The most boring roadtrip report ev*THUMP*
Jeff Morrison
all the rest was in Columbia.
Originally, this started with me scheduling my Thanksgiving holiday
for Saturday in exchange for working on that day and getting the day
before off. (Trust me, it's MUCH better this way.) Then it kind of
grew until four out of five family members were on our way to the Iowa
State-Missouri game in Columbia. This was Mom's first true away ISU
football game since I was five years old, which was also in Columbia
since her aunt lived there. She knows the Columbia campus and route
pretty well, since she came down from Goldfield every summer through
college, but much of that was back when IA 60 connected Goldfield and
Centerville, you could legally drive 70 on two-lanes, and US 63 was a
winding road south of Macon.
First, I came home for a dentist appointment, then we had to wait for
my brother to get back from Ames. We left around 6, heading south on
63, stopping for pizza at Bloomfield. Between Montezuma and the new
railroad crossing north of Oskaloosa, 63 could really use some new
paving.
Mom and Dad had big, big appreciation for the Ottumwa bypass. The GPS
didn't, because its data was stuck in 2007 - it didn't recognize the
bypass but did recognize the roundabout at 34/63. IA 163 is signed on
mainline 63 up through the 34 interchange (the sign now says "East
34/163 Fairfield") but was NOT signed on 34/63 approaching the
expressway. (However, it did appear to be signed on 149.) There is, as
you might expect, a big difference in reflectivity between the older
63 and new 163 shields. With the bypass, there are now 28 stoplights
on 63 between I-70 and US 20, and 11 of those are in Kirksville.
Stopped at Moberly for the night at Holiday Inn Express after the
Super 8 was sold out.
Day 2: US 63, I-70, MO 163 to campus and back, BL 70, US 63
It was much cheaper to stay in Moberly than Columbia, and a quick
jaunt down there in the morning. We wandered around campus for a while
before parking for the game. I had bought tickets in the visitors'
section of the end zone. It was very nice weather for a mid-November
game, and Iowa State played three good quarters before reverting to
form and quite possibly ending up with one of the postseason booby
prizes, the Independence Bowl.
But across the street the successful ISU volleyball team (now there's
a string of words that didn't get uttered before 2007) was playing,
and we caught two matches of what ended up a three-match sweep before
heading home.
It took 4 hours 45 minutes from I-70, arriving home at midnight. The
halfway point is about the west 63/2 intersection. It would have been
a little faster except for the doe standing in the southbound lane of
63 a few miles south of Lancaster, which stared at the van and then
decided to sideswipe it. Fortunately, the damage this time was VERY
minimal, with a couple of cracks in the area of the left headlight but
nothing else that we can tell. (This is the "THUMP" in the title.)
The only new road I know for sure was the fraction of Business 63
north of US 24, and while I can now count much of the I-70 business
loop I was likely on it when I was young. BTW, very few businesses on
the business loop.
Mark Roberts
| but much of that was back when IA 60 connected Goldfield and
| Centerville, you could legally drive 70 on two-lanes, and US 63 was a
| winding road south of Macon.
US 63 between Macon and Moberly actually never was all that
winding. It was just narrow.
|
| It was much cheaper to stay in Moberly than Columbia,
But you're staying in Moberly.
| The only new road I know for sure was the fraction of Business 63
| north of US 24, and while I can now count much of the I-70 business
| loop I was likely on it when I was young. BTW, very few businesses on
| the business loop.
The Business Loop has seen better days. It never was that
attractive to start with, thanks to the electric lines on both
sides of the street. I hope Columbia has finally standardized on
13.8 kV distribution, but for the longest time it wasn't. Thus
lines for both the older, lower distribution voltages and the
newer, higher voltage lined that street (and some others, too).
The dripping insulation was an esthetic plus, especially at Range Line.
Parkade Plaza, on the Business Loop west of Parkade Blvd., the
city's first shopping mall, stopped being retail in about 1987.
The flame at the Flaming Pit was extinguished at last. Parkade
was too small to be competitive. The motels toward the east side
are a bit downtrodden. The KFRU studios pulled out about 16 years
ago, replaced by a used appliance store. The tower moved a few
years later. Hathman Village never recovered from Gerbes'
move farther northeast onto Route B.
But, for all your muffler and guns 'n' ammo needs in Columbia, the
Business Loop is still the place to go.
--
Mark Roberts - E-Mail address is valid but I don't use Google Groups
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