Peoria Trip, Day 2, Peoria to Keokuk. 12 May 2026

 Day 2, Tuesday, May 12^th – Peoria to Keokuk

After a good breakfast with waffles at the Best Western Plus, E. Peoria, I headed back to Peoria Skeet & Trap to get ready to shoot. We hit the range on-time at 1100 with temps in the mid 70s with wind and relatively low humidity. My hydration plans were right on – I finished the 100 targets with no ill effects. Score was mediocre, but better than I had been shooting and not-at-all embarrassing. I hung around the club for a while, met another old USAF MO shooter, and pulled out for Keokuk at 1333. That’s when the adventure began.

I planned to take US-150 through town, pick up I-74, switch to I-674, the exit onto IL-116. Would have worked had I written it down to reference. Missed my turn, took the “Cook’s Tour” of the city including downtown Peoria, and finally found IL-116. Which had an extensive detour – my 20-mile estimated jaunt took 36 miles and 48 minutes.

I did pick up a few Sandra-worthy tidbits: Peoria High schools appear to play their football in a bubble-dome facility. Political graffito – a Stop All Ways sign was altered by covering the ‘Y’ with an ‘R.’

After I finally got out of town on a very-straight IL-116, I was hit with a quartering southwesterly headwind associated with an incoming front. I was sure glad I was through shooting for the day. Time for some seen-along-the-road observations.

The Olde Country Lane is near Trivoli, home of Flifinger Farm Supply. Steward’s Family Restaurant (and the associated motel) are long-closed. Farther west, I passed a boarded-up stone schoolhouse. Critter Castle pet boarding is housed in an old Queen Anne that’s seen better days – gone to the dogs, you might say. Farmington, “A Small Town with Big Hearts,” hosts Smithers Furniture in a nice downtown. Near Middle Grove, an old railroad right-of-way parallels the hiway. A number of farms are set up for tourist activities. London Mills is on the Spoon River; Sandra, poet that she was, would have made me stop to take a picture of the river crossing sign. A bit farther west a building has corrals (one occupied) and fence posts wearing saddles. Roseville, where I take leave of IL-116 for US-67, has one of the old Big Boy Hamburger boys welcome one to the town.

South of Rosedale the wind really affects the car – a wind farm nearby appears well-located. Does Curly Creek Construction construct curly creeks? Is Farmers Fork one of them? IL-336 bypasses Macomb – it may eventually become a 4-lane highway.

I’m now on US-136 for the rest of the day. I stop at Colchester, home of Full Scoop ice-cream, for a comfort break at Casey’s. The next town, Tennessee, has a barber shop with pocket billiards. It also has a siding to the active RR lie that passes through, but its elevator is sadly defunct. US-136/IL-110 passes through the nicely-wooded La Moine River bottom land. 

Carthage once hosted Carthage College; the parklike grounds are still well-maintained. A sign tells me Carl Sandburg College is north of the road. Carthage has a Fortress Bank, an historic jail, large saddle club grounds, and a Prairie Winds Motel. Evaston’s large brick schoolhouse is long-abandoned. Hamilton has Wren House Coffee and Inner Peace Massage.

I finally cross the Mississippi into Iowa, right into downtown Keokuk. This is an old river town with lots of frustratingly timed stop lights, and gas prices 60 to 80 cents below Illinois’. I find the Quality Inn, check in and unload, then have supper at the Hawkeye Lounge nearby. Here’s a view of the motel from the restaurant – don’t mind the Wal-Mart traffic

For the day: 147.4 miles, for the trip 512.1

Tomorrow: Researching my 2G grandfather, Richard Doniphan Truman, in Clark & Lewis Counties, MO, then home to the cats.

Peoria Trip, May 2026 - Day 1

 

This is a little 3-day trip to participate in the Armed Services Skeet Championship at Peoria Skeet & Trap, plus some research on my 2great-grandfather, Richard Doniphan Truman, in Lewis County, MO.

