Our breakfast with the Masons meant a late getaway from Walnut Grove it was worth it though, the biscuits (bit like scones!), bacon, scrambled egg and gravy really set us up for the day and the banter with the Mayor and the Masons was great. A real nice bunch of blokes.
I took a wrong turn coming into Everton MO and quickly got back on track to find Tony coming back to look for me. He had been held up by a carnival precession in Everton MO with classic cars, floats, horse riders etc. Gutted I had missed it we decided to follow it for a few blocks and ended up being the final attraction in the parade, waving to a few of the crowd and joking with them in my royal English accent got us some laughs and offers of beer.
After a long day in the saddle fighting head winds and dealing with the last of Missouri’s hills we eventually got into Golden City MO and headed straight for Cookies, the legendary diner that sells the best pies on the Trans Am. I went for the blueberry crumble pie and it was scrumptious. One of the joys of cycle touring is that you can eat pretty much what you want and still lose weight, although with the intense heat I tend to crave liquids more than solids!
Whilst eating our pie a cyclist with a vague Iggy Popishness about him appeared right in front of us, he immediately introduced himself to us and even new our names. It was Steve, Keith’s mate from Springfield, who had saved the day by picking up Maarten, Kees and Keith the previous afternoon to get some urgent repairs done on Maarten’s bike. He had dropped them back on route and him and his lovely lady Ellen had joined them for a day on their super fast racing bikes. It was great to see the gang again and hear about all that had happened to them in the previous 24 hours.
We had a relaxed evening at Golden Cities park, camping under their pavilion and woke to enjoy our last day in Missouri, which wasn’t to be without incident……..
More new photos on
Flickr …
