My roadside campground proved to be quite nice. Despite the airplanes occasionally flying low right over my head the ground was flat and the noise was not so bad. Either way, I gathered my things and moved on down a parallel road from the interstate. It wasn’t long before I came across the highly condensed suburb of Platte City.
This town had houses stacked and arranged in a very well packaged way that seemed a little eerie to me and brought back memories of Edward Scissorhands’ neighborhood. Weighing in the background peaking over the homes were McDonalds, Conoco, Texaco, and of course Waffle House signs. The Waffle House was what I made straight for.
Following breakfast, which was superb yet quiet, I wandered down the main street to the library where I sat and posted a bit. The librarian there was very cool with me and later on we got to chatting about her own adventures walking around East Africa. We traded little adventure tid bits of neat places to go and then off I went to find more of them.
The rest of the day was very long and hot. The hills rolled enough for my legs to not appreciate it and the heat bore down enough for my leaky forehead to be upset as well. Finally I reached the town of Weston, MO, home of the McCormick distillery, and made my way down their Main St. looking for a place to eat.
On this quest I met a guy outside a place called O’Malley’s. I had figured that would be a nice cheap place, but the appetizers were $7.50 and that’s always a sign that its not the place for me. Anyway, Mike was his name and he told me of a great place to eat called Past Times and that there was a park in town I could most likely camp out at. So to the Past Times I went.
It was a nifty little place. All along the walls were old time trinkets of Life magazine and baseball photos, but in particular quite a bit of Rt. 66. The food was great and on the menus there was a history of the town, and the building I was in, which I always enjoy reading. Once I finished I was ready to move on so I checked out the park.
The park was not as camper friendly as I’d suspected. Generally I try to hide out of the way in places I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be in or not and this was pretty much a small field with trees for shade, but none for cover. From there I tried to find my way out of town and had no luck whatsoever doing so. Eventually I walked up to the only pack of guys on the street and asked where I was to go. One of them took a keen interest and let me in on a back road out called North Bluff Dr. cutting off about two miles.
North Bluff was a great walk. I went about a mile or so down it under complete shade from the trees overhead, but a drifting horizon of the fields easily seen between the trees kept it entertaining as the sun began setting. I ended up finding a spot down off the side of the road under a strange tree whose canopy is thick and leafy on the outside but in by the trunk there’s plenty of room to move about in. I poured over my maps then went to bed.