Missouri Loves Company

I spent a weird amount of time in Missouri.

October 25

My first real stop was St. Louis, which was surprisingly disappointing. It was over 80 degrees and beautiful on a Saturday, and NO ONE was there! It seemed as if the only thing the city had to offer was the Cardinals and water fountains. That damn red mascot was on literally everything. Good thing I like birds.

I showed up to the city in a sweater and thick leggings, having come from chilly Champaign-Urbana. I quickly regretted it, and headed back to my car. It was super comfortable changing in my back seat; I parked on the street, in front of a mid-to-late 40s man driving an electric blue sports car with a blown out back window covered in a trash bag. Also the streets oscillated between smelling like piss and horse shit.

The arch was pretty.

If I wasn't already sick of cities (which, for the record, I was), I sure was now. It just felt like I was seeing the same glass and grey cement building everywhere, just at different heights. So I set off to stop in some random town that had a coffee shop with a good yelp review. I ended up in Columbia, MO; a college town. Like most college towns, it was cute and had a strip of nice shops and food places. I stepped out of my car and was almost immediately asked for directions by a guy in his car. I think I'm just one of those people that strangers like to approach to ask questions.
"No, sorry, I'm not from here."
I keep walking, turn a corner.
"Excuse me, Miss."
It's the guy.
"Sorry, but you're really pretty, would you like to get coffee or something with me?"
It was very polite, and I was flattered, but I really did not want a coffee date with this average looking mid-to-late 30 year old. Luckily I had the excuse of only being in town for less than an hour.

I ended up skipping the coffee shop and getting frozen yogurt. It felt like summer out!

By the time I reached Kansas City, MO it was evening. It's a weirdly romantic city. There were lots of fountains with blue dyed water (Missouri seems to be the land of fountains), horse drawn carriages, pretty lights, beautiful architecture, and gondola rides. The bars were all packed since the Royals are in the World Series and the game was on.

Lawrence, Kansas was just a quick drive over. I chose Lawrence over Topeka at the behest of a friend of mine in Quincy who went to Law school there. Another college town, it had a similar feel to it as Columbia. When I got there I wasn't feeling super social, and by the time I had gotten off the phone with a friend of mine in NY it was pretty late. With the place swamped by rowdy undergraduate baseball fans, I took a pass on actually staying.

The next day, on my way to Nebraska, I decided to stop in random townie diner or café for breakfast/lunch. My GPS had picked up on a place called Tammy's Country Café. It ended up being in Maysville, MO; population 1114. (Though I passed a place with a 780 population on my way there!) The place ended up actually being Ted + Juli's Cafe on the Square. It was a very cute cafe, full of locals who clearly knew each other, and very cheap food. It was so small town that there was a smoking section. The waitress was nice, but didn't seem interested in talking to me really.

Missouri finally gave me some accents! The only other person who had had one was the sports car guy.