You have the this month opportunity to see world-class bicycle racing in Traveler Country. The first Tour of Missouri will bring the Tour de France champion and U.S. National champion to the Show Me State for a six-day, 15-team race starting in Kansas City and ending in St. Louis, Sept. 11-16.

Tour de France champion Alberto Contador of Spain and American Levi Leipheimer, the third-place finisher at that race, have been announced as members of the Discovery Channel Team, along with U.S. National Champion George Hincapie of Greenville, S.C and other top competitors.
The event is patterned after the successful Tour of Georgia and Amgen Tour of California. Race director Jim Birrell calls the event “a great postcard of Missouri to the world” and Lt. Governor Peter Kinder says the race will capture the imagination of the state and could pump millions of dollars into local economies along the route.

Here’s some detail on the legs in or near Traveler Country:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, STAGE 4 - Lebanon to Columbia, road race, 133 mi. (214 km). START: 10:30 AM EST FINISH: 3:25 PM The race will snake through Guthrie, and Ulman, highlighted by a sprint in Jefferson City, and will finish in downtown Columbia.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, STAGE 5 - Jefferson City to St. Charles, road race, 126.6 mi. (204km). START: 11:30 AM EST FINISH: 3:40 PM Starting against the backdrop of Missouri’s Capitol, the course features a serpentine route along Highways 94 and 100, passing through Augusta, Hermann and Washington en route to the finish in St. Charles, near the Lewis and Clark Rendezvous.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, STAGE 6 - St. Louis, circuit, 74 mi. (119 km). START: 1 PM EST FINISH: 3:50 PM The start and finish will take place Union Station. Riders will race seven circuits of 10-plus miles through urban terrain, including the northeast part of Forest Park and passing by the north and south sides of St. Louis University.

For more information, go to http://www.tourofmissouri.com

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The Outdoor Expo at the Busch Shooting Range in St. Charles County Saturday, July 28, attracted some 1,400 people to test firearms, practice skeet-shooting and casting, and visit booths of various outdoor providers from gun and archery dealers to game farms.

In the photo, seven-year-old Marek Nelson of Union, Mo., aims a 9 mm Beretta pistol under the direction of shooting range volunteer Mike Stassi.

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By Emery Styron
River Hills Traveler

Don Collop of the Flying T—E Ranch, Rutledge, Mo., added historic flavor to the Outdoor Expo at Busch Shooting Range on Saturday, July 28.

Collop is a “cousie,” that is a chuckwagon cook, and brought along his 1910 wagon and cooking acoutrements, for the education of the many hunters, anglers, campers and others who attended the event and might want to compare notes on outdoor cooking.

Lonehand.com’s website credits Texas rancher Charlie Goodnight with creation of the prototype chuckwagon in 1866, during the era of the great cattle drives from Western lands to railheads in Kansas. Goodnight rebuilt a Studebaker wagon to carry water, firewood and provisions and cowboys bedrolls. Key features were the hinged lid of the chuck box, that dropped down to provide a work surface, and a canvas hammock suspended beneath the wagon to carry any scarce fuel collected along the way.

Collop’s wagon was manufactured by Peter Shetler in Chicago and first retailed by Roberts Bros. & Green Mercantile in Centralia, Mo. He has it outfitted with typical cowboy cooking gear. He and his wife, Evelyn, enjoy taking the wagon to schools and various events to make presentations on the cowboy way of life. Rounding out the chuckwagon gang are “hoodlums” (that’s what the cousie’s assistants were called) Hershel Linnenbringer and Gary Gooch.

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