Kennett

I didn't leave Mountain Grove until 6 in the evening. I treated myself to a Chinese buffet and sat for several hours making the most of it. And reading another Grisham book, too, which is now covered in Chinese doughnut sticky fingerprints. After my initial qualms about leaving books behind after finishing them, lately I've actually taken some pride in finding interesting spots to sneak them out of my backpack. If someone were following me they could find an interesting trail of used paperbacks, smugly tucked in with laundromat romance novels and hidden away with old bibles in Baptist churches. Ah, the spread of literature.
I made it most of the way to Cabool before it started getting too dark and cold, and then staked up my tent under some limestone shelves and crawled in for the night.
In the morning I made it into Cabool and did a little load of laundry before getting back on the highway. The weather stayed cool and dry through the day, and I made time through Willow Springs and put in some long hours to get to Mountain View for the night.
Sunday I woke up behind a Baptist church and spent half an hour cleaning up and shaving before early service at 8:30. Afterwards I met Larry Price, a young adult bible study teacher, and he led me upstairs to his classroom.
When the session ended, I found an old piano to play during late service, and then met up with Larry again afterward. The youth group put on a potato bar after the service let out, and I got a good meal in before Larry waved me off.
Not leaving until around 1, I didn't get a long way on the day, and stopped for the night at the little town of Birch Tree. It rained through the night but I stayed dry under an awning in front of the life insurance office.
Monday I started out early and made it through Winona before it started to rain, again. Through most of the afternoon the showers persisted, and I ate a cold supper under my poncho. I got close to Van Buren before turning in for the night at a little roadside park just west of town. I stayed dry, if not entirely warm, through the night.
Tuesday the rain came early. I stocked up in Van Buren, and wanted to sit around for a while but didn't let myself. The oak forests were cold and dark through the morning, the hills wet and dreary, but by early afternoon the clouds blew away.
Missouri, as far as I've seen, doesn't have milemarkers like the rest of the states I've come through, so it's harder to judge the distances I'm making. My official highway maps haven't been very accurate in the past, so I'm reluctant to go by them, and though I have a pedometer, my stride length doesn't want to stay the same for very long, so it, too, isn't perfect. But I've definitely been putting in some long days.
I ended up in Elsinore, for the night, and saw plenty of stars with the clouds blown away.
Wednesday I worked my way through good weather, and made it into Poplar Bluff by 5. I ate spaghetti at the smoker's retreat outside the Kroger store, and then tried to find a movie theater. Before I did, though, a man in a pickup truck pulled over to see if I wanted a ride, and said he knew where the theater was, and that it was a long ways out of town. I hopped in the back of his truck and he drove me a couple of miles down the road before letting me out at the theater.
"Young man," he called as I got out, "I don't know what your standing with the Master is, but you're going to be in my prayers. Have you had supper?" I say that I have. "Want some cookies, at least?" He fills me up with some, before I head inside and catch the last showing.
Even when I was back home I used to go to the movies by myself. Not always, sometimes with a date or a couple of friends, but more often than not. It's peaceful. And it's a good way to clear my thoughts. I get bogged down by the idea of the walk, at times. I get down when I think about all the miles I still have to make before Florida, before the ocean, and two hours with a different plot can make all the difference.
After the movie I walked back up the highway for a ways, before stumbling on another Baptist church, and I rolled out my sleeping bag in a picnic shelter, out back. I played some wispy harmonica before my eyes got too heavy.
The rain came back during the night. Came back hard and thick, and pounded the thin, metal roof of the shelter. The wind picked up, after a while, and started blowing sheets of rain into the shelter and rivulets started creeping toward me, so I picked up and ended up sleeping on top of a picnic table, with my things, while the water filled up the concrete blocks below.
In the morning the clouds hung around for a while but the wind and rain were all but gone. I got a cup of coffee in a McDonald's, then started on my way, on highway 53, out of town.
What the map said was 26 miles later, I found the town of Campbell, and made my way to the City park for the night. No wind or rain, but it was getting pretty cold by the time I turned in.
Yesterday I walked from Campbell down through Holcomb, and then into Kennett around 5. My grandpa found me at a stoplight, and gave me a ride the rest of the way into town, to my grandparents' house.
I got a shower in, just after arriving, and then ate supper before making a few calls to let people know that I'd made it this far.
Today, after dinner (southern dinner, noon) grandpa took me out to a field on the edge of town and showed me how to pick cotton. The sides of the road are lined with white, blowing fields, here.
I'm looking forward to the next few days. I've made another little notch in my belt, and I'm happy to be with family, again. From the looks of things, I'm definitely not going to go hungry this week.