Day Two

Another day starts of on the wrong foot. I logged in to check on my servers and found one not responding. I had to call in support to check the server and had to have it rebooted. While waiting, we went to breakfast at Perkins. We had time for a cup of coffee, but just before breakfast arrived, I had to stop to take the call to work on the server. It didn’t take long though and I got to eat before it got cold.

We finished eating and back to the room so that I could verify the server was working correctly and start some backups. Then we packed up and headed out. As soon as we got on the road, I realized that this part of the 54 was actually freeway. I hate riding on the freeway because it is like being placed in a comma. These roads are designed to move as much traffic as possible, as quickly as possible, from point A to point B. That is great if you just feel that you have to get somewhere fast. But it seems to me that no matter how fast we get there, we just find that next time it has to be faster. With new technology, we are even finding that we can be there without leaving where we are. So why is it that we are not smart enough to slow down and enjoy what God gave us once in a while. I enjoy riding the by-ways so that we have an opportunity to see the places that the freeways pass by. But more and more those by-ways are being widened, then turned into freeways and always in the name of progress.

I was thinking about riding around downtown Jefferson City a little, but the freeway shuttled us right by before I even realized we were there. I did manage to get a couple of pictures of the Capitol as we rode by though. Then we were on the bridge and over the river and north of the city and gone.

We came up on Fulton, I saw a sign indicating a Winston Churchill Memorial. I was surprised to see such considering he was a Prime Minister to England. I do believe this man deserves a memorial and he certainly was a good friend to this country, but I was surprised. So we stopped and checked it out.

A few miles down the road and I see a sign “Nostalgia Ville USA”. Now that is what I call an honest sign. I thought about stopping, but decided that I did not need anything else reminding me how old I really am.

Buster and Diamond seem to be having a good time, but neither seems to much like riding in the back. Plus if Buster gets in front of Diamond, he keeps looking back and if gets too far ahead, he starts to get sassy. He keeps trying to look around the driver and then the wind gets him. He got used to riding in our laps behind the windshield. Maybe we can get him a pair of goggles.

Brown corn ? I kept seeing all this corn crop growing all over. But after we passes dozens of acres of corn that has not been harvested until after it turns brown, just didn’t make sense to me. Then I realized that this is one of the largest bi-fuel areas in the state. It occurs to me that if they are letting the corn decompose to use it for fuel, and that they can separate the corn kernels, that they should be able to harvest the corn kernels for food, and then let the rest of the plant decompose to be used for fuel. That way we would not have to decide whether to use corn for food or fuel. But what do I know.

We finally arrived in Hannibal and took the time to do a quick ride around the old part of town to see where all the Mark Twain stuff we wanted to see was. Then we headed across the Mississippi and on up the river to Quincy.

We rode up the river and although found it interesting as there were underground storage facilities and river industries in abundance, it was not very scenic. When we got to the center of town, we turned right on Broadway and got a good view of the business area of town and most of the restaurants, hotels, shopping centers, etc. We arrived at our motel and checked in, and then went over to Ruby Tuesday for a nice meal. I have to say though that for the price you pay for a steak there, I would expect to get on that I did not have to chew so hard to eat. Still the server was excellent and tried her best to make the meal pleasant.

Well it was a short day, but I have to get this up on the site, so I will call it quits for now and I’ll see you on the by-ways……….