We start the day on the banks of Paho lake. Last night we saw fireflies and a beautiful sunset, although later, when we went to bed one fell asleep at 2 minutes of bedtime, the other one stayed 1 hour listening to suspicious sounds ... I swear that they were the steps of a serial killer, but they were only bugs crashing into our mosquito net.
The sunrise was cool, with the sun's reflections in the lake water and with a quick breakfast. So fast that it consisted of a cup of coffee to steal and a peach and mango juice for me. Well, juice is big words, that was orange water with sugars and flavors quite a few.
We put the batteries early: at 08:30 we are on the road. Deep Missouri awaits us and an appointment, for Rober, inescapable: the Champions final. Will we be able to find a bareto where they broadcast it? Spoiler: nothing spoiler, keep reading piece of bum.
Missouri It is part of the area called “the great plains” and yes, like Iowa, it has plains, fields, barns, farms, lakes, cows and cowboys. But it has something special with what we had been wanting to cross for some time ... Amish! Yes, we finally saw them in their horse carts, with their little beards and costumes from another era. Although the first thing we saw was a signal warning that there are slow vehicles here (come on, horse carriages) with which you have to share the road.
After this the real cars came, we saw at least 6 or 7, although the first was the one we will always remember, not for being the first (but also) but because when he saw us he started to greet us from the top of his cart . We also passed a supermarket where they had “parked” their horses in the purest western style.
Apparently this is the area where there is more Amish population, say the true Amish community, there are other famous towns in Lancaster in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, although we understand that they are quite touristy.
Seeing some Amish in the first person was one of the illusions we had on this trip, although what came next was even better! Initially we had thought get to Springfield, already in the route 66, but as the time of the game approached and Rober was getting nervous, we decided to stop a few miles before, in the unknown and tiny town of Warsaw. Yes, like the Polish city. Here we entered, without much hope that they would broadcast the game, in the only village bar and surprise! After asking if he could please turn on his television, we checked that he was being thrown on the FOX and that they had it! J
The bars in the United States are great, but the bars in the small towns of the United States are still more than great. The bar, in this case, was in the shape of a horseshoe surrounded by stools fixed to the floor, in two of them we sat and in the rest were a blonde woman with a contagious laugh and a few more beers, Cindy, who took her the blonde's hair (and who has a son who looks like Rober), Tommy, a man of few words who had all the pints of having voted for Trump, a middle-aged man with gray hair very majete, Billy and Mike, a super nice couple and his friend with a cowboy hat (which made us promise that when we get married we will celebrate the wedding here, or at least that the next time we pass through his town we will get a camper and go to Yellowstone together ). Oh, and there is David, the waiter who has an American mother and a Mexican father (although he only knows one thing in Spanish: beer).
Just through the door they greeted us as if they had known us for a lifetime. And after 5 minutes of speaking, after clarifying concepts (to steal today's football game it's like his superbowl), we already had two beers in front of us, courtesy of Billy's husband.
We keep talking for a while, that if we are from Spain and Italy, that if baseball in our countries is not seen, that if the final was going to be cool, that if football is a little girl's sports, that if that, that how the hell we ended up in that little town ... and after a while the man with gray hair invited everyone present to another beer. But in a peculiar way ... Instead of getting a beer for everyone, what David distributed were green chips that serve as "vouchers for a beer."
But it was not the only rare thing that the waiter found behind the bar, suddenly we see that he takes out a beaker with some dice and everyone gives him 50 cents. Cast? It's a game: if the 5 dice 4 are the same or one, the red one, one comes out ... free beer. We try our luck but the game is not on our side. Billy yes, after saying goodbye and giving us two grandma's tips, he gives us two of those green chips he kept in his bag ... another beer! My mother!
We left there with the twelfth champions league, 3 beers, a few new improvised friends and a lesson: there is no better place than the village bar to learn things about the United States.
Missouri is cool, road trips are cool, this trip is cool and the dinner that Rober is preparing in our beautiful caravan, in a beautiful campsite, on the banks of a beautiful lake is cool.
Tomorrow a great day awaits us: we will finally step on Route 66!
