Trans-Missouri Trail S Ride Report

11 Jun Trans-Missouri Trail S Ride Report

Day 3

“So.. how’d you sleep?” That, of course, was the first thing we asked each other in the morning. We both slept pretty good despite the tight quarters Aaron was sleeping in and all the crazy weird dreams I had. All I know is we felt good and are ready for another day of riding!

Aaron gives a morning thumbs up..

The second thing we did was check to make sure our horses were still outside awaiting us…

We started to break down camp and I begun boiling our water for some yummy Mountain House Eggs & Bacon.. this stuff was pretty good! After the bikes were all packed up, we headed out. From the first connection of our bluetooth Sena headsets, we could tell in our voices we were both very excited about our planned stops for today. We would visit some locations where we grew up together, where a ton of memories were born.. and.. we just couldn’t believe we were down here on our dirt bikes all the way from St. Louis.. haha!

Heading southwest we went through Branson West where Aaron talked about him and his Mom and Dad going to Pizza Hut on Friday nights for a family outing.. Then I remembered the grocery store there in town where my Mom worked. And Dr. Woodall, our doctor as kids, I remembered all the shots we would get. The worst visit was when myself, my sister AND little brother had the worse case of chicken pox ever… oh, that was horrible! As we continued riding south, we shared story after story,

“oh, so and so lived down there”, “you remember riding our bikes down this hill”, “this is where I ran out of gas”.. on and on.

Then we arrived in Kimberling City, MO. Aaron and I would ride our bicycles from Lampe all the way to Kimberling City just to ride on some pavement to practice our tricks. I should note that Hwy 13 that takes us from Lampe to Kimberling City has no shoulder.. and plenty of switch backs.. I can’t believe we didn’t get hit by a car all the times we made this journey. Then there was the race across the Kimberling City bridge.. we just pedal as fast as we could.. haha!

But today we would make it to Kimberling City on our dirt bikes from many miles away..

We filled up the tanks and Camelbaks, snapped a few photos and then continued on to our little hometown of Lampe, MO. When I lived there it was population of 93, not sure what it is today, but probably not much more. Here’s some video of us leaving Kimberling City and pulling into Lampe, where we would, surprisingly, see some good old friends, still keeping the town runnin’…

Video Recap #6 : Hometown

Lampe, MO : Our hometown

Seems ain’t much changed here in Lampe.. but boy, we were smiling from ear to ear just to be back! At the beginning of this ride report there’s a photo of Aaron and I on our bikes in front of this very store…looks like they got a fancy new sign.

We found the same crew still running the town.  From left to right, that’s Roger he owns the Corner Drive-In across the street and was our bus driver. I thought he said he’s been running the drive-in for 30 some years. If he’s open, this is a must stop to eat or have some ice cream! Next is Sally, she, along with her husband Bob aka. Ha Bob, own this little gas station. Yep, Ha Bob is still working in the garage, he has to be 80+ yrs old?! Last, is Perry. I’m not sure what he does, I think he works at the gas station, but the only thing I’ve ever seen him  do is sit on that bench telling stories and picking on people. Maybe they just pay in to add some personality to the place…

Roger’s Corner Drive-In.. next time he better be open for us..

Next stop.. Blue Eye, MO. where the Trans-Missouri Trail ends and the Trans-Arkansas Trail begins or ends, whichever way you look at it. This is the school I spoke of earlier, our grade school and high school. Go Blue Eye High Bulldogs.

The Arkansas border…

Well we made it. Completed our journey from Wentzville, MO. to Blue Eye, MO, hundreds of miles just us and our dirt bikes. This trip meant a lot to us. It reminded us of the great bond we have as friends and buddies through all of these years. Through some hard times in our lives we have always been there for each other, and we know it will be so until our last breath. Right after I shot this photo..

I heard Aaron say in my helmet, “There’s one more thing I want to do….” I had no idea what it was or what he was talking about. But we saddled up and headed west on Stateline Rd., I just followed along..

Slowly we turned into the Blue Eye Cemetery…

I followed Aaron as we walked between many old headstones, names on them that were familiar to me…

Then, Aaron slowly knelt down in front of a stone.. I saw there on the back the name ‘Turner’ and knew this was a special moment for him.

This is where his Grandpa was laid to rest, he was close to him and meant a lot to him. I remember his mean old horse Mr. T…

Beside him was this stone.. Aaron told me it was his Mom and Dad’s first child that died as an infant…

Being in this cemetery at the end of our ride was surreal, there was a slight breeze and such a quiet place. After seeing a stone of a young 16 year old girl, we just paid our respects and thoughts of how precious life is overwhelmed us. I think it’s visiting this sacred place that begun our commitment to forge home today, instead of waiting until the next day. We never said that to each other, but I think we both had the same feeling. There’s times when you are with your life-long friend you don’t have to say anything or explain yourself, its just understood. Honor and respect is what I think it is.

We left Blue Eye and headed over to Hwy 65 north to Springfield for some lunch. Then, after talking about it, we decided to bust up I-44 to Cuba, then take country highways back home. We stopped in Cuba for a snack and go over our plan again..

We agreed we better get on home.. it was beginning to get pretty windy.  Up around Gerald, MO.. we saw to the northwest of us a major storm coming in, it was a race to make it home before it hit is. Little did we know this was the storm that completely destroyed the town of Joplin, MO.

Luckily we beat the storm.. just as I pulled in my garage we got hit hard.

Looks like I’ll need a new roof on the house from this one..but that’s nothing compared to the destruction in Joplin. We had a great trip and we’re already talking about doing the TMOT North soon. Wooohoooo!