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This was my first motocamping trip.  Well, 2nd if ya count Moonshine Run in early spring ... but that was just a 1-nighter so I don't think it counts.

Bike is ready.


I'm new rider having taken up the motorbiking schtich in the fall of my years.  Got the bike late in '09 with several "organized" trips under the belt and 9,000 m of mostly solo riding.  Adventure quotient is still very high.

Original trip plan was from nw 'burbs, Chgo, to
>> day1 ... kinda follow Illinois R, then down along Mississippi R.to Pere Marquette SP
>> day2 ... down to Cape Girardeau & then nw to Hawn SP
>> day3 ... down to southern MO and west to Branson area
>> day4 ... up through central MO, cross ole Miss R, then to Siloam Springs SP located east of Quincy, IL
>> day5 ... back home

Trip was 06/24 to 06/28.  Plans were subjected to change.


Day 1, Thu, 06/24, 325 miles

After sending Carol off to work, got on the road about 8 am.  Start of an adventure is always such a high for me and really enjoy that 1st hour or two.  Then drudgery of slab-time begins to inject itself into my joy.  
Joy joy ... accident on westbound I80 has progress stopped.  Guess which way I'm going.  And just 2 miles from where I was going to get off, and there's a statey parked closeby to make sure I don't use shoulder to get to my exit!  And now day is beginning to really warm up.  20 minutes later finally travel that short disance to my I80 exit and onto secondary roads.

Passed through Henry, IL, and one of many "flooded river" views on this trip.



In and out of number of small towns.



About 4 pm reach Pere Marquette SP situated on east side of Miss R.  
Nice couple serving as campground hosts set me up wth site having elec and located near showers.  Good for the day, right?  
Wrong!  
Ride over to my campsite.  Get tent out, stake it to ground, walk toward bike to get tent poles.  OHHH S--T, remember that poles are still standing in spare closet at home!  Before leaving home I musta told self 6 times to get those poles!  It's hot and all I want to do is get a shower.  Now what?  
Sure don't want to trudge off to Wally World and buy new tent ... likely wouldn't be good piece of gear and already own 5 tents!  Could get motel, but that will break the trip budget ... did I mention am cheap?  

Nearby stands couple of those dinky cabins some SP's have built ...  
Back to the campground hosts I go.  
One of those cabins avail for tonight?  Oh give praise, yes cabin is available!  And wife is traveling to St Louis area tomorrow anyway, so she'll bring the tent poles down to me.  Problem solved, time to get that shower.  
Home for tonight.

Park has a lodge built by CCC back in the '30's

And lodge includes restaurant so didn't have far to go for dinner.


Plans were subjected to change, but all is now well w/ the world.



To be continued ......

Hi mate, sounds like a great trip. Only prob for me was that the pics did not show.

Day 2, Fri, 06/25, 329 miles

Have all day to kill until Carol arrives with tent poles.  Over to the lodge for some coffee and to plot a route so can be at our meetup point late this afternoon.  Carol's family is nw of St Louis and that's where we'll meet.  
Using the netbook, TYRE mapping software, and a couple hours have today's route developed and downloaded to gps. Was 11 am 'til left the park.

Did I say there was lotsa rain in the days preceeding this trip?  
In short distance between Pere Marquette SP and Grafton, IL, Miss R. had flooded roadway in 2 places.  So made detour and got back on 100 south of Grafton.  Then it's rather scenic ride down to Alton, IL.



At Alton used US67 to cross Miss and Missouri rivers into good ole state of Missouri.



Made tracks for Defiance, MO, where today's fun would really begin.  And passed through some REALLY small MO towns.



Did I say it is hot down here?  
Have done a bit of bicycle touring in hot weather.  Riding motorbike in hot weather is new experience for this noob.  I'm all for atgatt, but man did I have the wrong type gear!  Particularly the jacket ... was the one used last winter, and BLACK in color.  Of course liners are removed.  But still.  Sweating buckets before even had helmet buckled!  I was about to learn some lessons re hot weather motorbiking.

Anyway, 94 between Defiance and Hermann was some fun.  At least it was until could sense loss of concentration.  Even w/ regularly drinking from water bladder I was losing too much fluid due to heat.  And with that fluid loss came concentration loss.  Not good.

