tales from the road

Missouri is not a fly-over state. I checked it out just to be certain. I spent three days searching for the point where deep green farmland met bright blue sky, but every time I looked up from pedaling my bike it seemed to be further away. I came across some interesting places on the ride, the Wal-Mart in Boonville comes to mind, but perhaps none as entertaining as Tebbetts. The town of Tebbetts, like a number of towns we passed through, looked like it could have been in a stage production of "Our Town." The post office was in the same building as Jim's Country Store. Jim's Country Store would turn out to be an entertaining place in it's own right, but the main reason for our stop in Tebbetts was Mrs. Turner. Not bad for a dead lady. I may be a little fuzzy on my facts, but I think I've got the gist of it. The Turner family had a store where Jim's now resides. Mrs. Turner set up a foundation and left that foundation a house to be turned into a hostel. This hostel has two stories, about 20 bunk beds, three showers, two dilapidated ping pong tables, a refrigerator, various old magazines, air conditioning units, fans, and a picnic table. For five dollars a night on the honor system, all of those luxuries were available for passers-through. In theory, the place is amazing. In practice, it was kind of neat. A little something got lost for me between the mildew of the shower curtain, the continual squeaking of the plastic cover on the mattress, and the bright red glow of the EXIT signs. A shower, a bed and a fan for five dollars is tough to beat these days though, so I need to banish my complaints. I wonder if Jim's had something for that.

Jim's Country Store was a treat. Both times we entered we found three or four regulars smoking and drinking the evening away. Except for one, they were different regulars. On our first pass, we asked the man behind the bar about finding some dinner. The man, who not surprisingly turned out to be Jim, offered us "Five-star pizza." He then added, "It's frozen."
We finished our liquid refreshment with the promise to return for the pizza. Before we left a woman tugged on my father's sleeve and launched into a lengthy diatribe that seemed to contain details about her many dogs and about their propensity for barking. I don't recall seeing or hearing the dogs during our stay in Tebbetts. Good dogs. We actually only encountered good dogs on our trip. I was a little nervous at one point when I spotted a dog just outside of a junkyard. Fortunately, the dog redeemed the late Leroy Brown.

After we settled into the expansive hostel, we returned to Jim's for some of that five-star pizza. As we waited at the bar for Jim to heat our pizza, my cousin spied an electric guitar propped up against the wall. Displaying a confidence that would continually surprise me, he asked Jim if he could play. Jim wasn't keen on hooking up an amp, but asked as he pulled another guitar from under the bar if acoustic would be ok. My cousin quietly strummed for a few minutes and refused requests to play loud enough for other folks to hear. It seems the store's whistle was whetted for some music, because another gentleman proceeded to pick up the guitar and serenade us all through dinner and beyond. Most of the songs I didn't recognize, but could still enjoy. I'm not sure if Jim recognized the tunes either, but he proceeded to pull out spoons and play them for at least thirty seconds. Not a minute later he pulled out his harmonica for another rousing thirty seconds of accompaniment. Jim also offered up a mandolin, but unfortunately none of us could play. I'm still not clear if Jim could play. My dad wanted me to ask for a banjo, but I was fearful that Jim would have one. I wasn't sure this crowd wanted to hear one of my four songs.

We left Tebbetts quietly the next morning. Jim wasn't up yet to serve breakfast. Left to our own singing, we went spinning on to the east. The skies had not even spit in our general direction until we neared our final destination, the sprawling metropolis of Washington, Missouri.