Day 56 – Pittsburg, Kansas to Ash Grove, Missouri

Pies and Subs

Wednesday ended up being a 72 mile day into Missouri and the town of Ash Grove. I had enjoyed my stay in Pittsburgh. It was a nice city with an old, brick Rexall drug store on the north end. I hadn’t seen one of those in years. As I’ve said, even though you’re doing this trip at a slow pace on a bicycle, you still don’t have all the time you would like to spend in these towns.

Leaving Pittsburg, the Missouri border was six miles away. Charlie had left about 45 minutes earlier than I did and we said we’d meet at the halfway point at Cooky’s Restaurant in Golden City, which has a reputation for having the best pies on the planet. After taking a photo at the border, I was surprised when I caught up with Charlie well before Golden City. He explained that he had left Harry’s Restaurant in Pittsburg, got three miles out of town and then realized he had left his phone at the restaurant. So six extra miles added to his day.

It was 35 miles to Golden City with no towns before it. The weather was great with a slight wind from the northeast, which slowed up the speed a little. So every so often you would check the odometer, hoping to see that you were making great progress towards Golden City, specifically Cooky’s Restaurant where the pies were. But it was slow going and seemed at the time like the longest 35 miles of the trip.

We finally did arrive at Cooky’s Cafe, with a sign by the door saying it was established in 1942. Marcus and Kirsty, of around the world cycling fame, were there with their tandem parked out front. In sitting with them at lunch, they mentioned a rather interesting conspiracy theorist they had met a couple days before in Benedict. This was very disappointing to me not only because a cycling couple way back in Oregon had told me not to miss visiting this man’s store, but I was actually within a quarter mile of his place, not remembering this was the town where he was at.

One story Marcus and Kirsty were privy to is 17 Subs. The word is that the Russians have secretly smuggled in more than a few submarines underneath some cargo ships. They placed seventeen of them directly along the Atlantic coast of the US.  Then they decided to balance things out by placing seventeen subs directly off the Pacific coast.  You don’t have to worry so much if you’re just heading to the beach for a swim, but the guys are out there waiting for the signal to attack.

The pie at Cooky’s was exactly as advertised. They had it all: peach, strawberry, rhubarb, blueberry, blackberry, peanut butter and many more. After a couple of pieces of blueberry and blackberry with vanilla ice cream it was time to hit the road again.

I mentioned dogs in yesterday’s post. About ten miles or so outside of Ash Grove I was passing by a house with a fence out front and I heard dogs barking. I didn’t think much of it with the fence to hold them back, but while passing the property I then noticed a nice wide gap where the dogs could run out, which a trio of them did, barking wildly. They never got too close, but one had extra energy and was running back and forth in front of me for a long way before turning back. I think this type of thing is going to be a nuisance to deal with the rest of the way.

Upon arriving in Ash Grove, Charlie and I were roadside trying to locate the city park to camp in. A  guy pulled up asking if we were looking for a place to stay. His name was Mike and he said that the town had recently opened up the community building right next to the park to cyclists and that we were welcome to stay there. This was great news. The place was more like a house and Mike gave us the rundown. He was the kind of guy who laughs a lot so you felt like laughing along with him. He said that the town’s goal is to make this the best stop on the entire route.

Marcus and Kirsty showed up a bit later so the four of us had a nice night indoors out of the weather, which is starting to get a little cold at night.