Day 18

Please, let me gloat just this once. I beat the mighty Ozarks in a day, which, biblical scholars that you are, is about how long He took to put them up.

It wasn't particularly pleasant, and there were far too many logging trucks for my liking, but I had time for a nap at Alley Springs, I found myself a sarsaparilla in Summersville when I needed it most, and I had the large carrot of free soda and a hot tub dangling right in front of me. Tomorrow, I've been promised a brief trip to Dog's Bluff and a cliff jump into a creek (I'm told) to set my day off right.

This is going to get boring for you. I haven't had anything horrible happen to me for a little while. Missouri is pleasant enough. It's nice. So the week's challenge just might be narrative.

I walked into a greasy spoon to get change for my laundry. I noticed the woman running it because she was wearing lipstick just under her mustache. Everyone was smoking and staring at me.

"How do you all do?"
All together now: "Muh."

To the left of the boss was a strange taxidermied animal. It had the head of a rabbit, horns, a pheasant's body, and a fish's tail.

"Say, what do you call one of those?"
"Jackalope."
"I've yet to see one of those on my trip."
"You can't see them you Mo-ron. It's made up."

While I will sleep easier knowing there aren't flying, swimming rabbits, I am a bit concerned that a man decided to glue the ass of one animal to another -- and that another man or woman paid him for it.

Earlier that morning, at a hardware store in Ellington:

The nicest, nicest man charges up to me, all smiles at seven AM. He's in his fifties and has a bluetooth headset. I'm there for tape, but we get to talking.

"Well now where are you from?"
"XX."
"Why gang, get a load of this. This nice young man biked all the way over the ocean from XX."
"I..."
"I'm just joshing you. Hey, speak of it, here's Josh!"
"Oh hiyo. Everyone's always saying you're joshing me -- but I'm just Josh."
"There you go now."

I used all the tape I could, kept some, but returned the bulky roll. They could use it for something.

"Well I can't take this. Let me give you back some money. No? Well you have just made my day."

Well ditto.