Pittsburg, KS

Last night we stayed at a KOA in Springfield, Missouri, along Historic Route 66. KOA's are the Cadillacs of RV camping. They always have lots of amenities, though you can expect to pay more than at other campgrounds. This one had a nice little playground, pool, decent laundry center, camp store, and you could even get a pizza delivered to your campsite!

I personally enjoyed the silly face cut-out signs that were out front. There must have been 8 different ones.

Today was another rainy day. Chris took off early as usual, and we stayed around to sleep in a little and eat breakfast. I had hoped the rain would let up before it was time to pack up, but no luck. Winding up hoses and septic tubes in the rain can give you a new appreciation for things. Then we headed on towards our destination, Pittsburg, Kansas.

Chris rode 95 miles today, but because Kansas is so flat and he caught a nice tailwind, he got to Pittsburg by 1:00pm. We spent most of the rest of the day with Harry and Jim. Who are Harry and Jim? Well, Harry's Cafe and Jim's Steakhouse. Yes, all we do is eat.

We met at Harry's Cafe for lunch since it was right off Chris' route. It is an old school diner in downtown Pittsburg. The food was delicious and cheap. The decor was like a scene from a movie, and our server was so friendly and accommodating. Chris got the beef manhattan, which was superb. If I had known how tender and delicious it was, I would have ordered it too. I got a tuna salad sandwich and broccoli soup, which was very good as well. I had heard rave reviews about the cinnamon rolls, so of course we had to split one. I ate less than a third of it, but it was difficult not to eat the whole thing as it was fantastic.

Then we headed to the public library here for the first stop on our national library tour. I'm surprised we hadn't gone to one sooner, but there's been so many other things to do that we just hadn't had the opportunity. I could tell Auggie was ready for some book time other than the dozen or so we brought, and especially since the weather was so rainy it was a perfect day for it.

The Pittsburg library had a wonderful kids' section with a play area and August was thrilled to be around other youngsters. He gets a lot of interaction at daycare and I have noticed that he's been missing his friends lately when he's just been with boring old mom! I am looking forward to more library stops in the future.

Afterwards we went back to the campsite. The city park here allows tent camping and RV camping, is unmanned and pretty much just goes on the honor system to collect payment. Yet another great city offering we have discovered on this trip. I'm sure the cities we've lived in have had neat accommodations too that we've never had occasion to use. Another thing I noticed was while we were walking around downtown, there was a parking area with signs marked "Public Exchange Meetup" that was monitored by video surveillance. I thought about some of the violent encounters that have occurred during Craigslist pickups and wondered why more cities don't consider doing something like this. We generally pick a CVS parking lot or something if we have business to do on Craigslist, but this is great.

After a long and much needed nap for Auggie (and me, can't lie), we took off for a bike ride around town. Chris remarked several times that this town reminded him a lot of Danville, Illinois, which is near where we both grew up. I agree, it is much like I imagine Danville would be if the economy hadn't gone south. A nice, solid town with a lot of local businesses. We rode the trail that runs through town, it was nice but too short and had all these dumb concrete barricades at the intersections that I'm sure seemed like a good idea to keep cars off of it but I was positive I was going to hit one before the ride was up since they took up 1/3 of the width of the trail. After 10 minutes we had ridden all of it twice, so we headed back towards the park and decided to stop in at Jim's Steakhouse for dinner.

Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign is still alive and well here in Kansas. No wonder his son is pondering centering his campaign around just "Rand" to differentiate himself.

Jim's and Harry's have both been around since the 1930s, so I'm guessing those two knew each other. Jim's was quite a bit pricier, but also very good. I hadn't had a steak in a while, so I got one even though it seemed a little indulgent. I was glad I did as it was an excellent cut and I feel like I'll be full for days. Chris received the largest order of spaghetti I've ever seen, and it was tasty too. So, we went over our food budget for the day (and calorie budget too I'm sure!), but it sure is fun trying the food at all of these neat little places.




There is one other TransAmerican rider at the campground tonight, a South Korean college student named Jay that Chris has come across a few times so far. The first time Chris met him, in Kentucky, he was wearing flip flops. He is riding solo, self-supporting, and opted not to purchase the Adventure Cycling Association route maps; instead he is just relying on Google Maps. Chris and he were talking about their ride plans and Jay casually mentioned that he is going to make a pit stop at the Grand Canyon and then head to California. We really hope he will take precautions for the desert heat he is going to encounter along the way at the hottest time of year. Anyone who is willing and able to ride 60-90 miles a day in flip flops is not afraid of a little adversity though.