Goodbye KS, Hello MO

We had a really great day today, on the bike, and more-so off the bike.  We were shown more kindness today by total strangers than we have this entire trip.  This has to be one of the best days of the trip so far.

We began our day in Pittsburg, where we got up early to beat the heat, and had a great breakfast at Harry's Cafe in Pittsburg.  A nice, local spot in their downtown strip, where we had to move our bikes because the city was watering the hanging flowers on the street. Harry's is only open until 2, so they are a breakfast and lunch spot.  From what we could see, they specialize in cinnamon rolls, but we couldn't sample any of them because they were all pre-sold.  If we would have waited a bit longer we would have been able to indulge, but based on the rising heat levels this wasn't going to work.

Surprisingly today, we either had no headwind, and perhaps a little bit of a tailwind.  In any case, it actually felt pretty nice to cruise along, and we were doing it at about 15-16mph with no trouble, good for a packed bike.  A few miles in and we were already passing along from Kansas into Missouri.  I don't like to admit, because the people were so nice in Kansas, but I didn't mind leaving.  It's a very long state, and we'd been there for over a week, so it was time to go.  Missouri looked a lot like Kansas, but soon it began to add hills.  Up and down, around corners, at least it was a bit more interesting to look at.  We soon spotted a huge windfarm being built, pieces at a time.  A number of windmills were already up, but not turning.  I bet that until the whole group is entirely functional and wired, none of them run.  

Entering Missouri 

By 9AM we were already pretty wet from the day.  About 37 miles in and we got to Golden City, where we were supposed to be able to buy snacks and drinks.  However, we couldn't find anything in Golden City, where I think the gold left, along with most of the businesses, a long time ago.  The downtown was mostly boarded up and abandoned, like others we had seen in Kansas (looking at you, Eureka)  A woman at the Post Office told us that there was a Dollar General store, but down the road.  We found it, and bought bottled water (yes) and Gatorade.  They told us there was a Casey's General Store (convenience store) down the road again.  We would have found neither of these without serious help.  We got sandwiches as we watched the beer distributor guy unload case after case of beer to Casey's.  Every single case was light beer.  We're guessing the people of Golden City are really skinny with all of the light beer they're drinking.  

Downtown Golden City where we found nothing

Down the road we went again, trying to notch more miles before lunch.  We decided to stop in Pennsboro, but Pennsboro turned out to be one abandoned building.  We found some shade, put up our chairs, and ate our sandwiches, which really weren't bad.  Casey makes a good turkey and cheese.  

This put us only about 20 miles from getting into our target, Ash Grove.  Jerry had called ahead for this, but Adventure Cycling said that if we called, Ash Grove would have a cyclist only house and access to a pool.  This sounded fantastic on a hot day, so that was definitely our target.  As we got into Ash Grove, Jerry noticed the downtown up Main Street. We needed to check in at the town hall.  It appeared to be another down-on-its heels downtown, but then we were greeted by a woman named Barb, who was delightful. Barb turned out to be the mayor's wife, and they had moved to Ash Grove just a few years ago and were investing in the little downtown and then we could see some of the new work being done to revitalize this place.  Barb had grown up in Livonia, Michigan, just a stone's throw from Toledo, so it was kind of strange and nice.  Her brother Jim had just moved there too, from Anaheim, CA just as Covid hit the world.  Barb made a point to steer us to her daughter's restaurant tomorrow in Marshfield, and she said that lunch would be on her.  We look forward to the trip.

Barb from Livonia and now Ash Grove

City Hall, Ash Grove, MO

We spoke with the folks at City Hall, and sure enough, they make a community house available to cyclists as they pass through. It's indeed located next to the city pool, where we would have access, and of course cyclists get free passes.  The house has air conditioning, a shower, a kitchen, and cots to sleep on.  They took our photo outside of City Hall and gave us the key to the place.  This was the nicest anyone's treated us on this whole trip.

Cyclist accommodations

Complete with Pool Access yay!

We got to the house, pulled off our bags, and headed out to seek out ice cream.  We found some at a local bakery a few blocks from the pool, returned and I went directly to the pool to jump in.  You can tell this is a small town pool:  They HAVE a diving board, a small slide, and the kids were jumping in and about and throwing balls at each other, all things that would likely get you kicked out of places like Riverside Swim and Dive in Findlay, OH (or pretty much any other pool).  Dave, the manager, was incredibly accommodating.  When Jerry asked where we might find toilet paper for the house, he delivered a gigantic roll.  Nothing but the best for our cyclists, I guess.  After swimming and lazing around the pool for an hour or so, we went back and got showers and did our sink-laundry, as usual.  We were joined in the house by another single cyclist, another Dave, going east to west and headed for Washington State.  We compared notes and discussed good places to stay.  Dave is doing more camping, as he's on his own, but he's found a few gems like this one.  We are going to be on the lookout for some if we happen to be in the cities he mentioned.

Jerry and I headed out to dinner, as Dave had brought his own food.  We went to Mama Loca's, a Mexican style (not exclusively Mexican) on Main street.  It was another gem, as the interior of this pre-1900 building was really done well, it looked fun.  We enjoyed some draft beers before ordering up some pollo enchiladas.  Pretty soon we were treated to a couple of shots of peach brandy, and the owner, Dolores, came to our table to talk.  She and her husband Marc opened this restaurant in Ash Grove 10 years ago, when I bet this town was really, really rough.  They've had a hard time with Covid-19, but have cut back their hours and adjusted, and tonight they seemed pretty popular.  Dolores and Marc have been welcoming cyclists in since they opened.  They had a book that we signed, and saw that we were not the first to come through west to east - a couple of young men had come through from San Diego (not the same guys as we had passed in Eads) and were going east.  They told us some funny stories about cyclists coming through and staying at the historic Barnham house (I think I spelled that right) where we were staying.  Adventure Cycling does some guided tours through and they all stay there.  Dolores also handed us a small loaf of banana bread, frozen, but it should be perfect by morning.  

Inside Mama Loca’s

Our hosts, Dolores and Marc

What a terrific experience, and such kindness from people who treated us like celebrities.  This has been the best stay of the trip, and I dare anyone from here to Yorktown to beat it!