On Friday my roommate Norm Kern had arrived with Jeff Dolence. In addition, several other riders had gotten there sometime during the day or evening hours, and many were wanting to get an early start Saturday morning. Plans were made to leave the hotel at 7am and do one of the routes. The Johnson’s Shut-in Route was the choice of Norm, and the rest of us all agreed.
Norm, Jeff, Yash Parulekar, Jerry Patton, I and a couple of other riders whose names I didn’t catch, all left the hotel right on time and headed west following the route. The 1st part of the route ran up a 4-lane highway towards Jackson, Mo. Once we reached that point we left the 4-lane behind us for the remainder of the ride, and the fun really began. When we left the hotel that morning it was 58 degrees, and as I was wearing only skivvies and a t-shirt under my mesh pants and jacket, I was rather chilled. The forecast had been for temps reaching 100 in the afternoon, and lows only in the 70’s, but the t-storm from yesterday had cut the humidity and the temperatures considerably. It would turn out to be a beautiful 3-4 days of riding. Despite being a little cooler than I was prepared for, the sun was shining brightly, the roads had no traffic to speak of, and the company was great. I was enjoying myself immensely. A little note on the roads in this area before I go any further. The roads here are not very technical in nature for the most part. There aren’t much in the way of 15mph curves or switchbacks in any of the routes we had this time. What there are though is an abundance of sweeping curves, rolling hills, shade, and great pavement. Traffic and towns are also in very short supply. All of these things lead to a fun ride and no real problems keeping a group of 6-7 riders together.
Everyone was doing their own thing and enjoying the “sporting” pace set by our leader, Norm. Riding their own ride and not feeling any pressure to speed up or sow down. It’s always fun to ride with others this way.
We stopped and took a gas/water break right around the 1/2-way mark of the 200-mile loop at a Sinclair station.
Then continued along our way back towards Cape Girardeau. We got back to the hotel right around 11:30 and headed to our rooms to get cleaned up before grabbing a quick lunch and preparing for our afternoon tasks. I would be taking pictures, Jerry would be greeting people as they arrived, Norm and Jeff would be working the GPS table, and Yash would be spending some quality time with his wife, kids, and in-laws.
By the time 5pm rolled around we had another 90-100 attendees at the rally and the parking lot was beginning to look like there was a motorcycle event going on.
There were bikes parked all around the hotel and conference cents, and more were still coming in.
We had set up to have a shuttle bus take attendees from the hotel to the downtown restaurants from 5-9 on both Saturday and Sunday, and many people took advantage of that and filled the downtown both evenings.
Others took advantage of the Drury Inn’s “Kickback” spread and just stayed there for the evening.
It probably needless to say when talking about MSTA members, but I don’t think that anyone missed any meals!
Later that evening, the tire kicking and lie telling went on, added and abated by the free drinks from the Kickback session and whatever else someone may have brought along. 
A wonderful first day of the rally!