I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was going to take an easy week soon. Well I didn’t mean it to be this week but it just kinda happened what with 2 days cut short due to imminent ice rain, 2 offers of a place to stay before my day was finished and an offer of a rest day.
 
Mark who is the Owner of Camaro’s Steakhouse drove out about 50km/31 miles to me on Monday morning to see if I was ok and needed anything. He caught me just before I turned off the road to Stanberry for my break. It’s wonderful that people are going to so much trouble to ensure my welfare.

Mark the owner of Camaro’s

In Casey’s gas station a customer called Tom asked me if I was working on the bridge. He was referring to my yellow Hi-ziz vest..
” No I am working on the road… Working on running around the world! ”
Then I asked him about how the condition of the roads and bridges and how they became to be neglected.
” About 20 years ago we were promised new infrastructure. The federal Govt. allocated Missouri a huge amount of money. Some of the work was done but never finished. They ran out of money and later we found out that the money was embezzled out of the state. ”
 

Later someone else told me that embezzled was too harsh as the problem was more of a mismanagement of the road upgrade funds which eventually got diverted to other project.
 
” But I thought President Obama came to office promising to upgrade every road and bridge in the country creating tens of thousands of jobs? ”
Hysterical laughter from everyone in a packed service station.
” Well he meant Illinois but forgot about his neighbors. We always get forgotten about. ” Said the attendant.
 
After an hour’s break I hit the road again and run on towards Marysville. The roads, shoulder and bridges are getting worse the further west I go in Missouri. I wonder about the accident rate on the roads here. Surely it must be significantly higher? Many dangerous bends are not properly protected.

HEAD UP RUNNING OR MISSOURI MISSERY!

Today I saw 6 and 10 foot lengths of rebar just lying at the side of bridges with broken away concrete. How can this be allowed to happen in the United States, the most powerful country in the world?

 I remember my talk last month with the boss of construction company working in Louisiana. He spoke of the around the clock unlimited funding for the rebuild in the aftermath of hurricane Catherina. the reality is that rebuild is going on and nobody wants to live there. Many people are leaving undamaged home, moving to a safer state. Here most Missourians I have met are proud people despite the economic carnage. I have not seen a single construction worker in the state. 
 
The ice rain that was expected last night never materialized. This afternoon as I was running through Nodaway Valley it started raining sleet. A little at first. Then it rained a little heavier.  I decided to finish early.
I came to a farm and rang the doorbell. A young girl called Jenny came out. I asked if I could sleep in an outbuilding. She suggested that I should call her father on his cell phone! I assured Jenny that it would be a better idea if she phoned him.
So she did, my website was checked out (as is my usual suggestion) and her father, Chris came from working in his workshop to meet me.

Chris with his daughter Jenny.

Chris brought me out a sleeping bag to  lay on the concrete garage floor along with an electric heater and a chair.
” There you are. “ Said Chris, then he added.
” I am sure you won’t be stealing any of my tools or chains from here as you got enough weight to be pushing! ”
Further browsing of my website and I was invited inside to shower, launder,eat and be asked howI got across the ocean within ten minutes! 
Sandy his wife came home from her work as a principal in an infant school.
So Sandy phones her father Karl and tells him to come over for dinner. Karl was born in Germany and came to live in Missouri 50 years ago. He didn’t waste any time when he found out that an office worker worked in nearby Conception Abbey was also German. They soon married. They converse in English. He has no trace of a German accent and speaks like an American.
Karl told me about his hobby. He collects animal traps. Old antique traps. I never heard of such a pastime but apparently it is a popular one. There are dedicated trap magazines and auctions all over the mid-west. He recently drove to Nebraska to check out some bear and wild game traps. I was soon calling him… Karl von Trapp!
Being a smart ass I asked him how many mouse traps he had. He said he has none as they are rare and valuable.
” If I had an old mousetrap I could get $700 for it. ”
Karl invites me to lunch tomorrow as he lives near Maryville and I will be passing by his favorite restaurant, a place called Grays. It’s 17 miles away and knowing my recent record I take a chance and optimistically say I will be there at 1pm. However I get an early start and am going by a junction at 11.30 just as von Trapp shouts over to me.
” It’s just a mile up the road. ”
It’s actually about 4 and up a long hill. I am cussing him for not stopping to take Nirvana in his pickup. Actually I made a rare slip up last night by not asking him to take her then.
 I hardly have my hat and gloves off when a journalist friend of his comes in and says.
” You must be Tony?”
Ambush!
Dustin is a nice guy. I am impressed by his quality of questions and his sense to do a good job. He tells me the weekly newspaper deadline is tomorrow but he is going to hold it over another week to research my world run properly.
I am complimented when Dustin tells me that this is the biggest story he has covered in his several years as a journalist.
He normally covers sports and local affairs.
The interview went on for an hour over lunch. Karl hardly gets a chance to open his trap. He leaves and I have forgotten to take his picture.
Outside Dustin takes his picture for the paper.  I finally get going afer over an hour and a half. Its starting to sleet again. I should be concerned about where I will stay tonight but I am not.

I am not very religious but I know something up there is looking after me. I feel I have some  kind of a guardian angel or something .It was the same when I was on my world bicycle trip all those years ago as a kid. Things always seem to work out.
An hour later a pretty blonde pulls up in a pickup.
” Hey you want a ride? ”
I get this a couple of times a day… College kids and even grandmothers.
” No thanks I never take a ride I am actually running around the world!”
“You know its supposed to snow 2 inches tonight and what are you going to do tomorrow? ”
” I will worry about that tomorrow….A lot of the time these things people worry about don’t happen! ” I reply.
Half an hour later Ben a corn and soya bean farmer pulls up and I  am offered another ride.
” No thanks but I am looking for a place to stay tonight. ” I say.
” Well I got a fixer upper house that my son uses for hunting. If you like you can stay there tonight and I will bring you back here in the morning? ”
” Thanks.” I say and snap a finish location photo. Once again I finish early as some offers are too good to pass up, even if I finish an hour early.
On the way to Burlington Junction Ben tells me that this year corn and soya bean farming is poor due to so much dampness. Last year was average and the year before was good.
He tells me he was married for 22 years but is now divorced these last 30 years. His wife owns a cafe in town called Kiss My Grits Caff. They are still very good friends.
We arrive there so as I can get some food for the night. I am unsure if the lady that served me is his ex and forget to ask.
She gives me 3 large chicken steaks, crisps, pastries, a loaf of bread and fills my thermos. Ben wont let me pay. He puts it on his tab. 
At the house we light the wood burning stove and I change out of my wet clothes.

There is no water as a water pipe is burst. I got enough water for drinks from 2 one gallon jugs of water.

Ben says he will return at 7 am and we will go for breakfast.

BEN THE CORN AND SOYA BEAN FARMER FROM BURLINGTON JUNCTION SAVED MY DAY

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 9:03 am and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.