Day: June 16, 2019

Saturday 15th June

Rudely awakened at 5am by a massive thunder clap. Looking out of our tent into a black sky we decided to pack everything away and put the tent down before the rain came. A mad scramble but we did it and took shelter in the toilet block until the storm passed.

Finally at 8am the rain stopped and we got going. Breakfast today was in a truck stop in hazelgreen. We got speaking to a lovely elderly gentleman. He told us about his life, Olympic athlete, Hollywood star and a published poet. Such an interesting man and when we went to pay our bill we were told that he’d already paid. We didn’t have the chance to thank him because he’d left with out telling us. Bless him.

Another hot hilly day, but the climbs aren’t as bad as they were just lots of them.

We passed the Munger moss motel in Lebanon built in 1946 it had the 1st swimming pool in town. It’s still trading now with themed rooms but the pool is long gone.

This weekend Lebanon has a Route 66 show on with a car show,live bands and stalls. We sat and watched the cars go by for a bit. When the bandit and Buford T Justice pulled up next to us.

We did 50 miles in the heat up and down the hills but the nearest campsite is still just over 10 miles away. We’ve had enough so booked into the only motel around budget inn Conway. The clues in the name but more storms are forecast for tonight. We should stay dry.

Friday 14th June

Leaving Rolla passing it’s Stonehenge monument, which basically is a concrete replica kinda reminds me of Milton Keynes! We headed to a town on our map that was marked as having restaurants for our breakfast 10 miles away called newburg. We should of had breakfast in Rolla as we got to newburg and the whole town was deserted and anything that resembled a diner/restaurant was boarded up.Nothing to do but push on.

Our route took us through beautiful pine forest and hooker cut which is a 90 foot deep cut through rock cut back in 1940 at the time of construction was considered to be a miracle. It remained to be the deepest road cut in America for many years.

Breakfast turned into lunch 25 miles after leaving Rolla. We found a smoke house bar just before devils Elbow bridge. A small bar with a unique feel basically full of local pissheads a bit intimidating to walk in. Dark smokey and loud with woman’s underwear hanging from the ceiling. But we were hungry so bravely ordered food, cash only and sat and soaked up the atmosphere!

Straight out of the bar and across the river using the 1923 devils Elbow truss bridge a excellent example of a concrete open spandrel arch bridge.

Leaving great historic sites and beautiful scenery we rejoin the side of the interstate and the Uranus fudge & Entertainment complex. Yep mikes in childish heaven we spent sometime here and yes we brought some fudge

We met a fellow cycle tourist he was going the opposite direction because apparently were going the wrong way! He was from Montreal doing a USA tour and headed home. We wished him safe travels and moved on to our home for the night.

Home tonight is the lamplight lane RV resort. Just passed Waynesville, deep in the ozarks which is a big hunting, fishing and trapping location and apparently moonshine country.