44. Peculiar, Missouri

Day 44:  Tuesday, August 4, 1981
Perry, Kansas to Peculiar, Missouri:  54 miles

We're only one day into Missouri, and it looks as if we're already in the foothills of the Ozarks.  The change from gently rolling eastern Kansas was quite abrupt.

Lawrence, the home of the University of Kansas, was our first stop.  It probably has much in common with Manhattan:  they're both college towns, about the same size.  We stopped at a bike shop and a doughnut shop before heading on.

Going east from Lawrence, Jack took the new K-10, a divided highway, while I rode the old road, which was about four miles longer.  The first few miles were nice and flat, but the rest belonged on the Hilly Hundred!  The route passed an Army ammunition plant and an old army post which had been converted into a retirement community.  I was to meet Jack at the K-7 intersection, and I managed to beat him there by 5 minutes.

By the time we reached Olathe (O-lay-thuh), I was again ahead of Jack, and he missed the turn onto K-150.  When I noticed that he wasn't behind me, I went back to the intersection and waited on top of the overpass for an hour or so before finally giving up and going on.  As it turned out, Jack had realized his mistake and had taken a shortcut back to the route.  When he couldn't find me, he went back to the overpass, but waited underneath.  We finally found each other at a grocery store a few miles down the road.  Then Jack realized he had lost his glasses.  He couldn't remember where, so we retraced his path across Olathe, and found them sitting on a monument in front of the courthouse.  Apparently someone had picked them up and set them there.

Route 150 into Missouri is a narrow highway, and is heavily traveled.  It's apparently one of the main routes to the south around Kansas City.  We rode only as far as US 71, where Jack's brother Virgil met us.  He ferried us the 20 miles south to Peculiar, and we spent a comfortable evening (and had a good spaghetti dinner) at the home of his family. 

Kinda makes ya wonder about the residents, doesn't it?