. There's something restful about the bucolic scenery.

We were glad to see we wouldn't be sharing the trail with horses.

The Greenway has unique mile markers carved into large rocks.

The ride back was pretty quick. We got to the trailhead at 3:40 p.m., for an elapsed time of 3 hrs and 10 mins. That’s an average of 7.9 miles per hour of elapsed time. It was an enjoyable ride on a smooth trail with little traffic.

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Another Concert in the Park

Today's concert was almost rained out, but the rain held off, so we got to hear drummer Keith Hall and singer/songwrite Nashon Holloway and their band in Bronson Park. Here's how the website describes them:

Keith Hall & Nashon Holloway 

Drummer Keith Hall brings a joyful mix of soul, Gospel, R&B, blues and jazz to Kalamazoo.  Featuring singer/songwriter Nashon Holloway with her dynamic and soulful approach, Bronson Park will feel the vibe of cool jazz on a hot Sunday afternoon!

Nashon has a dynamic vocal range for sure. She is also a passionate advocate for a positive, loving approach to life. The show seemed to me to be more soul than jazz.

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Battle Creek to Fort Custer

We went back to Battle Creek today to bike west on the Linear Park path. We had looked at the route last night, but we still missed our turn to cross the river and ended up going to the end of the spur path on Jackson Street. We turned around and this time crossed the bridge to the south side of the river. We followed the path along the river through some nice shady woods for a bit and then turned south to meet the Springfield to Custer path along M 96, which we rode to the Fort Custer National Cemetery.

At that point the path ends, and we took the bike lane over to the Fort Custer Recreation Area. We passed this elaborate mural on the way.

It's a long ride into the recreation area. We stopped to check the map.

We were looking for a restroom and a picnic table. We stopped a couple of people to ask directions and ended up riding through the campground and taking a trail at site #85 that meets a trail around one of the small lakes. We finally found a boat ramp and used the vault toilet, but no picnic table.

We ended up riding out to Eagle Lake. Just as we got to a picnic shelter area, it started to rain. We asked a family if we could stay under their shelter while it rained and they said sure. We sat at a picnic table away from the group and ate our sandwiches, chips, and apple slices.

We were lucky to be under shelter. The rain got a bit heavier, but it soon passed. It was chilly for a couple of minutes until the sun came out.

The ride back to the truck was shorter and quicker than the ride out. We saw three woodchucks darting across the path. One disappeared into a culvert. The entire ride was about 29 miles. That's good practice for our 31.5 mile ride on the Katy Trail for the eclipse. Read more!

Michigan Blueberries

It's the tail end of the Michigan blueberry season. We finally got to a u-pick farm in nearby Tekonsha.

We got some buckets and instructions on which rows to pick and headed out into the field. We felt like gleaners--there were few ripe berries, and most of them were very small.

Somehow we managed to pick a couple of pounds. We also got hot and sweaty and dehydrated from spending so much time in the sun, but it was all worth it to get some Michigan blueberries we could say we picked ourselves.

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