The Under Appreciated Loop And The Oldfield Opry. MO14-MO76-MO125

A view over the Ozark Mountains from Good Hope.

There are lots of routes to ride in the Ozarks, almost all of which are good rides, but it's also easy to get in the habit of riding the same roads all the time. I find that the local riders generally fall into this rut.  They know a few routes and every time they get a chance they go ride one of them.  In time we'll go over those more popular routes here. For today though, we're going to go over one of the best and least appreciated routes in the Ozarks.

The Mother Road (Route 66 Strafford to Lebanon)

The Mother Road, as it was called by John Steinbeck, in his novel, "The Grapes of Wrath".

Highway 66 is the main migrant road. 66 — the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map, from Mississippi to Bakersfield — over the red lands and the grey lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys

66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership, from the desert’s slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there. From all of these the people are in flight, and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads. 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.

Reasons To Ride The Ozarks

Living in the Ozarks, I often overlook the reasons that people come here to ride. Sure there are more miles of twisty, decently maintained, mountain road than anywhere else in the Midwest and for many that, is reason enough.  Yesterday, I was out for a little jaunt around the area and it hit me as I was headed down highway 13 on the way to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  I topped a hill and the view in the morning mist blew me away.  From the top of that hill I could see for miles, the valley below and the rolling hills ahead as they grew to an impressive summit far in the distance.