People who ride motorcycles jokingly(?) call Missouri "Misery". I'm guessing that's because the more Northerly part of the state is more like the Kansas East Annex. Have you ever looked at Kansas on a map? Take Manhanttan and stretch it WAY out. It's a big grid with 90-degree turns every 50 miles or something. Looks silly. There may be some good smaller roads that don't show up at the resolution we were viewing, but... it's Kansas. So, whatever. (no offense)
Missouri, however, has some nice stuff in the Southern end of it. Hills and turns and twisties and everything! Two hidden gems in this case are Routes 14 and 160. We exited Joplin and rode enough highway to get us away from the city and out into the more spread-out stuff and found Rt. 14, which piggy-backs a few other roads in stretches, then connect up with 160 further East.
Let's put it all in perspective... after riding California and Oregon roads, I've not been on anything since that really compare - nothing excessively beautiful, twisty or technical in nature. Call me jaded. But these two Missouri roads provide more than enough entertainment to let you blast across the state at a good clip, and still have fun and keep from getting bored. Both roads have a few technical sections and pack up pretty tight, but for the most part they are the higher-speed twistie roads; think Cherohala (for you Easties) or... well, I can't really name a single road in California that is just that type of stuff.
Point being, you don't have to ride straight lines and 90-degree city-like grid roads if you know where to look. (I won't make such assertions about Kansas
)The only pictures I have from the day are when we discovered that Wayne couldn't wait for the guy in the men's room and decided to use the ladies' room. I caught him as he was coming out (hehehe, I said 'coming out'). I wonder what he'll pay me to keep these off the Interne... oh, wait.
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