Above: tree at Osage Lake, Ks     Mid: Black Jack Battle, Santa Fe Trail Ruts.   Right: My Cousin Martin on Katy Trail, Rocheport, Mo

Above: Denita, High water mark of 1993 flood, Wakonda St Park.    2nd: End of Trail in New Franklin, Mo. 3rd: Anderson House Bullet holes, Lexington Battle, Mo. Far Right: My painting in an alley, Hannibal, Mo

Left: Tour boats on Mississippi, Hannibal, Mo. Center: Biking into a stormy Hannibal, Mo. Right: Good gifts at the Bur Oak Brewery, Columbia, Mo

Left: View of me painting, Thomas Hart Benton Home\Studio. 2nd: Denita Celebrating, Baltimore Bend Winery, on word of her lovely Kenyan namesake! 3rd: View of painting at home of T. Hart Benton.  Right: Inside studio at Benton's home, Kansas City, Mo

The format has changed! I will return to the old format next time. Each day starts where/when we woke up and ends with the days end, but the next day will be the previous day at morning, as we go backwards in time!

Wed. May 6th. Left  our sweet site at Wakonga Lake and made the jump to Keokuk, Iowa!! RT. 61 has a fine shoulder and it was good riding. Keokuk is a nice, older town and has connections to the Samuel Clemens family. Rode out of town to Fort Madison area. Thought we were coming up on a big lake, but it was the big Mississippi! The view across was to Nauvoo, Ill, where the Mormons were forced out. They travelled across the  river, receiving a miracle of some exhausted quail that plopped down in their camp. Continue up Rt 61 tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 4^th.My sister’s birthday! Woke up again at Mark Twain, and after a little rain, that bird is back…worse than ever. We loaded up and headed back into Hannibal. Denita ran many errands and I went into the Mark Twain museum. They did overviews of his top 5 books, had many personal items of his, photographs and letters. AND, a whole bunch of paintings and lithographs by Norman Rockwell!! These were paintings he did to illustrate Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, I believe. I had never seen any work of his in person. He was quite a fine artist and his color and paint quality was mind blowing! A rewarding place to visit. But, we had to head north to Wakonda State Park and its Boulder Lake Campground. A lovely spot up highway 61, with a great shoulder. We were met at about 5:30 by our very special friends, part of our old church family back in Ouray, Co and now living in NE Missouri. And they brought a yummy dinner. We kept them way too late, talked of life and family, and were blessed by their presence!

Monday, May 3^rd. The night at Mark Twain State Park was peaceful, but at the crack of dawn are being attacked by an insane bird. He’s a beautiful male cardinal, but the internet says he’s protecting his territory. Every mirror, window and shiny surface tells him his reflection is another cardinal and he attacks. He’s making me insane, crashing into our car nonstop as I try to write this. Isn’t this how the Alfred Hitchcock film began! Denita exercised at the campsite, and I rode into town after painting all morning. A big storm developed, but rained mostly in front of me. I really checked Hannibal by bike, and the waterfront was a trip back in time. I set up a painting surface with a sketch of the Grant Drug Store, and then met Denita for a visit to Mark Twain Brewery. We got ahold of some old friends from our church in Ouray, Colorado and will meet them Tuesday night at Wakonda State Park, up the road to Iowa.

Sunday, May 2^nd. The night was cool and quite peaceful. I was in a bit of a funk after my prayer time, but got out of it later. Denita was sent out early to be the lead rider for the first time (and loved it!!). I broke down camp in Monroe City and hit the the road east to Hannibal. Yes, this is the home town of Mark Twain!! After my stop at the visitor center, Denita arrived into town. Saw all the Twain landmarks such as Becky Thatcher house, Haunted House on the Hill, Samuel Clemens childhood home and Grant Drug Store, but decide not to  paint them.  Missouri River, gorgeous here with bridges and tour boats, but a back alley behind the Bluff City Theater, and had fun. Loved the painting. There was also a plein air event going on. A happening town. Lots of loud bikers! Spent the night about 25 miles out of town at Frank Russell State campground at Mark Twain State Park

Saturday, May 1. Spent night at Bur Oak Brewery for a very peaceful eve. Owl hooting on trailer and a ‘love note’ and a gift of the Clyde Beer 6 pack on the front windshield. Clyde is the famous warehouse cat. Rode from north of Columbia to Moberly and was headed to Thomas Hill Reservoir, about 5 miles south of Macon. The ride was a perfect temp and so flat with a good shoulder on 63. Denita drove there first and said the road, traffic and crowd were questionable. We decided to move on but could not find anywhere to even pull the van over till we reached Monroe, about 25 miles from Hannibal. It was near a golf course on dead end road. I did a drawing from yesterday on Katy trail for painting.             

