The only reason we came to Bolivar, Missouri, was to ride yet another rail trail. We had high hopes for the Frisco Highline Trail, only some of which were realized. At 35 miles, this is the second longest rail trail in Missouri, behind only the well-known and much longer Katy Trail. Unfortunately, the Frisco Highline Trail was not nearly as impressive as its website. On our first day in town, we did a short ride from our RV park to access the trail, then took the trail a few miles north into town. This portion of the trail is paved and well=maintained. We passed La Petite Gemme ("little gem") Prairie, one of the last prairie remnants in the area. How nice that it is accessible via the rail trail. Approaching town, there is no easy way to cross busy Highway 13, so there is a longish road detour to continue the trail. This detour was not always well-marked, and we took a wrong turn once. We eventually figured it out and got back on the trail to ride to its northern terminus in town. The primary purpose of this short ride was to stop in at one of our favorite stores, Aldi, and pick up some groceries. On our second day, we rode south on the trail. Our access point from the county road was at Mile Marker (MM) 31. This portion of the trail is unpaved but was supposedly packed limestone like the Katy Trail, so we took our Bike Fridays, with their 1.35" wide tires. Parts of this section were indeed smoothly packed limestone and easy and fun to ride. In many places, however, a good mowing and branch trimming was needed as the grass and weeds were high, and occasionally the trail would almost disappear in the weeds. We were surprised to see how poorly maintained this section of trail was, but it was tolerable compared to the conditions we encountered the farther south we pedaled. We had hoped to make it to the town of Walnut Grove at MM 16, but ended up turning around early due to the gravel conditions, mostly from the Little Sac River bridge (MM 23) to MM 21 (and probably farther south). This section appeared to have been relatively recently re-graveled. The gravel was larger and deeper than ideal (up to 3" deep in some places), leading to fish-tailing and difficulties controlling our bikes. It was good to see that some maintenance had been done, but it was not done well; the gravel was not spread evenly or thinly enough, making it somewhat hazardous and not fun to ride. We would recommend this section for mountain bikes only. Unfortunately, I did not think to stop and take a photo of conditions in this section, I was having a hard enough time just keeping the rubber side down! We took a little detour on an access road near the campground on our way back to photograph this cool little store. Outside were many vintage gas pumps and signs. Neat place!
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We don't often stay in commercial RV parks for shorter stays. They are too often laid out like parking lots, with little privacy between closely spaced sites; and they tend to be more expensive than the public parks we favor. In this case, however; we wanted to ride the Frisco Highline rail-trail, and the only campground nearby was a commercial one, Red Cedar RV Park. The reviews were positive, but we pulled in with some trepidation, as it was behind a rather modest motel, and we weren't sure what to expect. We were relieved to see that this park was quite nice, very clean and well-maintained. Sure, it was basically a parking lot, but at least there was grass, and it was neat and tidy. The bath house was large, modern, and clean. We didn't need it, but I did peer inside. There were a couple of washers and dryers that worked well. This is a plus of a commercial parks, as very few public parks offer laundry facilities, and we needed to do a couple of loads. We had made advance reservations since we'd be staying over a weekend, and it was a good thing we did. This park caters to longer-term stays (weeks or months), and all of the perimeter back-in spots were full. The few pull-through sites for transients were at near capacity: there was only one free spot on two of our three nights, and all sites were full on the Saturday night we were there. The nightly price of $26.50 before our 10% Good Sam discount was not bad at all for a spot with full hookups (electricity, water, and sewer), and best of all, there was fast (4G LTE) wi-fi that worked well. We were able to use that rather than burn through any of our Verizon data allotment for the month. Sweet! The very best park of the park was this dog park, where we could let Paisley off leash to burn off some of her energy for awhile each day. She just loved it. We would only go in when no other dogs were using the park, since she doesn't always love other dogs, but solo, it was her perfect puppy playpen! Another plus of the park: it was only a short walk down the road to a great barbeque place, Boones BBQ Barn. On our last night, we walked down and brought back pulled chicken with sides of smoked beans and sweet potato casserole. Oh, and the cobbler of the day, blackberry. Not the healthiest meal, but oh so yummy.
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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