Day 079 - St Martins to McGirk MO

Temps were in the 60's & 70's. The day started overcast and became partly cloudy.  I walked down old Route 50 which had a lot less traffic. I only had to go on Route 50 for one short stretch.  I walked by a number of nice houses that had private lakes. I walked by a stone shop that had samples. The road went along parts of the AMTRAK line between Jefferson City and Sedalia. I saw one train go by. 

KRCG played the interview last night and again this morning. It has been posted to the blog.  There must have been a dozen people that told me they'd seen the interview. When I went into the Dudley Restraunt in St Martins the staff and clients bought me a coffee and a bacon & egg sandwich and made a donation.

A cancer survivor stopped me made a donation and offered to call ahead and have lunch waiting for me at Tammy's Restraunt in Centertown. I told her thanks but I could not eat that much while walking. When I got to Tammy's the staff wanted to buy me lunch. I took a sweet tea. 

A number of people honked and waved. On person asked how far I was walking. When I told him California he though I meant California, MO which I am walking thru tomorrow. 

Missouri is the first state that I've walked in that has no mile markers on US highways. This makes estimating the finish time each day more difficult. I walked by the McGirk post office which may be the smallest one I've seen. 

I ran into another turtle today that was determined the grass was greener on the other side of the road. For the last twenty minutes of the walk a black labrador decided he was my best buddy and chased after me. He crisscrossed the street numerous times. I had to play traffic cop warning cars that he was there. I thought I lost him once when he jumped into a lake to cool off but he came charging back. When I got to the end of the walk he ran into the garage of the shop where I had parked the car. I had to help the owner get him out. 

Day 078 - Jefferson City to St Martins MO

Temps were in the 70's. The day started partly cloudy and became overcast.  Even though it was cooler it was more humid then the past couple days. 

Today's walk was almost entirely within Jefferson City.  I walked past many state government buildings and thru Lincoln University where the very impressive Inman E. Page Library was located. 

As I entered town there were multiple billboards advertising the 20th Annual Olean Testicle Festival to be held on June 1, sponsored by the Jaycees. It is billed as the most in-demand event at the Lake of the Ozarks with live  music, crafts, raffles, etc, and most importantly – fried turkey testicles.

I walked past Corwin Honda. Yesterday I left my car there to do a routine oil change.  Not only did they perform the oil change for free they positioned me 25 miles away in Linn to start yesterday's walk then picked me up from 10 miles away when I was finished and returned me to the dealership. Talk about service!

Thanks to Kon Kostin for doing a taped interview to be run on the evening news at KRCG-TV CBS 13. 

The reason there have been fewer pictures posted to Facebook the past couple day was due to weak cell reception east of Jefferson City. 

 

Day 077 - Linn to Jefferson City MO

Temps were in the 70's & 80's.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The terrain was rolling hills. 

There was a very picturesque modern brick house with a new barn adjacent to it that had a couple dozen head of cattle near by. As I approached the town of Loose Creek there was a  scenic church on a hill overlooking US Route 50.  I startled one turtle and convinced him to stay in the grass. I ran into a second turtle a couple miles down the road. He was determined to cross the highway. I didn't stay around to see how he made out. 

There were a number of turkey farms that I passed with their unique smell. There were countless feathers along the side of the road that I assume were turkey feathers. 

Two lanes were being added to US Route 50 on the east side of Jefferson City near the intersection with US Route 63. I was dealing with a 20 mph headwind for the last half of the walk. That kicked up some serious dust with all the construction going on. When I walked across the Osage River there were a number of boat landings along the side of the river. 

Today's thank you for lodging goes to Margaret Zulkowsky. She is Brenda Maxwell's sister-in-law. Brenda is a two and a half year ovarian cancer survivor that took care of lodging in Cumberland, MD and Effingham IL.  Margaret paid for the past two nights which filled a two day gap. I now have confirmed lodging for the rest of Missouri to the Kansas border. This means I will enter my tenth state having only paid for three nights from the lodging fund spending less than $150 thanks to a ton of generous people.  

Thanks also to Zettie at the front desk of the Baymont Inn & Suites who took care of everything I needed and agreed to match the corporate rate offered by Holiday Inn. This motel serves as the start point for the Jefferson City AVA walk.  

Trivia answer:

State capitals I will walk thru:

1) Ohio - Columbus

2) Indiana - Indianapolis 

3) Missouri - Jefferson City - I will walk thru town tomorrow

4) Nevada - Carson City

Note: US 50 goes thru Sacramento but I will be heading south at Placerville and will miss Sacramento completely. 

The only capital listed above where I have done an AVA walk is Columbus. 

Day 076 - Mt Sterling to Linn MO

Temps were in the 70's & 80's.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The last third of the walk I had to fight a 25 mph head wind. 

Based on the forecast of temps being in the 80's for the foreseeable future I made the change over from the fluorescent green hoodie I wore each of the first 75 days to summer attire. I have a shirt, pants and hat that were donated by Sun Precautions Inc. The shirt and pants are vented. The hat has a skirt that hangs over my neck that attaches by Velcro and a chin string to ensure that it doesn't blow away.  Their website is on the blog under Supporters. My team at Vanguard gave me a reflective florescent green safety vest.  People  should not have any trouble finding me. 