Friday, April 30^th.  Spent the night at an I-70 rest stop at Boonville. Nice, no Functional toilets. Finished the trail yesterday! That is still sinking in! Plans to meet my Cousin Martin, age 70 and a cyclist, from St Charles near St Louis. We were to meet him at the Katy Trailhead at 9am.We got to the Rocheport exit a half hour early but went the wrong way into a very back country area. I texted Marty, and found the Katy trailhead at the other side of the exit. Lovely place. Parked and Marty arrived at 9am. Biked 3 miles out towards New Franklin but the bridge was washed out. Fantastic cliffs and a tunnel right off. Lewis and Clark had copied pictographs that were abundant here but the tunnel work destroyed them. Marty was a lot of fun. Great sense of humor. This trail had so much shade, huge cliffs and Lewis and Clark campsites. Our ride ended up being about 35 miles, with a natural arch and lots of side creeks like Perche Creek and of course, the massive ‘Big Muddy. I fell in love with Missouri. Perfect light and temp. Lunch at ‘Meriwether’s,’ a restaurant we really enjoyed. Marty headed home and we really loved his visit. We left here to go into Columbia, Mo. Our first stop was Tryathelete’s Bike Shop. They were awesome, and really fixed Denita’s brakes and extra stuff SOO cheap. On our App (for places to spend the night) we found a brewery, Bur Oak. What a find! Fantastic beer and a great staff. Taylor and her coworker were so into our adventure. She even had a tattoo of Zion (my painting of Zion is on our cards we hand out)! We met a very good man, Jim, an expert horseman, and his wife Susan, a recently retired principal. So nice, and had a really good talk. Andy, whose wife was running the get together for a Chiropractic group, was so nice. In the past, he met guys floating the entire River who were from England and he is still friends with them years later. The Bur Oak also had great local frozen pizza of which we partook. We became very tired after our ride, so decide to call it a night. We were treated so well!

Thursday, April 29. Start of the last day on the Santa Fe Trail. Quite a journey!! Spent a rainy night in thick forest at Arrow Rock. Owls in the forest calling during the night. Then the sun popped out in the morning to cheer us! I decided to paint on a board the collapsed brick civil war house outside Dover. After we packed up, we toured Arrow Rock. We toured the Free Slave museum, the print shop, learned town history, and my favorite, painter George Caleb Bingham’s home. Unfortunately, the view to river was blocked by dense trees. In the parking lot, we met Jared, a young guy from the Bay Area, into farming, riding home from New Orleans. He paints water color postcards he sends and plays clarinet as he goes. We talked a lot, and we enjoyed his good energy. He really knows his way around a bike and built himself a nice one. We offered him a cold beer (always a good idea when meeting a long distance cycler), and this cemented the friendship. We said goodbyes, and headed off to Boonville.  We were happy to see that there was still lots of historic trail signs about, along with Lewis and Clark and others.  Then, the route to New Franklin was across a bridge on the mammoth Missouri River. The river is really humbling. It’s a pretty town, where this journey ends. As we walked up the street, with bicentennial Santa Fe Trail banners fluttering in the breeze, we passed a friendly group folks serving the homeless. They offered us onions, of which they had too many, so we offered them a donation. Unfortunately my camera and the GoPro wouldn’t work, so I was counting on Denita. We looked for the original Franklin town site, but it is lost to time and the mud. It was washed away twice from the 1821 start of the trail to 1828, so it moved to the higher ground at New Franklin. We found a rest area at I-70 just past Boonville, where we could spend the night. It was only about 5pm, so I jumped on the bike and headed back to Boonville. Being alone on the bike above that big river. Gave me time to think. Time passes like a river, so I watched a lot of memory and experience float by. As I came across onto the flooded pasture areas, I saw a sign for Franklin. I went back a mile and a half, stopped on the dirt road, and scanned the nearby tree lines. I guess I was searching for a tangible item to grasp… something to say this sums up this trip. But like this Missouri River, and the long Arkansas River further up, some things are too big to hold in your hand.

