Okay, so I updated my SQL Express to SP1 and then decided to also add cumulative update #7 for safe measure. Unfortunately it has not had an impact on performance nor have the warnings about missing statistics on the geography column subsided.
Given that, if anyone still has questions or insight that might help me improve performance, please post.
Until then, I am going to continue tinkering with the test DB to see what I can do.
Thanks,
Mike