I pulled out at 0812 this morning on Y Hwy, then turning north on MO-23. North of Knob Noster I noticed new homes and plenty of wheat fields. The infamous Blackwater River area was dry, with recently-plowed mud banks along the roadside. The road is below ground level in places here. Will they do anything about it? I doubt so.

Concordia has murals in many buildings. They actually say something about the town – none of that pretty, generic stuff, like the Burg. It has nice houses, St. Paul Lutheran High School, and a big TA truck stop just north of I-70.

MO-23 continues northward past rolling hills and newly-sprouted corn. There’s a stop sign at MO-20 near Alma; it is NOT a 4-way stop. I arrive at Waverly, junction of US-24 & US-65 and home of Missouri’s own Confederate wizard of the saddle, Joseph Orville Shelby. He wasn’t a big man, so his statue is appropriate to his stature.

Across the Missouri River bridge and on to Carrolton, or at least the bypass. US-24 parts ways with US-65 here and leads me through hills and bottoms on the Lewis & Clark Trail. DeWitt is home of Backwoods Crafts. Brunswick, at the Grand River, fills the bottoms with pecan trees. It hosts the Riverside Magnolia Inn, a B&B. A long-defunct Citgo station still displays regular at $1.05 per gallon.

Keytesville celebrates MGen. Sterling Price, CSA, with a non-equestrian statue. By war’s end his avoirdupois precluded command from horseback.

Last year’s corn fields, yet to be plowed for this year’s beans, bloom with the gold of wild mustard. Salisbury has the Sterling Price Community Lake. It claims to be “A Great Place to Call Home.” Some rights-of-way between here and Huntsville are planted with evenly-spaced trees. Pecans? Moberly, “The Magic City” is a good place for a comfort break – the Casey’s is out of any drinkable fountain soda. It’s 1035 hrs and 120 miles into today’s trip.

Madison, east of Moberly on US-24, has the Broken Egg Cafe – closed. Mark Twain Lake looks full, but it has been higher. I pass Paris, then join US-36 at Monroe City, home of the Fabulous Feet Dance Company and Ground in Grace Cafe. It’s now 1130. US-24 joins US-61 west of Hannibal. I pull off at Palmyra for a last Missouri top-off at $4.17 per, almost a buck below what’s on the other side of the river. Palmyra is home of the “Palmyra Massacre’ – a Federal provost marshal ordered the execution of 10 POWs. 

The Rebel Pig BBQ is across the street from the memorial.

The Quincy Gun Club buildings (on the Missouri side of the river) look newly painted; I wish they’d go back to holding registered . skeet shoots. US-24 passes Quincy, loses a lane in the loess hills, and finally reaches IL-110. This is a modern 4-lane hiway. Every road sign has a little sign saying C-KC, with the C in Cubs red and the KC in Royals blue. This is a yet-to-be-realized dream road to serve as an alternate route. It takes be north to Carthage, then east to Macomb. US-136 becomes a 2-lane road, sort scenic. Macomb, along with many other places in Illinois, has been “Flocked” with plate reader cameras tracking our every move. Bushnell, also well-flocked, is fighting a trailer on fire, visible from the road. This is Spoon River country, near where Edgar Lee Masters wrote his famous anthology.

I reach Canton, find my way to US-24 again, then cut off to Pekin to bypass Peoria. On to today’s destination Peoria Skeet & Trap. I find my shooting partners, write a check, watch the shootoffs,and head to my Best Western. Supper was at a nearby Taco Bell, which was actually pretty nice.

Tomorrow: Shoot 28 GA event at 1100, hang out for a bit, then head to Keokuk for the night.

For the day and the trip – 364.7 miles

The Wrap-Up

 This was a long, strenuous and tiring trip, with a lot of ups and downs. It required frequent altitude adjustments. I’ve been canyonized and vulcanized and over passed, even when Parked. I’m glad I made it!

