Too much chit-chat

Well, today I did not make the greatest time in the world. I only ended up doing 70 miles or so. I kept stopping and talking to people. I woke up to great weather, and started going. I stopped in a little cafe on the side of the Katy trail in a town I can't remember. They had an all you can eat country breakfast for $5.50. Such a great deal. I ate a ton of food. I ended up talking to the waitress and some locals for an extra 30 minutes.

Next, about 20 miles down the trail, I met two old men. They were out biking with their wives, who were currently going to grab the car. They were super interested about the trip, but I was the one asking all the questions. Skip, the oldest gentlemen, was alive during WW2. I spent a good hour listening to him talk about the blackout he used to be apart of when he lived up in Maine. He was super sharp still. He talked about how he was out skinny dipping with some friends when they heard all of the honks from people celebrating the end of the war. These guys were so funny. The younger man kept saying, "Well run me over." when I was talking about my trip. Hahah. I kind of want to start saying that.

I finished another 20 and came up to a bridge with two guys on it. They were doing an out and back tour through Missouri. As I was talking to them, over the course of 45 minutes, 4 other long distance bike tourers, none of which were riding together, came up on the bridge. It was the most random group meeting ever. We all exchanged information and are keeping in touch for the rest of our trips. Talk about the most random thing that has ever happened. I doubled the amount of bikers I have seen on the entire trip on a single bridge in the middle of Missouri. Weird.

I stopped at a McDonald's in St. Clair to get directions home. I talked to a couple there for an extra half hour.

So over all I just kept talking to people all day. The end of the day was me talking to a random guy on the side of the road. His name was Kelly Parke. I just asked if I could stay in his yard with my tent. He said sure. What an awesome dude. He ended up bringing me fruit, doing my laundry, giving me a few Gatorades, and even making me a delicious ham and egg breakfast. Talk about hospitality. Again, I am serious Kelly, if you are ever in the South, call me up brother, I am talking you out to dinner.

That was my day, just a whole lot of meeting people.