Saturday, June 20, 2009

Day 6 and 7- Columbia, MO

We are hanging out in Columbia, Missouri for two days. As it turns out, we are ahead of schedule and this college town is so nice we thought we would hang out a little longer. The University of Missouri is all brick and impressive to walk around. There is a little downtown next to it with lots of shops and places to eat. There is even a hotel in the downtown, which is where we are at.

Yesterday we walked around town and ended up in a cool bar playing pool for hours. Today, we are just relaxing. We've had breakfast at a Mediterranean coffee shop and we might catch a movie later.

As for the ride yesterday, it was great. East Kansas had a lot more curves and trees. Then, we cruised around Kansas City, Missouri for a while building up our appetite and sweating like crazy. It was worth it because we found a perfect small town a little later to sample the famous bbq. We were lucky to find the place and it was delicious. I dropped my mostly vegetarian lifestyle and environmentalism at the door. They were still there when I got back- nobody would steal those.

We had found the bbq restaurant in an itty bitty town called Bates. Free of my usual habits, I had a disposable plate piled with three types of meat, pickles, and two pieces of white bread. On the side were two styrofoam bowls filled with baked beans and potato salad. The white bread was the only thing common about the food and I only took one bite to make sure the bread was as plain as it looked. The rest of the food was D-Licious! The bbq was excellent, especially the ribs. I have to give special mention to the beans. Without a doubt the best baked beans I have had. Yum. After cleaning our plates and styrofoam bowls, we had to go for a walk. There was no way we could ride just then. So, we walked around an antiques store to help the food go down for what must have been four times longer than it took us to eat it. I had no idea antiques stores could be so full of joke material. There were tears at one point. Lots of fun and a cool place to walk around. Even after all that time and laughter, we were too full to ride so we went for a short walk on the railroad tracks. That did the trick.

So now we are here. Downtown Columbia. A good place to be.