Crossed over Missouri R into Hermann


and stopped at first gas/convenience store.  
Couple of lemonade drinks later was feeling better.  But gotta find way to keep this big ole body cooler.  Found big bandana packed on bike.  Went to restroom and soaked it with water, soaked this bald noggin too, and splashed water all over my jersey.  Much better!  And definitely investing in some kinda mesh jacket when get home!

Went south & east of Hermann and got on H & F.  This is fun!  Lotsa curves signed as 30 & 45 mph.   Weeeeeee!  Some whooooop de dooooooos.  Weeeeee!  Picture doing whoooop de dooooos on a touring bicycle .... not quite so much fun.  Motor sure changes that equation!

Now it's getting to be time to head in general direction of Wright City, where I'll meet Carol.  I'm in middle of MO wilderness.  Time to call on good ole gps to get me outta here.  Another adventure is about to begin.

Tell gps to take me to Wright City.  It thinks & thinks & thinks for 5 minutes!  
Did I say it is hot down here?  
Finally it comes back with route.  Off we go.  Turned onto county road going in direction that seemed ok.  Oh Oh, why does road surface seem to change color up ahead?  Turns to gravel.  And gps is telling me to turn left onto ANOTHER gravel road.  
Can ya tell I'm not too excited about doing gravel on street tires?  
Zoom out on gps and see that indicated route goes just 0.3 miles before intersecting w/ a state road.  OK, that's not too far.  How bad could it be?  
So turn left onto the gravel road ... gravel road that twists down a hill ... goes round a curve downhill.  Gps says to turn right.  There's no place to turn right, except into some guy's grass-covered driveway!!  And gravelly downhill I'm on is going to get steeper!  Sheeeeez.  
Now I'm thinking about the Deliverance movie.  
Best of bad option set is to turn into driveway, get bike turned around, go back up hill to paved road & find alternate route to civilization.  
But I'm not excited to get any closer to this guy's house than necessary.  
Did I say there's washer/dryer on the porch & old cars in the yard?  I mean this is NOT affluent area of the state.  
So decide to turn bike around in this driveway, which is slightly uphill, definitely not level side-to-side, narrow, and drops off a couple feet on both sides.  Took several minutes, and a quart of sweat, to get
turned around.
Back uphill on that gravel road to pavement salvation.  Course gps wants me to do uturn and go back to pergatory ....... NOT!
Retrace my route and gps, of course, "recalcs", finally comes back with "continue on indicated route", and
promptly says to turn on paved road.  So I make the turn.  Just OVER the first rise it turns to gravel.  Another turnaround on a hill.  Oh fun fun.  On a positive note, I AM getting better at this.
Gps is now retired to bench.  Gonna do this on my own!  Then notice that gas is down to just 2 bars.  
Oh fun fun.

Eventually I do find state road and feel safe to put gps back in the game.  And find gas station, with gauge lower than have seen it before.

Arrived fine at Wright City, though a couple hours late.  
Had great dinner with some of the family, got the tent poles, and good night's sleep at one of Carol's cousins.

To be continued ...........

I am jealous now. being a full time college student, i dont have the time or resources to do a trip like that

Lots of good points here for new touring riders ...on the right riding gear for the trip ,keep fluids up, no hot drinks or large meals during the day....soak a bandana in water ,I have a riders one with foam in it ,keeps cool for hours and doesn't drip.

Great trip report and pics ..looking forward to the rest of the trip ..take care ride safe.

Great report. keep it comming.

Note that the GPS story of going down a road that ends at a dead end is a common story at ADVRider.com. Don't trust them on minor/dirt roads.

I definitely wanna do this some day.It will have to wait because I'm leaving for Amambai Brazil,August 6th.

Way to go! Keep us updated and ride safe.

Day 3, Sat, 06/26, 269 miles

Today left from Wentzville (nw of St. Louis), MO, and traveled se crossing into IL at Columbia, IL.  Then down IL 3 to Rosebud and on to Fort Kaskaskia SP and finally reaching Chester, IL.  Then cross Mississippi again to MO traveling south on County C and State 177 to Cape Girardeau.  Then will ride west on State 74, County A, State 34, and County Uu, State 34, .  Then north & west on B, State 72, and State 32. Then up to Hawn SP.

