Midwest Backroads

I've been heading west the past few days, through several midwestern states from Indiana to Kansas.  Though I've taken I-70 part of the way, I also like to get off the freeway and take the backroads.  It's slower, but I have the time; it's more relaxing...few trucks or tailgaters; and you see more.  This is the longest covered bridge in the United States, near Medora in south central Indiana.  It's 438 feet long and has three interior spans.

The bridge is equally attractive from inside.  The structure dates from 1875.  The beautiful roof timbers are mostly new, but the thick pieces of wood that make up the spans and other interior supports are mainly original.

Brown County State Park is an oasis of lush forest in the middle of Indiana.  In October, it's one of the nation's best spots for fall color.  I was several weeks early for the show, but the forest floor still presents a fine mosaic of color and form.

This covered bridge near Greenup, Illinois is new!  It was built in 2000.  There was a CB on this site in the mid 1800s but it was torn down and replaced by a steel truss structure before 1900.  That in turn was pulled down long ago, and the locals decided to resurrect the original structure...with modern engineering.

Bolstered by a couple chilly nights, the first isolated signs of color are popping up in Illinois.

The Gasconade county courthouse in Hermann MO was built around 1900.

Hermann has many fine Victorian structures.  The town was settled by German immigrants in 1836, and retains a strong Teutonic influence.  It appears that the main activities are eating delicious food...emphasizing bratwurst; drinking good locally  grown wine; and having festivals with oompah bands, singing, dancing, eating, and drinking.  Sounds like a good lifestyle to me!

The Lizards are now hangin' at the Missouri River...at Portland, Missouri, no less!  They've had a fine tour of the great rivers of the US on this trip.

Vegetation on the banks of the Missouri...in Missouri...is lush, to say the least.

I did three strolls on the Katy Trail.  The Katy runs for 238 miles through Missouri along an old railbed that was abandoned in 1986.  By 1990 the first sections of the trail were completed.  It's still expanding and will soon reach all the way to the Mississippi.  This stretch of trail, between limestone bluffs on the right and the Missouri River to the left, is in the central part of the state near the town of Portland, between Jefferson City and Hermann.  You can bike, run, or hike the trail...and some of the western part is open to horseback riding.  At times in the winter the trail offers cross country skiing.

Now I'm on the Konza Prairie in Kansas, near Manhattan.  This is original tallgrass prairie, mostly never plowed, that is a Nature Conservancy preserve.  Buffalo have been returned to this, their natural habitat, and scientists come from all over the world to study the prairie ecosystem.  While not as spectacular as towering mountains or dramatic coastline, the prairie is equally diverse, biologically speaking.

A typical Kansas rural skyline. 

Edmond, Kansas; a typical hamlet, moribund but mellow.  Probably too mellow for most of us if we lived here full time.  4 PM Sunday afternoon and no sign of life.