Route for June 27, 2014: Metcalf Avenue, US 69, K-68 becoming MO 2, I-49, US 71, I-29, I-35, MO 1, MO 152, I-29, MO 92, MO 92 Spur, MO 273, MO 371, US 36, K-7, connector to Rulo, US 159, US 59, I-29, US 59, US 71, MO 48, Route Z, US 69, Route C, I-35, IA 5, US 69.
A VERY small number of I-49 shields with the Missouri name exist, which is a bad omen for those of us who like state names on interstate shields. The location of this sign shall remain hidden for its own protection.
To start my return to Des Moines, I drove south, then east, then north, to get the part of I-49 that I missed yesterday. I continued on that part of US 71 into downtown that is not a freeway. The MO 1 bridge was closed, so I did the part north of I-35.
I figured I would stop at McDonald’s in Platte City when I got there to check the weather, and it was a good a time as any to eat. I then took MO 371, old US 71, to St. Joseph. It wouldn’t serve to be a US route today.
It still wasn’t raining at St Joe, although it was cloudy, and I went to the second town in Kansas to use the library’s wifi from the car. (It worked.) The rain was almost all gone, so I headed west. (Also, the Pizza Hut on the edge of town recently closed.) Iowa Point is nothing but an intersection. White Cloud had an Lewis and Clark marker and was right by a bulging Missouri River. (Later in the day, I read I drove past the Four State Lookout. There were no signs. D’OH.)
Rulo, the southeasternmost city in Nebraska, got its one-block main street paved along with the new US 159 bridge. The GPS gave me 200 miles to go by sending me down I-29 and then on something unorthodox I wouldn’t have/didn’t come up with (top), but it seemed worth a shot.
The southeastern (road) corner of Nebraska. The true KS-MO-NE triple point is, of course, in the Missouri River about a mile to the east. The nearest anything is the Iowa Tribe casino to the southwest.
I followed that backroad path through northwest Missouri, and then had an uneventful trip back up I-35.