Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

From Janie:

 

Thursday, 10/11/12, from Union to Festus MO:

 

Back of historic Route 66, this time in Missouri rather than California.  Hilly, green with the trees turning colors for autumn, bucolic.  Narrow roads, intermittent shoulders, traffic.  A short route - a 'mere' 46 miles - full of twists and turns and tiny towns.  Jody had a slow ride.  I had a rest day.

 

The day in pictures:

 

Historic Route 66 Byway through Southern Missouri.

 

Jody, riding over the Brown-Stinson Memorial Bridge.

 

We stopped at a tiny convenience story, at a wide spot in the road.  The woman behind the counter told us about her son, who was getting ready to go to college to study engineering.  She was so pleased and so proud that she could barely contain herself.  She also said she had some travel books for Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.  Since her boy was going to college, she and her husband were going to do some traveling.  I asked her if she had any postcards.  No, but she had the best view in all of Missouri, just come take a look.  At the back of the convenience store, obscured by dusty racks of plaques and other touristy kitsch, was a wall of windows.  And the best view in Missouri, at least as far as we have seen:

Early fall in Southern Missouri - out the back window of a convenience store.

This picture doesn't do justice to the brilliance of the colors.

 

As you can tell, I went back to the car for my camera.  I shot a couple of pictures out the back window, before she came to say: 'Go out on the back deck.  You can see better.'  So I did.  And I could.  She told me about the flock of hen turkeys that feed regularly in the meadow below the store.  And the deer that are often there as well.  How, when it's slow in the store, she'll stand and the back window and watch.

The meadow below the store.

 



It was a day when we didn't see much in the way of living wildlife.  I did see a buzzard, who looped lazily over the car, its feather-naked neck so very lizard-like in the sun.  And bluebirds of some kind - they looked like bluejays, but not quite so bright.  Lots of other carrion birds, mostly buzzards.  Hawks.  The roadkill was more interesting - squirrels, deer, raccoons, possums and armadillos.  Yes, armadillos.  None of us had expected to see them in Missouri . . . not that we're experts on Missouri wildlife, but when I think armadillo, I think Texas, Louisiana. Or zoos and museums.  We didn't see any live ones, but we saw plenty on the road.

Jody got chased by a dog - a big German shepherd.  And then chased down by the dog's owner, a woman in a light-colored SUV, who followed and beeped and shouted and followed some more - all in the interest of apologizing for her dog.  Kinda creepy.

We arrived in Festus MO around noon.  We'd been on the route for 45 miles, but didn't see a sign for Festus until we were one mile away.  Rolled into the hotel where we'll be staying with Peter Tuesday night.  A quick change of clothes, then we were in The Little Darkness headed to St. Louis and Rod's hotel.

One last lunch together, in a funny little brew pub with a King Kong theme, then we said farewell to Rod.  Jody drove out of the City of St. Louis.  I drove out of Missouri, into Iowa and until dusk.  We got into Iowa City about 6:45, on our way to see where the old synagogue was being torn down.  (It's all good - the congregation has purchased a new building, which is being renovated, and we're sharing space with Hillel on campus until it's ready).  As we drove up Gilbert St., we saw the lights were still on at the bike shop.  We'd planned for Jody to drop the bikes on Friday morning, but took quick advantage instead, of the shop being open.  We talked to the mechanics about our various concerns, left the bikes, had Pagliai's pizza for dinner (best pizza ever!), went home to unload the car, start the laundry and sleep in our very own bed.  Mmmmmm.  Good sleep.

I've always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.
     ~ David Benioff, City of Thieves