State 72 between Sedgewickville and Fredericktown was highlight of today's ride, including a few wooop de dooooos

Hawn SP has a small campground that's well maintained and comfortable.  The showers are free and felt sooooo wonderful!  

Did I say the heat wave continues?  Yep, today had to reach the 90's with good bit of humidity.  While have improved my heat-handling tactics, it remains challenge to maintain attentiveness when riding and tend to be quite tired by day's end.

Not a single pic was taken today!

To be continued ..............

Day 4, Sun, 06/27, 411 miles

Today is highlight of the trip.  Some fun roads.

Seemed to get good night's sleep, even though early eve was quite muggy in the tent.  Got up about bit before sunup and packed up, which took about 90 minutes ... slow/slow/slow!  

Headed down to Farmington to search for some breakfast and found a Huddle House which must be one of the "go to" places in Farmington, MO, as there were lotsa locals in the place.

Following breakfast, headed down to Elephant Rocks and Johnson Shut-In SP's.




Johnson Shut-Ins was shutdown for over a year due to sever flooding.  It's now reopened and some new features are being added.  Was good to see it's back in operation.  Black River flowing through the place is GREAT place to cool off on hot day, but I had too many miles to cover today.

Even at a relatively early hour, it's hot already!

This is first trip to this part of MO.  What fun!!  Roads were generally in good shape, with many having new/newer surface, clean, and few/no "surprise" curves.  And little/no traffic!

State roads 49 & 21 south of Johnson Shut-Ins were good.  Then had good time on US 60 going west to West Plains and 181 going north to Elk Creek.


By then, fatigue was setting in and I started heading nw in general direction of Wentzville and the end of this road trip.  As I got north of Washington on county O, I saw very dark clouds rushing in from the west.  
Oh oh.  I am really close to my destination, but definitely not going to make it in dry state!  With rain came VERY strong wind from west or sw.  The 650F is stable bike, so when it began to "skip" across road I knew was in for bit of trouble.  And it got sooooo dark.  And suddenly I could hardly see a thing!  

Pulled off road into some kinda farming business and found one of their buildings to be open, so I pulled inside to wait out the storm.  Man, it blew and rained!!  So I parked bike inside the building, found place to sit, and munched on trail mix as storm blew through.

When rain/wind tailed off, I repacked bike and made the last few miles to Wentzville.
Trip over!


Learned a number of things about importance of sensible gear for hot-weather riding and some techniques for keeping ole bod cool when temp/humidity go through roof.  Saw some good-looking country and great-riding roads.  Will surely be making return trips to southern MO as have just scratched the surface of fun roads.  Still need to make mods to the bike for comfort improvement as the numb right hand and shoulder/knee pain were not fun elements of the trip.  Posted separate thread asking for recommendations in this area.

Was fun/fun way to spend several days and had some adventure moments.

Hey there, thanks for sharing, i just finished my 6000 plus mile trip over 17 days .... Simcoe On. Canada to Phoenix AZ, Monument Valley UT, Grand Canyon AZ, Zion Nat Park UT, Las Vagas NV, back to Phoenix. Temps in Phoenix reached 117 F ... know what you mean about hydration.
Took my cruiser ... couch on wheels. If you are interested check out this link for the daily summary and pics.

http://www.vulcanforums.com/forums/show ... php?t=7867

Cheers Maurice

Knolltop ....see this website for a throttle rocker ,helps with your right hand .

You can pick them up at most large bike shops ,cost about $10.
http://throttlerocker.com/

Went to my local dealer last week to get air filter. Saw throttle rockers on wall and added to my shopping cart.

Fri am leaving for 1300 mi roundtrip to upper nethers of Wisconsin, so should get opportunity to see how well it works! If disappointed then I'll be looking for one of those vista cruise throttle locks.

Applied for new license plate too. Hopefully, in few weeks, will be riding round with KNOLTOP plate on bike.

Maurice,
Thanks for sharing.
You took lotsa tools/spares!

yeh, the biggest issue for me would have been a flat tire, spoked rims means tubed tires ... not just a plug and play.