Wed. 28^t.h We spent the previous night at the Alma at gas station, about 5 Miles north of Concordia on I-70. As it was rainy and I wanted to tour the Lexington battlefield site, we drove our route from previous day but further past Dover, great houses and town of Lexington. Civil war battle was in the early days here, dated from Sept., 1861. On site survives the Anderson House, which changed hands between north and south several times during the 3 day fight. Many bullet holes exist in this beauty of an old house. The two more senior volunteers were delightful and helpful. Denita did laundry, journaled and read. We finally received word from Kelvin in Kenya that his baby arrived. They shocked us when they announced that they had named their baby girl ‘Denita’ in honor of my wife! We were very emotional about this news! She has a name sake. We went back to winery we past day before, the Baltimore Bend to celebrate! We had a really good attendant serving us. We bought a tasty local horseradish cheese, and a dry flight. Very Impressive! Bought a port and a Chondrelle, I think. Very high level wines out here! From there, the search for a night spot. We went into Marshall and Walmart for supplies.

Tues the 27^th. We spent the night at Odessa, an I-70 Truckers Rest by the frontage road. Went into the nice town of Concordia, then north to Alma, alone in the farm country. They said we could spend that night. We saddled up and biked up Rt. 23, no shoulder and a VERY stiff headwind AND lots of hills. We connected to Hwy 24. Travelled to Dover and ate lunch by Santa Fe Trail signs. When we got back to Alma, Denita nearly had heat stroke. We had to get her wet and cooled down at our shower bag we carry on the trailer.

Mon the 26^th. Spent the night before in the Walmart parking lot at 115^th St and I-35. Yesterday, we had received approval to paint today, even after hours if necessary at Thomas Hart Benton’s home. Lovely and peaceful day. I was happy with the painting, too. Decide to paint the symbolism of his home in the background, the passageway of the gate to his studio and his memorial Dogwood tree, planted on his birthday the year of his death. Great sleep. Denita worked out outside for an hour and I cooked a big brunch of bacon, egg and a salad. She showered again. Went in to World Class Bike shop in West Bottoms, KC. They were so nice and helpful in fixing my bike, and so fair in their prices! Check them out!!              

Sun. the 25^th. We came into the city of Kansas City today. We started the day at Baldwin City, a fantastic coffee shop, a lovely local, Fred, whose home we parked aside, and Lawrence, a photographer and head of a Kansas business magazine. People make the trip! I rode east and visited all this local John Brown history, which here focused on the Black Jack Battle, and his anti-slavery activities against Missourians who wanted to make Kansas a slave state truly led to the Civil War. We rode out to the end of Hwy 56 that had been following the Santa Fe Trail in the second half of Kansas. Now we were in the outskirts of the big city. Couldn’t find a place to sleep. Visited Thomas Hart Benton’s neighborhood and home. Fantastic!!  A Frank Lloyd Wright home next door to his! Around the block, a freaky house with a serpent going in and out of the ground and little beings climbing the walls. Katy, the state employee at Benton’s, let us photograph all over the grounds AND see his studio, which was closed for staffing issues. We found a large, camping area that was quite nice at Lake Jocomo.

Sat. the 24^th. Spent a great night at Douglas State Park as a storm was brewing. Baldwin City is a College town that dates back to 1858. The lake was gorgeous and several college kids were also camped at the lake. So much bird life. I started a painting of the lake, to capture some of its' moods and beauty.          

Friday the 23^rd . The night with a good storm broke this morning. Osage State Fishing Lake near Overbrook was lovely and free! Denita went for a good run and I worked on paintings in the van. Strange trees with huge spike like needles are dangerous for eyes and heads!!