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Highway
50 2017
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Well,
from here for the next nine days will be solo, but it's not my first rodeo. |
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Somehow
the sign overhead - 'Begin Only - West 50' sort of spells out the rest of
the trip for me. |
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It's
a long lonesome road but I don't mind my own company. Me and I seem to get
along quite well with very few arguments. |
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My brain
finally kicks in and I remember that I usually get a bad case of 'busted'
lips about five or six days into a ride from windburn. So the first open
drugstore I see gets my ChapStick business. Since I now have to visit a
dermatologist once a year for a full skin inspection, I try to be better
about using sunscreen and lip protectors. Having places cut off and burned
off is not very pleasant to say the least. |
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With that bit of business transacted,
I'm out into the fields of golden something or other again. |
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I find as I travel
Highway 50 that most every small town has an interesting public square and
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some other interesting
stuff. I guess you have to have rocket shoes or a step ladder if you want
to get into this truck. |
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I've heard of living close to
your work, but this may be taking it a bit too far. At least there's not
much yard to mow ... |
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In Bedford, Indiana I see this
lovely mural right at the turn for Highway 50. |
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Once I'm out of town, I'm right
back to some twisties which suit me just fine. |
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Then it's across the vast farmlands
of the state. Indiana reminds me a lot of Tennessee when it comes to the
lay of the land and such. |
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In Barr-Reeve, I pass another
interesting church and again wonder if that is real gold or not. |
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Soon I'm crossing over into
Illinois, pronounced Illinoi not IlliNOISE. |
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In Illinois, they also have
some might fine looking farm places ... |
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interesting old bridges .... |
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and strange looking trees. |
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Every time I go by one of this
massive cultivators I always wonder if I could ride under that thing.
However, I ain't apt to try as the end result could be less than pleasant.
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I see what appears be an old
abandoned school house. Sadly in this day, I'm afraid education has abandoned
a lot more than the school houses. |
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Soon I'm in another small town
called Salem. It looks much like the small towns I have already passed through
and will pass through in the coming days. |
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And as is usually the case,
there is a neat looking old building perched in the downtown proper. |
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My stomach is telegraphing my
brain to see if my throat has been cut since there has been no nourishment
sent that way in quite a while. Since there's not much around, I figure
Hardee's does a pretty good job with biscuits so it will do. |
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Once inside, I decide I'll go
for the big one and get gravy and biscuits, bacon and eggs. It turns out
to be pretty nice for no more than it costs and it sure fills the empty
spot. |
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And it sure makes an empty spot
when I'm done. |
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But the highway waits for no
man, so I'm back to what I came to do. Along the way, I see a very visually
arresting pattern in this harvested field. I don't quite understand the
purpose but it sure looks nice. |
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Then it's by another small town
and another interesting old house. |
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But as Highway 50 does from
time to time, it hooks up with the interstate for a little while. I wish
I could find the original road in cases like this, but that would require
state highway maps for the 50's and 60's if you could find them. I did find
a scanned 1926 map that gave me some ideas that I built into my route. |
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As I travel the slab, I cross
over into the state of Misery ...err Missouri. |
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Finally, it's off the slab and
back to the two lane which I like a lot better. You just don't have all
the crazy traffic and road noise out in the country. |
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And along with the quiet, you
usually get some nice bends thrown in for free. |
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As I travel, I always get a
chuckle out of some of the clever treatments of water towers. This makes
me wonder just where is my cue stick. |
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And with that comes time for
another break. Since I'm by myself, I tend to stretch out the time between
stops to be more of a function of when I need fuel. |
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With Frost and me fueled, we're
back to the business at hand. When I pass these fields, I think of this
as 'hay before and hay after'. |
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Fortunately, I am able to whizz
right through St. Louis without any major problems or issues. Large cities
tend to cause traveling heartburn if you hit them at the wrong time of day. |
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Then it's right into Kansas
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and right into major traffic.
But I know at this point I am fortunately not that far from my stop for
the evening. |
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Before long I am mighty glad
to see this sign. |
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There's a Perkins
next door so I've got supper and breakfast in the 'walking bag'. |
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They've got a cod fish special
for supper, so that works for me. I tell my server -
"Please bring me two glasses
of ice water. It will save you a lot of steps cause I drink like a thirsty
camel."
She does it and a little bit
later after another refill, she exclaims -
"Man, you do drink a lot.
I'll just bring you a pitcher."
With supper dispatched, I waddle
back over to the motel. Tomorrow I've got almost 600 miles to cover with
not much of it Interstate. Perkins opens at 6 AM so I plan to be there
when the door is open for an early breakfast. I catch up with emails and
such and then pillow my head and am a quick casualty of the action.
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