McKittrick to Treloar; Distance = 16 Miles; People Met = 2
Today brought two notable changes. There were Adopt a Trail sections, with markedly less trash than in some other areas along the Katy Trail. The KT was never as bad as the dumping along the roads we saw in western Missouri, but it wasn’t Colorado, either. That leads me to regret the unfavorable comments I made about Nevada and Utah’s trash in comparison to Colorado earlier. Colorado stands out as uniquely special in regards to a lack of trash; perhaps I should not be faulting any other state for having more trash than Colorado.
The other change was a break in the clouds towards afternoon. The sun does exist in eastern Missouri! Still, we don’t get the full impact of “beautiful Missouri” as described by our good friend John Markelon whose Mom’s family hailed from Bluffton. The leaves are off now, creating a tangle of brown that exposes the predominant brown soil from flooding. The cliffs are spectacular, particularly when crowned with evergreens at the top, but the Katy Trail corridor has very little color to it this time of year.
We stayed with Pastor Jeanne Lischner and her daughter Sally at the end of the day. Pastor Jeanne’s church, the Immanuel UCC of Holstein, has a huge kitchen for a church in a town around 100 people. One reason for that is a mission they chose for themselves, providing community meals for people from senior housing that exists nearby, and subsequently for people in Emmaus House. The kitchen is even decked with a steamer table and a large, walk-in refrigerator.
They charge $3 for a meal, which is enough to keep the program going while still making the meals affordable for their targeted populations. Pastor Jeanne mentioned that one of the primary purposes for the program was to provide a forum for companionship as much as an affordable meal. That seemed an appropriate angle to report on for the holiday season.
Pastor Jeanne used the huge kitchen to prepare us a spaghetti dinner. Afterwards, she perused Ky’s maps to see what UCC churches lie along our route in the future.
Pastor Jeanne doing research for us