That’s 19 days, 4,777.4 miles across 8 states west of Missouri. I visited 16 national parks, monuments, and historic sites (10 new-to-me), plus several state parks or historic sites (and one Navajo park).

It cost about $3,000, with lodging being the most expensive, at about $80 per night for the 15 nights in motels. Cat boarding was next, $19/night/per cat over 22 nights. Meals/snacks and gas were virtually equal – the hybrid RAV-4 saved me at least 10 miles per gallon vs my previous Forester. A couple of entry fees not covered by my NPS senior pass ($10 in 2006) and some T-shirt souvenirs made up the rest.

I think the high points was meeting a bunch of my Truman relatives. My great-grandfather,W.L. Truman, never returned to Missouri after his Confederate service; he settled in Louisiana. His brother Joseph, too young to fight, went to Oregon with his sister and her husband after the war. They returned to Missouri; he stayed in Oregon where he married a lumber baron’s daughter. I’d corresponded with one of Joseph’s descendants, off and on, since 2011, and finally got to meet her, her 2 sisters, and 2 other cousins. I have some work to do on some letters I photoed!

 

Now for some ratings and analysis:

• Best roads: Kansas.
• Loneliest road: close between US-50 across Nevada and UT-21 (but K-4 across Kansas last year might beat them both). There were some pretty lonely ones in Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, as well.
• Best independent motel: Hilltopper in Hill City, KS. Two of the other 3 were good, as well.
• Best chain motel: All the Holiday Inn properties were good; most were able to honor my request for a first floor room. A special shout-out to the HIE in La Junta, CO – I’ve stayed there 5 times since 2002; it was a bit tired in 2019, but is completely updated now.
• Best food: I was quite restricted in my choices since I am likely allergic to red meat (alpha-gal syndrome from a lone star tick). Tequila in Cortez and Nino’s del Sol in Alamosa were the best – they were also closest to New Mexico – coincidence?

Now for the boring statistics:

Miles driven, by state: Kansas – 814. Oregon – 689. Utah – 657. Colorado – 541. Wyoming 531. Nevada – 442. Idaho – 392. California – 314. Nebraska – 279. Missouri – 130. New Mexico – 2.

Miles of ‘virgin’ roads driven (roads I’d never previously driven): 2298.

Highest altitude: Wolf Creek Pass, 10,856’. Runners up: Lassen Volcanic and Great Basin, each over 10,500’. HM to Togwatee Pass, 9544’ and La Veta Pass, 9413’ – the dozens of 5,000’ to 8,000’ passes don’t even get a mention – and most passes require driving up and/or down a canyon.

Volcanic features encountered: Craters of the Moon, Newberry Volcanic, Lassen Volcanic. John Day Fossil Beds, Great Basin, the whole skyline west of US-97, among others.

 

Future trip plans: A visit to Louisiana next year for my 65^th year HS reunion, and maybe one last visit to the U.P.

Day R-10, Wednesday, July 23, 2025 - McPherson to Warrensburg

 LAST DAY! My HIE breakfast was ready early, so I ate my cinnamon roll and turkey sausage before rolling at 0604, CDT. I saw sunrise from US-56, then switched to one of my favorite short cuts, K-150, at a roundabout. This takes me into the Flint Hills and into Chase County. I read a lot about the area in William Least Heat-Moon’s book, “Prairy Erth.”

I’m now on good old US-50. The area is green as green can be, with plenty to eat for the cattle shipped up from Texas for backgrounding before their trip to the feed yard for finishing. There’s even a bit of mist rising from some of the puddles – I guess you can say this area has received copious amounts of rain – with more to come if the forecasts are correct.

At Emporia, I pick up I-35 north to Ottawa. K-68 takes me to my first and only break of the day at Louisburg. The Missouri line is only about 10 miles east, so it’s roads oft-traveled home and to work. I finish the laundry and the books, pay the card bills, and collapse. Mowing the grass nourished by at least 3.75” of rain and plenty of sunshine will wait its turn.

