Begin Great River Road to the North

I'm calling this trip the title of this post, "Great River Road to the North" as that is what we will follow all the way to the beginning of the Mississippi River.  A trip now planned for next spring will be called the "Great River Road to the South" when we will go back to Louisiana, MO but that time we will turn south and follow the Mighty Mississippi to it's delta into the gulf.

Today was a short trip so we didn't leave the Manor until around 10:30 this morning.  We had lunch at a scenic overlook along Missouri Rte 79 between Louisiana, MO and Hannibal, MO.  These shots of the river are from that overlook.

That stretch of MO 79 was one of my choices of designation as "National Scenic Byway" before I left MoDOT and on this one I was successful.  It is extremely scenic.  One other route that I tried to get designated was MO 19 from Salem, MO to Winona, MO but on that one the people along the route wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Tonight we are in Wakonda State Park which is just off of US 61 near La Grange, MO and not too far from the river.