June 30, 2018 - Tulsa to Columbia, MO

I guess I wore out my welcome when I went through the toll booth on I-44 at Tulsa.  The road was a mess with all the pavement ground off and rough.  When I pulled into the toll plaza I raised my visor and told the lady “you know, on the east coast we build the road First then charge tolls for people riding on it!”  She just smiled.  That road recalled sucked!  It was a breeze getting around Tulsa at 4:30 am.  I picked up the toll road again on the other side of Tulsa and it was in better shape.  I doubt I will ever ride in OK again.  It doesn’t have scenic beautiful and the roads are awful!

Around 9:00 I crossed into Missouri and the whole ride changed.  My prior experience in MO was AIT at Ft. Leonard Wood so not a visit under the nicest of circumstances. I was pleasantly surprised when I turned to head north toward Columbia and it became hilly and the terrain was beautiful.  I had forgotten that Lake of the Ozarkd was here and I drove through it.  I arrived at Tom and Marsha’s house around 11:30 and I was shocked at how little they had changed.  They also had a tour all lined up to show me the place that they are so proud of.

We traveled through much of the U of MO and it felt a lot like Chapel Hill, NC.  Our travels took us to Fulton where the National Churchill Museum is at the Westminster College.  It is also under the Church of St. Mary, a Christopher Wren designed building.

This is in Fulton because after the war Churchill gave a speech in 1946 and predicted that an iron curtain would cross Europe.  It proved to be very true.  The Church was bombed out in London and was to be destroyed but the people in MO had it shipped here and rebuilt it.  It was stunning.  

Standing next to the church is the largest piece of the Berlin Wall in the US.

It was quite a shock seeing all this European History standing in Missouri. 

After dinner at Shakespear Pizza, a very good place , we headed home and retired early.