Day 1 of the Arkansas Trip Woodbury MN - Chillicothe MO

It finally happened - I'm on the road for a 10 day motorcycle trip to Arkansas.  Today was day 1, and I started in Woodbury MN, at about 10 AM - only about 2  hours late!  Well, that's how it goes.  I took a lot of time trying to figure out what to take, and then I was enjoying not having to herd the kids and worry about anyone else's schedule.  So here's me just before taking off:

Got my satellite radio tunes ready to go.  All 3 cases are full - one has tools, one has clothes, and the other has miscellaneous stuff that I'll need to get at.  Then I also have a bag w/ shoes, my rainsuit, and a little "around town" helmet.

GPS is loaded with the route that Don the Road Captain (of TCMC fame) designed for me.  Don has a business (http://www.theroadcaptain.com) and he designs rides for individuals, groups, and organizations, in addition to leading rides.  Normally he gives you a waterproof set of maps of the entire ride.  This time, since he uses DeLorme mapping software, and have that software, he's sending me his maps as transfer files, and I'm creating the routing files .gpx that are used by my Garmin.  Don created more specialized maps for me, hoping that the mapping software will handle the basics.

Today that worked pretty well.  The route was pretty simple - down 35 until 22 miles before the Missouri border, where I went off to US 69.  

The I-35 part was certainly straightforward, but there was a bit of a headwind.  I still made good time, but I felt kind of beat up by the wind, and I got barely 40 mpg on the bike - Pepper was working pretty hard cutting the wind.  I took a little break at the first rest stop in Iowa, and it was just a terrific little stop, looked like a barn.  

And some Northern Iowa history: 

Just to make sure I knew where I was when I reached US 69 someone placed a landmark

It was really nice to get onto a two lane road.  The Iowa roads were pretty good, and southern Iowa has some rolling hills, which made it pleasant, but also easy to make good time.  Lots of folks sitting in their yards were waving at me as I rode by.  

The road changed pretty abruptly when I crossed into Missouri.  They use letters, like Wisconsin.  

Many portions of county B had a hump in the middle of the lane.  When I checked in with Don, he said that the truck tires sink into the road on either side of the lane and that makes the hump.  I found it was a little weird when using the whole lane while cornering.  So I ended up using the left side of the hump on left corners, and the right side on right corners, and it felt like I had a little banked track.

I made one little modification to the route.  About 20 miles from the end, Don's route called for me to take 50th street:

While the road looked like it would be scenic, I started down it, and my front end started to wallow, and I had some flashbacks to my last time on a dirt road where I dumped the bike, and I just decided to go a different way.  The GPS freaked - kept trying to find ways to get me back to 50th street.  But from the laminated map, it was clear that all I had to do was get to US 65, head south, and I would get to Chillicothe. And I did, witness the Super 8

Anyway, not a bad day for my "get there" day.  Looking forward to some history and back roads tomorrow.

That's it for now,

Virago Becky