Day trips

ragtoplvr · Jun 5, 2022

Joplin

another good day trip is Joplin Missouri to look at how well they rebuilt after the tornado.

Watch some of the Utube videos to get a sense of the damage and then look at it now.
For lunch try the moderate to high priced (a bargain for those from the coastal areas) Mythos on Rangeline or the red onion downtown,
both have lunch specials. Or for a bargain is the Webb City Sub Shop, owner rides, harleys of course, but it is the best low cost sub around.

I have no afilliation with any of these except being a customer.

Rod
.

ragtoplvr · Jun 6, 2022

Picher OK

If you come over to Joplin you may wish to go another 30 miles or so to the former town of Picher OK. It was destroyed in a prior tornado and was actually abandoned.

Most of the damage is cleaned up, the streets remain. There are a few still living there, they have to have generators and water tanks. I do not know if they are squatters or still renting as the housing is not torn down. The rest of the town is slowly being reclaimed by nature. I have enjoyed seeing the transformation over the years.

Rod

jnrugg · Jun 6, 2022

jandhumphreyme said:
A destination on my radar is the National Churchill Museum on the Westminster Campus in Fulton, MO. I've no specific route to share but wanted to toss out the museum to those who may not otherwise know its so close by. https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/

I was looking at the same.
Saw a YouTube about it and it looks fascinating and very unique.

bicyclenut · Jun 6, 2022

ragtoplvr said:
If you come over to Joplin you may wish to go another 30 miles or so to the former town of Picher OK. It was destroyed in a prior tornado and was actually abandoned.

Most of the damage is cleaned up, the streets remain. There are a few still living there, they have to have generators and water tanks. I do not know if they are squatters or still renting as the housing is not torn down. The rest of the town is slowly being reclaimed by nature. I have enjoyed seeing the transformation over the years.

Rod

I worked out a route for this, about 4 hours and you can go through Joplin, MS, stop at the spot where you can stand at the corner of MO, OK, KS all at the same time and ride through Picher, OK. Depends on how long you stop at each. If you detour up to Galena, KS there is a restored Rt 66 gas station with old tow truck from the movie Cars. Think there is also a casino in the area near the corner of the three states if that is your thing.

Picher was hit by a tornado but is was also abandoned due to severe contamination of the soil and water due to lead and zinc mining. The town just closed up and ceased to exist, people were pretty much forced to leave, might be a few who still live there but pretty much an entire town abandoned in early 2000's. Only a number of these modern towns in USA that met similar fates due to environmental issues (Gilman, CO and Centralia, PA), probably worth the ride through it for people who have an interest in urban exploring and urban decay.

pglaves · Jun 6, 2022

ragtoplvr said:
If you come over to Joplin you may wish to go another 30 miles or so to the former town of Picher OK. It was destroyed in a prior tornado and was actually abandoned.

Most of the damage is cleaned up, the streets remain. There are a few still living there, they have to have generators and water tanks. I do not know if they are squatters or still renting as the housing is not torn down. The rest of the town is slowly being reclaimed by nature. I have enjoyed seeing the transformation over the years.

Rod

The Picher, OK tornado did a lot of damage but was not the town's only undoing. Picher was a lead and zinc mining town which had huge piles of ore tailings almost in people's back yards. The underground mining beneath buildings also caused a high risk of ground collapse. By the mid 1990s a third of the children in the town - playing in their sandboxes and tailings piles - were identified to have lead poisoning. It became part of a large Superfund Site.

When we lived in Kansas we often rode into Oklahoma on US 69. The first time I rode into Picher I must have been psychic because the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Even still occupied in the 1980s and 1990s the place was creepy.

Here is a Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma#Closure

ragtoplvr · Jun 6, 2022

PGlaves said:
The Picher, OK tornado did a lot of damage but was not the town's only undoing. Picher was a lead and zinc mining town which had huge piles of ore tailings almost in people's back yards. The underground mining beneath buildings also caused a high risk of ground collapse. By the mid 1990s a third of the children in the town - playing in their sandboxes and tailings piles - were identified to have lead poisoning. It became part of a large Superfund Site.

When we lived in Kansas we often rode into Oklahoma on US 69. The first time I rode into Picher I must have been psychic because the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Even still occupied in the 1980s and 1990s the place was creepy.

Here is a Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma#Closure

The loss of IQ in those kids was alarming. Also the loss of impulse control. I teacher I know said the lead made the boys fight and the girls pregnant. They were different, even the kids from the southern half of my county in Kansas were different, you did not mess with them. The tailings were also loaded with asbestos and for a long time the area was #1 for lung cancer. We have many lead and zinc trust funders in the area, their fortunes intact while the horrible mess they made remains for us to clean up on all our tax dollars. This is NOT fair.

I worked Midnight shift a BF Goodrich in Miami for a time. The drive home, I saw a few fights, and one night a guy half in a car punching the driver while the driver tried to brush him off on a telephone pole. The used to Joke the local bar they checked you for knives and guns when you went in, if you didn't have any they loaned you some.

Lost a neighbor who was dirt biking on the chats and fell in a mine shaft.

Rod

trochman · Jun 8, 2022

Thanks for all the hard work

All,

Thanks for pulling all this together. This is my first rally - how does this work? Do we all make sure to meet up a the start? Do we "sign up?"

Thanks,

Tim

flyhi2cfar · Jun 8, 2022

First Rally... Eh!

trochman said:
All,

Thanks for pulling all this together. This is my first rally - how does this work? Do we all make sure to meet up a the start? Do we "sign up?"

