One of my teacher friends, Judie, moved to Kansas City last year. It was hard enough to find time to get together for lunch when Judie lived just a few blocks away, but being separated by 260 miles made it even harder. So Judie came up with the idea of meeting somewhere in the middle. As luck would have it, Amtrak was having a sale, and the east/west lines met in Jefferson City right around lunch time.
Carol, our former librarian, decided to take a break from her grandkids and join us (she still lives in St Louis). There weren't many people riding Amtrak on a Wednesday in the middle of September, but we met a large group of young men who were taking Amtrak to Sedalia with their bikes to ride the Katy Trail. Unfortunately for them, we were in the middle of a scorching heat wave, plus there was rain predicted (these guys were planning to camp - better them than me).
When we got to Jeff City, we found a nice little cafe for lunch called Madison's. The food and service were really good, but the only trouble with commercial establishments in the Midwest in the heat of the summer is that they turn the air conditioning up so high. We'd all dressed for the weather, but Judie was the only one who'd brought a jacket (who thinks to bring a jacket in 95 degree heat???). So we walked over to the Grand Cafe on High Street and sat under a shade tree drinking iced tea and chatting for the rest of the afternoon. We topped off the trip with a visit to YoYums frozen yogurt shop before catching the train to go back home. YoYums is one of those places where you pay by the ounce. Thank goodness they don't have one in my neighborhood or I'd be down there all the time. All in all it was a really fun trip and for once, Amtrak was even early!