  

I started the walk at the Schaeperkoetter Store in Mt Sterling. They gave me a sandwich and litter of iced tea for the road. After ninety minutes I stopped at a picnic table at Gasconade Ridge Roadside Park to eat my sandwich. To the north you could see the Missouri River Valley where Lewis and Clark travelled and returned. To the south it seemed like you could see forever. 

I passed a cemetery with an unusual name and went by the Linn State Technical College. A sergeant on the Osage County police force confirmed that the armadillo invasion started two years ago. He said one day he saw one out moving around in the snow. 

To my knowledge I am the only person to walk across the US for ovarian cancer. OCRF found out that Ref Bauer is walking 350 K across Scotland in memory of his Mom. I posted the video in the Ovarian Cancer section of the blog. 

Trivia answer:

After several days of experimental transmissions, the station officially went on-the-air on April 12, 1924. On the evening of the formal dedication, Sears changed the call sign to WLS Radio.  The call letters stood for World's Largest Store, a name the giant retailer and catalogue merchant had gained from their West Side Headquarters on Homan Avenue in Chicago. 

Trivia question:

How many current state capitals will I walk thru?

Day 075 - Rosebud to Mt Sterling MO

Temps were in the 50's & 60's on a day without a cloud in the sky. The terrain had more and longer hills than recent days. 

I passed  a couple wineries and the corresponding vineyards. I went by a couple corn fields that were coming in. The tallest crop was knee high. The wildlife I saw today included a deer, a wild turkey a ground hog and some roosters. 

Gas is much cheaper in Missouri than Illinois. The best price was $3.40 for regular midway between St Louis and Jefferson City. Just before the end of the walk I passed a private drive that has a stream flowing across it. 

Dee and Leonard Wojtysiak hosted me for the last 7 days. That is the third highest number of days that someone has hosted me. They live in a house that they remodeled themselves which is really cool. They are both extremely active in the Illinois Trekkers AVA Club with Leonard having been a former president. 

Dee is an excellent cook who makes enough world class meatballs during the holidays to last the entire year. They made sure I saw the local sights including taking me to my third prayer breakfast of the walk and the second fish fry. On the return from one of our walks Leonard gave me a tour of the Our Lady of the Snows Shrine in Belleville, IL which is beautiful. The club has a year round AVA walk there and a special walk each year on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to see the holiday lights. 

Dee and Leonard had just returned from two months in Australia. They made a complete circuit of the country hitting every state and territory. Leonard and I had plenty of time to discuss their vacation on our five walks together. 

They also took me on the "death by ice cream" tour that Joan would have loved. The Grand Finale occurred on Sunday night when their son and daughter-in-law  invited me to join their family for a delicious meal. For desert they prepared Decedent Chocolate Desert Pasta which they had purchased while they were in Australia. This consisted of pasta that had been  impregnated with real Cocoa from the Netherlands. The pasta was boiled, drained and served hot over homemade ice cream. I really liked it. Everyone ate theirs but I think most were a little weirded out by  the unusual combo. 

Dee, Leonard and Diane Holdiman logged some serious miles staging me and my car. I will miss seeing the Arch daily on the staging runs. 

Trivia answer:

The signs are unique numbers that are used to identify individual property locations when you place a call for emergency police, fire or ambulance services. 

Trivia question:

In grade school the most powerful top 40 AM radio station at night in Ohio was clear channel 50,000 watt WLS out of Chicago. Later on while at flight training in Pensacola amazingly WLS was still the strongest AM top hits signal at night. 

What does WLS stand for?

Day 074 - Leslie to Rosebud MO

Temps were in the 40's & 50's on a day without a cloud in the sky. 

Since joining US Route 50 on  Friday the highway has been basically straight and fairly level running primarily along ridge lines. The area has been heavily forested. The road has had wide paved shoulders. 

Leonard joined me for the entire walk.  Leonard is now in undisputed first place edging out Karen and Jim Iden. Leonard walked 70 miles with me in the past week which is 2.3% of the entire walk. It has been great that six out of the last seven days I have had someone walk with me. 

There were the remains of at least two additional armadillos along the side of the road today. 

Trivia answer: 

Two broadcast call signs east of the Mississippi that start with "K" instead of "W":

KDKA - Pittsburgh 

KYW - Philadelphia 

Trivia question:

Each state has had unique road signs. What do the black signs pictured at the end of the blog represent with the characters "509701" & "509701A" represent?

 

Day 073- Union to Leslie MO

Temps were in the 50's & 60's. The day started mostly sunny. The last hour became overcast with a 15 mph headwind. Right as the walk ended it became mostly sunny again. 

Early on in the walk I came across a turtle a couple feet off the side of the road. After I took his picture he headed away from the road back into the grass which was a very wise move. 

I had noticed remains of what I thought could have been armadillos along the highway the past week or so. I convinced myself I must have been mistaken. I felt they couldn't possibly be this far north. I talked to Diane and Leonard who both said they had heard rumors but doubted it. 

The armadillos have definitely arrived. I saw the unmistakable remains of four armadillos on a five mile stretch of highway today. 

As I walked thru Beaufort the daughter of the owner of The Pit BBQ flagged me down.  A couple driving a church van had offered me a ride earlier in the day. She had talked to them. She and her Dad insisted that I come in and have a pulled pork sandwich. The sandwich was awesome. 

Trivia Question:

Now that I've crossed the Mississippi  River the media broadcast call signs have changed from starting with "W" to "K". 

Name two broadcast call signs east of the Mississippi that start with a "K".