Thanks,

Tim

Tim; respectively... you'll be like a kid in a candy store! And likely way too busy for a ride away from the on-site activities.
Quite a few of DO use these routes on the way in (rally arrival) and departing on Sunday.
You first timers get a lot of extra attention at the National. Please volunteer for something that interests you.
And review the site map, seminar listings, activities, ect... before arrival. That will really help your time being used effectively.
Enjoy the show!

trochman · Jun 8, 2022

Thanks John. I do have some fun roads planned on the way in. And you are right - I have no idea what to expect!

Hope top meet you there.

r65_steve · Jun 8, 2022

bicyclenut said:
I worked out a route for this, about 4 hours and you can go through Joplin, MS, stop at the spot where you can stand at the corner of MO, OK, KS all at the same time and ride through Picher, OK. Depends on how long you stop at each. If you detour up to Galena, KS there is a restored Rt 66 gas station with old tow truck from the movie Cars. Think there is also a casino in the area near the corner of the three states if that is your thing.

Picher was hit by a tornado but is was also abandoned due to severe contamination of the soil and water due to lead and zinc mining. The town just closed up and ceased to exist, people were pretty much forced to leave, might be a few who still live there but pretty much an entire town abandoned in early 2000's. Only a number of these modern towns in USA that met similar fates due to environmental issues (Gilman, CO and Centralia, PA), probably worth the ride through it for people who have an interest in urban exploring and urban decay.

That's wild. I looked at it on Google streetview and it's a weird vision. Might be a good place to go.

r65_steve · Jun 8, 2022

ragtoplvr said:
The loss of IQ in those kids was alarming. Also the loss of impulse control. I teacher I know said the lead made the boys fight and the girls pregnant. They were different, even the kids from the southern half of my county in Kansas were different, you did not mess with them.

"Ruth Ann and Lynn come down from Baxter Springs
That's one hell raisin' town way up in Southeastern Kansas
Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
That's got them Rolling Stones lips up there where everyone can see 'em
And they burn all night you know they burn all night you know they burn all night"

pglaves · Jun 8, 2022

R65_Steve said:
That's wild. I looked at it on Google streetview and it's a weird vision. Might be a good place to go.

Some, but not all of the streetview images are from 2008 before the tornado and the abandonment. Other images I looked at are from 2012.

ebell · Jun 8, 2022

R65_Steve said:
"Ruth Ann and Lynn come down from Baxter Springs
That's one hell raisin' town way up in Southeastern Kansas
Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
That's got them Rolling Stones lips up there where everyone can see 'em
And they burn all night you know they burn all night you know they burn all night"

Great lyrics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWEJPqJtZsk

bicyclenut · Jun 8, 2022

PGlaves said:
Some, but not all of the streetview images are from 2008 before the tornado and the abandonment. Other images I looked at are from 2012.

There are a number of videos on You Tube that show what's left within the last couple years. Seems like a pretty apocalyptic place to ride/drive around.

This video is from 2021

truckerdave · Jun 13, 2022

R65_Steve said:
"Ruth Ann and Lynn come down from Baxter Springs
That's one hell raisin' town way up in Southeastern Kansas
Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
That's got them Rolling Stones lips up there where everyone can see 'em
And they burn all night you know they burn all night you know they burn all night"

Hey i passed right through downtown Baxter Springs several years ago. Hey James McMurtry, i didn't see any of that much less any second cousins in cut off britches and skinny little halters.

r65_steve · Jun 13, 2022

truckerdave said:
Hey i passed right through downtown Baxter Springs several years ago. Hey James McMurtry, i didn't see any of that much less any second cousins in cut off britches and skinny little halters.

LOL, I was looking on google streetview for the Rolling Stones lips.

truckerdave · Jun 13, 2022

They were probably there at one time. Choctaw Bingo came out about 20 years ago. Sounds like the guy wrote about what he saw, like the Big Indian Smokeshop with the neon smoke rings and the Macdonalds on the overpass
.

Omega Man · Jun 15, 2022

I think the largest of the BassPro stores is in Springfield MO. I think this would be a great take if you are involved in hunting and fishing.

https://stores.basspro.com/us/mo/springfield/1-bass-pro-dr.html

This BassPro location also houses the NRA National Sporting Arms Museum. There is a BassPro close to me and it’s a metal building……A metal building that is so well decorated, even if you have no interest in anything sporting, the interior decorating is spectacular.
If anyone needs camping supplies, they have a full line.
Enjoy the Rally.
OM

r65_steve · Jun 15, 2022

Omega Man said:
I think the largest of the BassPro stores is in Springfield MO. I think this would be a great take if you are involved in hunting and fishing.

https://stores.basspro.com/us/mo/springfield/1-bass-pro-dr.html

This BassPro location also houses the NRA National Sporting Arms Museum. There is a BassPro close to me and it’s a metal building……A metal building that is so well decorated, even if you have no interest in anything sporting, the interior decorating is spectacular.
If anyone needs camping supplies, they have a full line.
Enjoy the Rally.
OM

Does it have a/c?

The one outside Barber Motorsports Musuem is similarly well decorated.

r65_steve · Jun 15, 2022

I've got no need to go to Pitcher now. I tried crossing the Hickman Ferry and found its not open on Wednesday.

So I passed through Cayce,KY. Twice. It has the same look. Got to the main intersection and everything is torn down. There's ditches with all the trees torn.up.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Western_Kentucky_tornado

I thought they were building a traffic circle in the middle of nowhere till I looked it up.

Some of these rural communities are so poor. It's very sad.

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