 

For the day: 235.3 miles, for the trip 4777.4

Soon to come: Trip wrap up.

Day R-9, Tuesday, July 22, 2025 - La Junta to McPherson

 I love it when the motel opens the breakfast doors at 0600. I was already loaded, so a quick couple of items and on the road at 0614 local. US-50 starts as a 4-lane highway parallel to the Arkansas River and the BNSF (& Amtrak) tracks. The highway narrows to 2 lanes, but the speed limit remains at 65 except when passing through towns like Las Animas (elev 3900’) on the Santa Fe Trail.

I have a small problem: my cruise control suddenly stops working, and here I am in a nice, flat river valley, perfect for that function. Fortunately, I knew that the forward radar in this Toyota is housed behind the logo in front. I pull over at Lamar and clean off the built-up bugs; when I start up again, it works!

I deviate from my planned route by turning north on a paved county road through a heavily agricultural area with little traffic, transitioning into the “Buffalo Plains.” I have seen many silo trees in my travels, but this road provided something new – a silo car!

I come out on CO-96 at the ghost town of Chivington. That’s where you turn off to the the site of the Sand Creek massacre that Col. Chivington engineered. The site is now under the NPS; I was tempted to drive to it so I could take a picture of the infamous Trump-directed sign and ask how he’d interpret the site. I remember the vicious biting flies, immune to 40% DEET, encountered on a previous visit, so moved on.

Sheridan Lake (elev 4072’) is the highest I’ll be for at least the rest of this year. The eponymous lake is little more than another playa.

Crossing into Kansas, I’m now on K-97. I pass a small town with a big elevator every few miles – the railroad tracks here are shiny. The road is newly paved, as well. Oops, it’s time for nice, long wait; I’ve reached the paving-in-progress section. It seems to me that the existing pavement they’re replacing is better than that on many Missouri roads.

I cross White Woman Creek of ghostly legend and reenter Central Time. Leoti claims to be the Barn Quilt Capital of Kansas; I see no barns. Rush County has more than its share of scenic abandoned farm houses, with no place to stop for a picture.

As I approach Great Bend, I see my second truck accident of the day. The first one cut a corner leaving a dirt road and had deposited a crop sprayer rig in the ditch. This one hit the turn into a side road a tad too fast and jack-knifed across the side road.

The Ellinwood-McPherson area is oil country. I see a couple of new refineries, new pipelines all over the place. They have a first class museum, lots of space, art, etc. Oil money sure makes a difference!

I’m checked into my HIE and plan to crash early – 18 days on the road!

For the day: 254.1 miles, for the trip 4542.1

Tomorrow: 240 miles and home!

Day R-8, Monday, July 21, 2025 - Cortez to La Junta

 Another early morning departure. The HIE hotel breakfast wasn’t supposed to start until 0630, so I had planned to grab something at the classic ‘50s style Denny’s diner next door. When I started to haul my last load to the car, people were already eating – I think a special exception for a “Hot Shot” fire team - so I grabbed something expecting to have a real breakfast in Durango. I rolled at 0614 under light showers.

The sun was rising on the other side of the next mountain, casting an unusual glow on the clouds and mist. Traffic wouldn’t allow a set shot; this one through the windshield doesn’t do it justice.

 

The first pass of the day, a long one, wasn’t too bad leading to Durango. Durango traffic is very urban - it’s all built up with fancy by-passes which limits my likelihood of finding a cafe.

I find the right exit to continue on US-160 and head for Chimney Rock National Monument. That takes me through more of the San Juan Mountains; there’s even a wildlife overpass!. The time is 0819; the monument gates don’t open until 0900. I take some pictures and press on, starving.

                                        From the entrance

                                    A different angle

    

                                A pair of ravens nesting on the sign

I finally find an easily accessible cafe in Pagosa Springs. It even has grits on the menu. I ordered eggs over easy & grits – big mistake.

