Wednesday April 24, 2019
The weather was questionable for the day. I shouldn’t complain since I’ve been fairly lucky so far. Today, the weather gods were pretty good to me. An easy twenty mile drive from the motel brought me to the town of Dixon, named after Dixon, Illinois. Many of the crew who built the railroad through here were from Dixon. Just a few miles north of town, you’ll find State Road W and the entrance to the Clifty Creek Conservation Area.
A pause at Clifty Creek...
At the far end of the loop, the Clifty Creek Natural Bridge. Well worth the muddy trail.
Backtracking out of Dixon, I drove back to St. Roberts and picked up Route 66 for a few miles. It just doesn’t get old. I drove east, passed the Devils Elbow and through Hooker’s Cut. Hooker, named for John Hooker, the first settler here. It may not look like much, but when this was built, it was the largest cut for any road in America.
Doolittle seemed like your average small town. In 1941, Fort Leonard Wood opened twenty miles away to train engineers for the war. The town grew rapidly and they changed the name to Doolittle after Army Air Corp. Pilot, Lt. Gen James Doolittle. He had recently made the first Allied bombing run over Tokyo.
Seen driving through Rolla...
There was a choice to make, continue on Route 66, or roll the dice on the weather and head south on Hwy 72. I decided to head south. I hadn’t gone very far when I questioned my decision. Gray turned to steady rain. The rain had tapered off by the time I rolled through Salem and cut east on Hwy 32. Seen driving through Salem...
Seen passing through the town of Boss...
Hwy 32 gave way to Hwy 21. This is why I had rolled the dice on my route. This is Elephant Rocks State Park. There’s a one mile loop trail back through the rocks, with a second, half mile loop behind it. I made it most of the way around before the rain came back. I ducked under an overhang to wait the worst of it out.
For a late lunch/early dinner, I decided to stop at the first place that wasn’t a chain restaurant. That brought me to Iron Mule in Ironton. It was your basic sports bar. But, it got me out of the rain. Tessie, my server, has lived here all her life and gave me a few spots to look for on my way out of the area. I waited out another bout of rain over a Vanilla Stout. I've had them before. They're good, but one and done.
One last stop, the Quality Inn in Farmington, my home for the next two nights.
Coming Up,
A Native American legend for a rainy day
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