Tag Archives: Rest Day

Ellington, MO

motel

In the morning, I witnessed the fascinating spectacle of dragonflies feeding. A squadron of about 20 of them cooperatively would buzz low along the grass. This scared up a swarm of mosquitoes, leafhoppers, and gnats. Within 5 seconds, the squadron had scooped up all the flying insects, and moved along for another pass.

The day’s ride included an exhausting killer hill just after Alley Springs. I came to the top, rounded the corner, and discovered that it went up even more! Thank goodness there was the Country Junction Trading Post at the real crest.

Country Junction Trading Post, with locals just hanging out. I noticed that in Kansas and Missouri, they counted out every penny of change. If I gave the store a dollar for a 61ยข soda, they would go “sixty-two, sixty-three, sizty-four, sixty-five, seventy-five, a dollar.”
Catfish was a big thing. Look at this Catfish special for $3.50
Canoeing.
A lot of the reqion was up-and-down, up-and-down

Since the next day was Sunday, I checked into the Hub City Motel in Ellington. Just $19.

Sunday, August 14, 1988

I spent the next day in Ellington, Missouri. After attending the local Baptist Church, Dan and Shady Warden invited me out to lunch. It was a pleasant lunch at the Hub City Restaurant. Afterwards, I wanted to offer to leave the tip, but realized I only had a twenty in my wallet. Looking back, I should have stated I would leave the tip, then go to the register to break the twenty. But I was too slow, and Dan embarrassed me by leaving the tip, also.

Dan warden was huge, like 6-10. Shady reminded me of the woman who did the “At Mervyn’s Today” commercial. They have 4 children – Amy, who will be a junior in high school, Shanda, who is 6, another 19-year old daughter in Colorado Springs, and a 10-year old son away visting grandparents. Dan: “Funny thing about iced tea. You boil it, then put ice in to make it cold. You put lemon in to make it sour, then sugar to make it sweet.”

After lunch, I visited the local laundromat. Sunday was a convenient day to do laundry, although I didn’t have to wash my clothes every Sunday. There was no vending machine with the mini-boxes of soap there, so I used shampoo. This worked out well, since I bought a 7-ounce bottle at the store, and could only carry 4 ounces in my container.

My second best meal on the whole trip was that evening, at Timmer’s Restaurant. The fresh catfish was scrumptious! And the whole dinner was only about $6, including beverage. Catfish on a menu usually said “allow 25 minutes for preparation,” but this was definitely worth the wait.

Also, the custom seemed to be that all iced teas were bottomless.