Now for the adventure: Wolf Creek Pass! There’s even a country song about it. I stopped at a couple of pull-outs to take these shots, one of a mountain across the way and one down the valley.

There was plenty of construction along the highway, so it was both hands on the wheel all the way through. I couldn’t even stop to take a picture of the Continental Divide sign at 10,865 feet. I’ve been over 10,000’ twice already, at Lassen and Great Basin, but this pass tops each of those.

The long ride down to the San Luis Valley follows the West Fork of the Rio Grande. I look for my only real taste of real green chile sauce in Alamosa. My two favorite restaurants there are closed on Monday, but a lady at the tourism office in an old depot sent me to Nino’s Del Sol – a fine choice.

As I leave the valley, I see the dunes of Great Sand Dunes National Park in the distance. Then it’s time for my last pass of the trip. La Veta Pass (9413’) goes through the Sangre de Cristo Range, home of many 14ers (including nearby Sierra Blanca at 14,345.

At Walsenburg, I leave US-160 and pick up CO-10 for 72 miles of nothing – just a few ranches in this high plains area. It has real grass (and a few cacti). I get to La Junta and my HIE at 1452, download the few photos I took, and called it a day.

For the day: 342.1 miles, for the trip 4187.9

Tomorrow: McPherson, KS, route TBD (too many options)

Day R-7, Sunday, July 20, 2025 - Blanding to Cortez

 Today will be hot, and I have some hiking on the schedule, so I leave Blanding at 0635 local. 14 miles on a good road, followed by 30 miles on variable, but paved, roads, takes me to Hovenweeep National Monument. I arrive at 0735 and commence my hike on a nice, paved trail; this is followed by up-and-down over slickrock. Hovenweep features a concentrated group of ruins along the upper reached of a small canyon.

                            Twin Towers

 

Twin Towers showing 2 other units

 

                            five visible tower/units

 

                                            Hovenweep Castle with Hovenweep House

 

                                            Hovenweep Castle

                                            Hovenweep House

I leave after 2 hours, split between hiking and recuperating. The road to Aneth is good. It’s also high – I can see Ship Rock in the distance. The shot-up roadside signs on the Rez show that sign-shooting folks out here don’t mess with mere shotguns.

As I approach Aneth I see that more families in this area still have hogans. Some hogans have windows and even a little cupola with skylights as well as the traditional chimney. I guess Changing Woman would approve, as long as the door opens to sunrise.

I see a couple of small groups of possibly-wild horses, each with a dominant stallion, his posture leaving no doubt who is in charge.

NM-262 becomes CO-41 at the state line. I turn onto US-160 for a visit to the Four Corners Monument. This is a Navajo Tribal Park - $8 per person entry fee, please. The marker itself is flanked on each state’s side by vendor booths, presumably staffed by people from that state. People line up to have their pictures taken straddling the marker. Yes, it’s a tourist trap, and I heartily approve of the Dine’ peoples’ entrepreneurism, bringing money to a rather desolate area.

 

US-160/491 heads toward Cortez, but I take a side road to collect a little known National Monument, Yucca House. There is little choice in parking; the boardwalk leading to the site is entered from a farmer’s driveway. His sprinklers are going providing a cool shower to those who don’t navigate the boardwalk quickly enough.

 

I eschew US-160/491 and use County Road 21 to reach the edge of Cortez. Like so many other towns in the area, it has exploded in tourism-related businesses. I’m way too early to attempt to check in, so I take a side trip to Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Alas! The museum is closed today, but I had a nice chat with a couple staffing an information kiosk – the lady hailed originally from Springfield (MO).

 

Back in Cortez, I’m able to check into my HIE about 1330. A superb pollo verde at Margarita’s and I’m finishing up well before 1700.

For the day: 164.8 miles, for the trip 3845.8.

Tomorrow: La Junta via Chimney Rock Nat’l Monument and Wolf Creek Pass.