Human Sacrifice and Comfort (but not at the same time)

Today was an awesome day. I'll tell you all about it at the end of this post. See, that's what we writers (yes, I now consider myself a writer) call foreshadowing. It means that you will want to read all the way to the end to find out why this was such a good day. If I don't win a Peabody for this then something's messed up.

I stopped for breakfast in Pocahontas. It's the home of country music star Gretchen Wilson. That's all that's going for that place. The food was not good. They focused on cramming as much food and grease onto a plate and I'm pretty sure they cooked that bacon earlier in the morning and just heated it up when I got there. I didn't each much.

Speaking of breakfast, I talked about the Daybreak Diner a few posts ago. After I uploaded that post I ended up talking to the guy at the grill for a bit. It turns out he's the owner, chef and chief dishwasher. It's just him and one waitress working there. Mike was his name I think. Anyway, Mike worked construction most of his life before he saved up enough money to start his diner. The food is awesome, especially the gravy. If you're ever going through Columbus, OH look it up and stop in. It's not in the best neighborhood but it's worth it.

So the day started with a stop at Cahokia Mounds in St. Louis. Like I said in the last post, Cahokia was this huge city that was built along the Mississippi somewhere around 1050 AD. They built these big mounds all over the place but the biggest was Monk's Mound. This was the big central pyramid that is(was) the largest man made structure north of Mexico City at the time. It's also the third largest pyramid in the new world. The museum that they have there on the site is actually pretty good. I was expecting some run down place but it was really well put together. The big mound itself has eroded quite a bit and to be honest it's not that impressive any more. It just looks like a big hill with some stairs going up the side. There was also the Woodhenge. It's just like Stonehenge but made of wood. Overall, seeing the site wasn't all that interesting. I think learning about the city itself is very interesting but actually seeing....not so much. It just looks like some grass covered hills. On a side note, the museum didn't hardly mention the human sacrifices found there. There were something like 300 people (mostly young women) who were buried with this one guy, some rich, important guy. The 300 people all had slit throats or their heads bashed in and were all arranged around the rich guy. Pretty messed up eh? I can't imagine why they don't put that in the museum. See, this is why I read books, so I can learn all the things they don't put in the museum.

When I got a little west of St. Louis I got off the interstate and headed north on highway 63 and then west on highway 36. By the way, who in their right mind puts highway 63 right next to 36? I'm tempted to write to the city planner of Macon, MO and let him know about my displeasure. On a side note, Macon also sports the "Huggybear Flea Market". Huggybear, the friendly neighborhood pimp from Starsky and Hutch has apparently retired to run his flea market. Tell me that's not funny.

I had a lot of bugs on my windshield. There are a bunch of butterflies out; maybe it's their mating season or something because there are always two flying around together. I hit one and the smudge on the windshield actually looked like a butterfly. It was almost art-like. These are the things I think about when I get bored. Check it out, it's the pinkish looking shape on the left.



Now for the part that made this day so good. It starts with bad but ends good. Yesterday I talked about the soft gel pad that I bought for my seat. Well, it sucked. I ended up taking it off and the seat was noticeably more comfortable (though still not very comfortable). So I stopped in St. Joseph at the Harley dealership and bought an entirely new seat. When I went in there I wasn't expecting to find much (clearly I've gotten used to the dealership near where I live that never has anything in stock) but they had a seat there that fit my bike and was comfortable. When I sat on it for the first time, it felt like sitting on whale (I imagine that whales are pretty soft, you know, because of all the blubber). I think it will make the rest of my trip much, much better. It cost about $300 but I already think it was worth it.

So I made it almost to Omaha tonight. I'm staying in Nebraska City, just south of town. I felt kind of bad because I asked everyone for suggestions on where to go in Omaha but I didn't make it quite that far. One of the suggestions I got was Valentino's Pizza. When I got to the hotel I found a ad for Valentino's that said the deliver to the hotel. Turns out it's not bad pizza.

The plan for tomorrow is to make it to somewhere near Mt. Rushmore/the Crazy Horse Monument. It's supposed to rain tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. Should be fun.


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Location:Benton,United States