Old friends and new

Well, all good things must come to an end. A couple of days ago Brent (the fellow riding with his dog) announced to our group that he had decided to take a short break from his cross-country dream and fly out to visit a friend for a while. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to him after a fantastic lunch at Cookies Cafe in Golden City, MO, a place which is legendary amongst cyclists for its homemade pies. After Brent rode off directly for his flight from Springfield, me, Todd, Heather and Hazel continued on in the oppressive heat and humidity (it was especially bad that day) to a small town called Everton, MO where we found "The Dip", the only bar in town. Seems this place is used to having cyclists visit since they actually had a sign outside that read "Welcome Bikers." We met a number of local characters at the Dip and were treated like old friends with folks buying us drinks, jukebox songs and even a pizza! Thankfully, one of the folks there offered to let us use his shower since there were no facilities in the town park. We then headed over to the park to camp for the night but it was so humid and hot that it still felt like wearing a raincoat in a sauna! Somehow we managed to get some sleep and then head out around 6:00AM the next morning. At that point Todd announced that thought he had left his expensive sunglasses at the bar the night before. Since they didn't open again until 11:00AM he decided to stay behind and see if they were there. So I took off down the road with Heather and Hazel to the nearby town of Ash Creek. We had some fun chatting with a few cyclists there who had ridden out from Springfield as part of a training ride. I also called Gary Summers, a fellow I had met through the Warmshowers.org website, a site dedicated to hosting passing cyclists for the night. Seems Gary had actually ridden out towards where we were and, when we met him on the road, he turned around and lead us back to Springfield. Both he and his wife, RaeLynn, have been fantastic hosts and have taken us out for ice cream and a night on the town and have also been kind enough to give us a private yoga class (RaeLynn is a certified teacher!), take us to an art museum today and now dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I am awestruck by the generosity and kindness of these folks. Perhaps some day I can repay them or at least do the same for someone else. Tomorrow I head up to Kansas City and then on to Philly.

Total mileage so far: 2,440

Please consider making a small donation to help cancer survivors (sadly, my mom was not one of them) http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2008/steveonhisbike