First stop Lewis and Clark made was a
few miles up the Mo River at the town of St. Charles. It was a rough
trader town and neither had much good to say other than the people
were friendly. These were guys who brought their dress uniforms
along to impress the natives so I don't know what they were expecting
at a frontier town other than friendly.
I'm guessing it was also a busy town
and its still busy. Many buildings have been restored and turned
into shoppes. I have nothing against towns
restoring a former age and catering to people who want to visit them.
Sometimes I've noticed the restorations are just a bit too restored,
too tidy, too spiffed up. Sometimes I couldn't imagine a particular
building looking so good when it was brand new. Oh well. Once
statehood happened, Missouri had problems picking a capital (so did
Minnesota). To start, the capital was in St. Charles, in the rented
second floor of the general store. I like that. Lots of the
founding fathers meetings were in private rooms at a tavern so a
general store seems like a good place.
The Katy Trail also starts here; its
the longest rail-to-trail in the country. Said trail follows the
Missouri River the literature said. I looked at maps, googled it and
still didn't really understand that I would only see the river as an
occasional glimpse. About 2/3s of it is along the river and then the
tracks, angled south. Of the part along the river I've only ridden
on about 10 miles however I have stopped at most access points and
read the comments about trail portions served by that access. And it
all looks about the same. Sigh, naive again. The river has changed
its path so many times a railroad line couldn't really be next to it.
Guess I forgot this is the river that's
a mile wide and a foot deep. Its not anymore, not really. The river
is more narrow and carries less water than it did though it looks big
to me. I've seen wide flat floodplains between limestone bluffs and
wooded hills; more hills than I thought this part of Missouri
possessed. In L&C's time there were frequent wildfires that kept
the brushy growth under the trees low so the forested areas looked
more like parks and the lowlands held marshy reed beds.
There are roads that follow the river
on both the north and the south sides so I tried them both. Not much
river viewing there either. What I did find were narrow twisty
hilly roads that are fun to drive. Having X to pull Scout made them
truly fun. The roads were either along the edges of the floodplain
or up on the bluffs next to the floodplain so there was lots of
climbing up and then climbing down.
I drove through lots of little towns
and stopped at any that had any kind of signage related to Lewis and
Clark. They, L&C, passed through this area about the same time
of year as I am here and they too were plagued by rain; theirs made
the river dangerous at times. There were trapper-trader maps of the
Missouri River all the way into Mandan territory in the Dakotas so
they weren't exactly blazing a new trail. They were recording what
they saw in a very formal and accurate way. This Expedition is
directly responsible for a half million people pouring into the
interior during the next 80 years.
Hermann is an ethnically German town
settled when the government started selling land, I suppose to pay
for the Louisiana Purchase. Part of their heritage are grape vines.
They are the folk that grafted European grapes onto hardy MO stock
and started the state's wine industry. While I didn't see tulips
outside of Pella, I have seen a few grape vines in lots of yards well
outside of Hermann. I also scored some pecan smoked bacon that is as worthy of another visit as my Iowa cheese stop.
Now I'm a few miles outside Jefferson
City, the current capital of the state. Binder Park, kept by the
city, is one of the nicest parks I have stayed in anywhere. Whoever
developed it must have listened to real campers. Sites are nicely
shaded and well-spaced. Its on a hillside so no single trailer is
lined up with any other. Toilets are within comfortable walking
distance and are clean. If this park is a showcase for the city,
they did an excellent job. It was pure luck that I was able to get a
spot here over Memorial Day weekend so I intend to relish each day.
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