Bee Gees – "Holiday" (1967)

Millions of eyes can see

Yet why am I so blind?

A couple of weekends ago, I went to my hometown (Joplin, Missouri) for my high-school reunion.  

My father was celebrating his 90th birthday the following weekend, and I thought it was important for me to be in Joplin for that as well.

I could have flown back to my home (Washington, DC) on the Monday after the reunion and returned to Joplin the following Friday.  But it takes so long so travel back and forth that it hardly seemed worth it.  So I decided to stay in Missouri and take a brief holiday instead.

My plan was to spend the weekdays between my two Joplin weekends seeing old friends, visiting a few of the numerous wineries and breweries in central Missouri, and riding parts of the Katy Trail, a bike trail that follows the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad right of way.  At 240 miles from end to end, the Katy Trail is the longest rail trail in the United States.

The day after the reunion was over, I headed east towards St. Louis on Interstate 44, which roughly parallels old Route 66.    

I saw a number of billboards on I-44 inviting travelers to visit Uranus, Missouri, which is supposedly the home of the Uranus Fudge Factory.  (Its slogan: "The Best Fudge Comes From Uranus.")

(I don't know about you, but I think the folks in Uranus are pulling our collective pud.)

I didn't stop in Uranus, but I did stop at a Route 66-themed rest stop east of Springfield.  

I was planning to meet several of my high-school friends in St. Louis for dinner that night.  But first I stopped in nearby St. Charles (Missouri's first capital city) to rent a bike and spend a couple of hours riding the eastern part of the Katy Trail.

The old St. Charles train station

I rented my bike just across the street from Frontier Park, where William Clark, Meriweather Lewis, and 40 other brave souls camped before embarking on their famous expedition up the Missouri River in May 1804.  

Clark had one hell of a big hat:

(You'll be hearing much more about Lewis and Clark in a future 2 or 3 lines.)

After my ride, I headed to the nearby Trailhead Brewing Company for a bargain pint:

That's right – three bucks (including tax)

Fortunately, the rental car I had picked up at the Kansas City airport came equipped with a Sirius/XM satellite radio.  I drove about 1300 miles during my nine-day Missouri sojourn, and the satellite radio was my only companion for most of those miles.

The Bee Gees are best known for the songs they contributed to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.  But before they became a disco act, they were a somewhat Beatles-ish pop group, with hits like "To Love Somebody," "I've Gotta Get a Message to You," and "I Started a Joke."

The Bee Gees (circa 1967)

Here's "Holiday," which made it to #16 on the Billboard "Hot 100" in 1967:

(Wow – those lyrics don't make any sense at all, do they?)

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: