I spent the night in the yard of my host Mitch in Atchison Ks. I broke camp @ 4:00am in the dark & made my way to the all night McDonalds for breakfast & to clean up. Mitch was a great host who I did not get to spend much time with, but hope to re visit him someday.
The mission today was to just chew up as many miles as possible to position myself to exit Mo. by Monday. The route started off by crossing the Missouri River & working my way up the river valley to St Joseph . I worked my way through the city onto busy Rt. 36 a 4 la e non descript highway that goes all the way west to east through the state. This road rolls along straight as an arrow. Up one long hill & down another. The weather was good with temps in the high 70s & a 10 mph headwind. The terrain & landscape was like western Pa. Think Rt 22 between Altoona & Pittsburg. The traffic was weekend heavy, & just a grind. I ended up in the town of Chillcothe where I found a room for the night. I unloaded my packs & dried out my my tent & bags from the previous night.
My new goal is to make it to Edinboro Pa. by Memorial Day weekend. Rain & storms are forecast for the next few days so we will see how the schedule holds up.
Unlike Kansas , Missouri doesn’t seem to try & take credit for much of anything. It seems it’s purpose seems to be only to connect Illinois to Kansas. Kinda a bridge state if you will.
My riding @ this point has become a matter of autopilot . Mount up & ride / rest / repeat. Some stretches are better than others, some worse. When I got to the hotel tonight I checked in then set in a chair in the lobby & fell asleep! Exhausted . But tomo I will ride again. Prayers for Justin & thanks for all the support from back home. I was disappointed to hear of the low turnout by the Canton Roadrunnes Club for the Sat morning “breakfast Run”. I gotta get back home soon & get the club back on track. Jezz. Their like a box of kittens. They are fine until you take your eyes off of them, then they start crawling out of the box!
Frank's Coast to Coast Ride for Justin 