Ash Grove, Missouri to Pittsburg, Kansas
I’m stopped for this fabulous pie I’ve been hearing about from all the other bikers I’ve met. Golden City, MO - Cooky’s Cafe. A glass of milk and a piece of blueberry pie and chocolate cream pie. Gee, tonight in Pittsburg, KS I’m gonna find a salad bar. Think I’m running low on the veggies.
36 miles behind me already. The first 20 were more of the hills. Took the last picture on the first camera of a typical western MO hill. The dark spot in the road ahead is a car.
Passed my first dead armadillo roadkill today and a patch of prickly pear cactus. I am definitely getting West.
The last 15 miles has been flat and open like what I expect Kansas to be like. The wind is a new issue though. Headwinds and crosswinds make for occasional instability. One soda truck rocked the bike pretty good and the wake of an oncoming semi smacked me in the face like a brick wall. New terrain, new set of obstacles. Still the miles seem to be flying by on flat terrain - that’s a relief.
Around 12:15 I saw a pond 150 yards to the right of the road. No barbed wire to deal with so I laid the bike down and walked over for a swim - refreshing, but mud you sink 4 or 5 inches into, near the shore. I was hoping it wasn’t quicksand! Great resting spot. Dried off in the tall grass! 30 miles to the Kansas line. Better eat my pie...
Day’s totals: 72.02 miles 5 hrs. 38 min. 1654.3 total miles
Oh, there just happened to be a library across the street in Golden City, MO - might as well check in and let the pie digest. Back on the road. 30 miles to go. Looking at the map, there are no services until Pittsburg, KS. So I make sure I have enough water/food to span the 30 miles.
5:54 PM I reach the border. Prop the bike up against the “Welcome to Kansas” sign and take a picture. I don’t know how well it will come out, but in the top left corner of the sign is the sun and as I framed the picture, the afternoon sun was glaring over the top of that corner - such that if there was hole in the sign where the sun was, the real sun could have replaced it.
So I didn’t make the bike shop by 6 PM and they don’t open until 10 AM tomorrow, so I will be in Pittsburg, KS for a while. I’m not ready for dinner, so I scout around town and find a library that’s open until 8 PM. I type the notes from Day 23 directly onto the site and then mail the notes home. One less day for Peg to type. Librarian tells me where I can find a place with a salad bar and where Lincoln County Park is located. Dinner and bed questions, basically.
She steers me to Mazzio’s Restaurant and I made up for the lack of fruits and vegetables over the past few days. The lasagna was good, too! Talked to several people during dinner - all curious about the trip. Then more talk on the cell phone to home.
Pittsburg is a college town and the downtown area was pretty busy. I spotted a bar which had outdoor tables and decided to have a drink there. The night air was perfect for sitting outside and ,of course, I like to avoid the cigarette smoke of indoors. Since the bike shop wasn’t opening until 10 AM, figured staying up late and sleeping late made more sense than getting up early and waiting for the bike shop to open. So I stayed awhile.
I spent the next few hours hanging out with Justin Proffitt, the bouncer. We talked about a million things and I really enjoyed my time there. He told me about some friend of his who was killed by a drunk driver and two other friends who biked to Florida in an effort to raise money and call attention to passing a law in Kansas which adds confiscation of your car if you are caught D.U.I. This is in addition to fines and jail. The feeling was, losing your car would be a bigger deterrent. Justin felt a strong desire to be part of that, but had other commitments. Still wants to do some kind of long distance ride though. He was very easy going and there were two things we seemed to have in common. One is, he works all the time (I did for 2 1/2 years) and the second is, we both would rather be living somewhere else - me, Arizona - he, Utah, near Salt Lake City. I told him how I believe everyone has an environmental identity - a “scenic, geographical place where they feel at home.” For some it’s the mountains, some the ocean, some the desert, etc. He’s 25 and lived in flat Kansas his whole life and really liked Utah. I said, “You’re 25 - go there - meet the girl of your dreams and be happy.” He’s young and still trying to figure things out. But then again, aren’t we all?
I also met Nancy, one of the bartenders. I thought she was a student,but she said she graduated and taught biology for two years and is back serving drinks. The awful truth - more money than teaching. And then there was Beth, my waitress. She’s an advertising major at PSU, Pittsburg State University. She was dealing with a slow night and light tips. She was intrigued by the bike trip and thought it was cool. These kids are so young, I felt like I was home sitting in the kitchen after work, with Troy’s gang of friends. Beth wrote me a nice note on a guest check as a souvenir and I gave her the website so she could ride along. The 5O5 Club was the place to be last night. Then out to Lincoln Park. Set up the tent and called local police to check in. Goodnight.
Justin asked me, “How do you keep your mind occupied when riding.” I told him I pull from people I’ve met and talked to and think about what they said. I talk to all the livestock and enjoy saying intellectual things to them as they stare back blankly. Well, I get a kick out of it. I sing. I draw on all the songs I’ve ever heard. I play guessing games - like how far to the tenth of a mile to the top of the next hill? And I think about stuff that I would write if I didn’t have to hold on to the handlebars.