Days 190-191 – 11/30-12/1 – Corporate Woods

Eudora to Shawnee Mission; Distance = 30 Miles; People Met = 9+

Photos at the End

As we near the Missouri border the road walking becomes one part more forested and one part more suburban. We passed Edgerton Road shortly after leaving Eudora, at the end of which Bart Hall lives. We were supposed to stay with him an evening, but taking a rest day at the Light Center because of my cold changed that. Had that not happened there would have been an interesting juxtaposition of staying with an opponent of a proposed coal-power plant for the region one evening (Reid Nelson), and a proponent for coal-powered plants the next (Bart).

Once we reached Shawnee Mission Park we started following bike paths … and meeting more people. The bike paths could have been anywhere, meaning that the Kansas plains we trekked through for hundreds of miles was not in sight. Instead there was forest that could have been home. Indeed, as we hiked through the Corporate Woods bike trail we encountered a wide variety of trees in sort of an arboretum including one, the Pawpaw, I had never seen.

There was a Starbucks near the Corporate Woods bike trail where we stopped, intending to use one of our gift cards that Kathy Luis gave us back in Antioch, California. Instead, the coffees were on the house, compliments of Natasha and Jen. Natasha was from Canada and had encountered a man traveling cross-Canada at one time. While in the store we talked to Jeff, who said we made his day and he was going to tell everyone at work.

That evening we stayed at the home of Lorene Miller, retired schoolteacher, and had dinner together with Gretchen and Ardie Davis, two of the three folks we met back in the Frisco visitor center. Since then Gretchen had been busy lining up both speaking engagements and places to stay in the Kansas City area, the reason why we made a determined effort to arrive here ahead of schedule. The six of us chatted into the evening like we had been old friends.