#100 PNW - Independence, Missouri

2007 July 28

570 miles

PNW Trip

Day 22

Sunday

Packed up and ready to pull out from the Days Inn in Russell, Kansas. It's overcast and 75 degrees with a good chance of rain and cooler weather before the day is over.

Sure enough, I rode in rain while on the toll road leading into Independence, MO.

Fortunately, the rain stops as I enter the city. I had made a decision while riding along in the rain... If it was raining when I reached the exit for the Truman House, I'd keep going. But if the weather cleared (at least stopped raining), I'd take the exit and make the stamp stops I had planned for Independence.

After fueling up, I make my way to the Truman House.

Then a few blocks down the road, I find the Visitor Center where I do some stamp collecting. Statue of Harry Truman

Building Mural

I find more stamp collecting opportunities a few more blacks away at the National Frontier Trails Center. Cool bonus stamps here!This statue is billed as the original Madonna of the Trail statue according to the volunteer and the information sheet.

This old depot is behind the National Frontier Trails Center. This is day 22 of my PNW trip (Pacific Northwest). From this point on, I have no destination, stamps, or stops on my list to make. I kinda had it in my mind that once I crossed over to the east side of the Rocky Mountains, it would be time to head home...tour is over. But after the Greeley accident, I didn't want to end the fun stuff just yet. Something about not letting bad road karma cheat me out of any of the good stuff. So I still did some meandering across Kansas and collected some stamps. But after today's stamps and with all the exciting good stuff of the PNW past...I'm ready to head home.

After all the above comments... I still slow down through St Louis long enough to go downtown and get an Arch shot. On the other side of St. Louis, I stop about 7:30pm for fuel and a Subway sandwich in O'Fallon, Illinois before hammering out the last 100 miles to the Super 8 in Mount Vernon, Illinois.