11:45 AM

Greetings from Tebbetts, MO. Jesse James passed through here a bunch of times in the 1870s. He’d leave when they figured out who he really was, then return under another name after they’d forgotten 

This morning I asked Dana if he’d be calling me a meandering wimp if he didn’t know about my heart condition. He said he would have. Even dark clouds have a silver linings.

In fairness, Dana said he wouldn’t have used the words “meandering” and “wimp”, at least not together. But he’s not sure exactly what he would have said, so I’m gonna go with that. And just for the record, I’d be going the same pace regardless, but I’ll take any excuse I can get. And this way we don’t fight.

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12:30 PM

Greetings from Mokane! According to the trailhead, someone built a jail here in 1900, then he was arrested for public intoxication and became its first prisoner. It looks nothing like the Missouri State Penitentiary.

This is Standing Rock. It has all of the flood years written on it.

TREE!

GATE!

2:10 PM

Greetings from Holzhauser’s Bar and Grill. We’re having some fried appetizers. Kelly and Luke are camping right across the road, so they are watching us eat, since they got here a while ago. I hope we see them again. 

5:30 PM

Greetings from the dollhouse. We’re sitting on rocking chairs on a lovely porch overlooking Rhineland. I’d love to sleep out here tonight, if only for the BLEEPING bugs 

Originally, we were going to be in Hermann tonight, which would have been 50+ miles. At Dana’s pace, he’d probably be in Hermann now, feeling just like he does now (exhaustedl). The slower you go, the harder this is. Today: 9.1 mph

On the plus side, the further we go, the harder the chat is packed.