St. Robert to Sullivan, MO 05-10-2026 Day 30

We were up early as usual and got through the breakfast items we bought at Walmart, since our hotel was only offering coffee. There is always some last minute things to take care of. I forgot to reach out to some Warm Showers hosts last night. I sent a message to 2 in the St. Louis area. Ron had scoped out the weather and was concerned about possible strong winds out of the northeast – right where we were going. As we left town in that direction, there was some wind. It slowed us some, but it was not terrible.

Our Route 66 was a frontage road that paralleled I-44.

We had to ride through a few miles of old concrete pavement that made a “Ca-chunk” sound every time our wheels hit a new 20 foot section of road. Luckily, we hit some new pavement with trees on both sides to block the wind. It made for a great ride to Newburg.

On our way to Newburg we came across a turtle in the middle of our lane. There was no traffic coming and it was still alive. We didn’t think it would stay that way if we left it, so Ron moved it to the side, off the road.

Between the encounter with the turtle and the road rhythms from the concrete, the mental jukebox had kicked in again.

We didn’t want the turtle to end up like this opossum that a vulture was using for breakfast.

Newburg was an old small town. It had a few sites, but mostly it made for a quiet ride through town and back up the road.

We had a turn to make outside of Doolittle. I had been carrying a gift card for Dunkin Donuts that my cousin Jeff Zych had given me for Christmas. There are none in Washington state where I live. When Ron spotted one, it was my turn to treat.

Rolla was pretty big town. We had to cross over the interstate as well as make it through many city streets. They did have nice mural display. (Click on the individual images to get a better look)

Just outside of Rolla, a man waved me down. He offered to take our picture near one of the Route 66 signs. He has made it a point to be extra friendly to those traveling through. He was quite a character and we enjoyed our short conversation. Here is his card.

After another 12 miles, we needed a “butt break” – time off the saddle. An Ashley furniture store near St. James served our purpose. We also passed the winery, which was not doing tours today.

About another 8 miles down the road we came across an unusual site in Fanning. It looked inviting, but neither Ron or I could get into the chair without a crane.

By the time we got Cuba, about 50 miles into our ride, we needed a break. It billed itself as the city of murals. It had quite a few.

We both stopped into a small burger place that looked like it was made from an old gas station We didn’t get anything to eat, but we both drank a lot of beer. Root beer.

Not far outside of town was a BBQ place that my wife and her friends had tried on their Route 66 road trip last year. The smells coming from Missouri Hick’s made us want to stay. Unfortunately we still had a little over 20 miles of riding and we couldn’t enjoy it the way we wanted.

We had more roller coaster hills to deal with on the way to the next town. Most places have water towers. This one had 2, but I wasn’t clear on what was in them. When I was growing up, ours had water.

We only had less than 12 miles to our hotel in Sullivan. Based on previous experiences and my strong desire for a good breakfast, we overshot our hotel and went to a Walmart. Ron got ice cream and few other goodies. I got another microwavable breakfast bowl, the only semi-ripe banana and some milk for tomorrow morning. After our usual cleanup, I tried to re-repair my GPS buttons. I lost one of my 2 repairs to road bumps and the other sometime in the last 2 miles.

The other stange discovery in unpacking was that I found one of those steel wire fragments had stabbed my tablet. For the life of me I don’t know how that happened. No wonder they have given us so many flats.They are literally everywhere!

In spite of that , we had a very good day. We decided to pass on the warm showers hosts and stay at a casino hotel in East St. Louis tomorrow. The wind might be at our backs! We saw a lot of neat things and had some unusual conversations.

The ride stats are here. The 3D video is here.

The Not So Lone Rider