June 7, 2010 – More Milestones Passed, Steve McQueen Memorial Highway Leads to Great Peach Cobbler, Biggest Lawn Ornament In Mound City

The Steve McQueen Memorial Highway was a pleasant surprise. Searching for batteries for the camera was less pleasurable, but I found them and documented in for posterity the part of Missouri (Slater) that had been Steve’s boyhood home, raised by his grandparents and his Uncle Claude. Steve was not cool at first, but grew into that later. Coolness requires some level of maturity and that takes time and experience to acquire. I hope to arrive there someday myself.

Leaving Slater, we rode along to Malta Bend, MO, where the Waggin’ Wheel Restaurant and its peach cobbler awaited. This was a real surprise and we were stuffed when we left. There are some very good motorcycle roads in Missouri, but when coupled with a full belly, they can rob you of strength and ability to reason, so we plodded along to Mound City, MO to a little hotel that caters to sportsmen, just down the road from a huge (thirty feet from bill to tail-feathers) duck just like the kind people place on their lawns with those propeller wings that twirl around when the wind blows. I wondered how big the guy was who planted that duck ornament in the ground. The hotel offered a room discount for AAA and for National Rifle Association membership. I didn’t have my NRA card, so just pulled out my H&K and they were satisfied. This discount totaled more than the cost of the room, so basically, we were paid to stay there. Just kidding. The coffee was awful…I may have confused it with the dishwater.

Here is the day's route:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=hermann,+mo&daddr=MO-94+W+to:MO-98+W+to:E+Ashley+Rd+to:MO-41+N+to:US-65+N+to:39.239699,-94.382172+to:mound+city,+mo&hl=en&geocode=FVSUTgIduMaM-ilFeiydZgnchzG41qrJOUACPg%3BFRSxTAIdMtOC-g%3BFaRXUgIdBB56-g%3BFRSXUgId9Mp4-g%3BFWZSVAIdcHB1-g%3BFdYNVgId7LRu-g%3B%3BFSNaZAIdZeFS-ikt20RFI0aVhzGuTOG27LxiXQ&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=6&sz=10&via=1,2,3,4,5,6&sll=39.301362,-94.143219&sspn=0.560031,1.234589&ie=UTF8&ll=39.939225,-94.941101&spn=0.554893,1.234589&z=10

Steve McQueen Memorial Highway outside Slater, MO