Today was an odd day. On an off day there’s usually laundry and lots of sleep. We did the sleeping in thing, and then Chad and I went to IHOP for breakfast. The hostess/server there took 3-4 minutes to even appear, and then was the most surly person I’ve seen in months. Rather than endure dealing with her we left. After a fast food breakfast I went for a haircut. Thanks to the homogenization of American chains, the Great Clips in Emporia knew from my phone number how to cut my hair. The woman cutting my hair told me the story of cooking barbeque for 140 people yesterday for Memorial Day. They were 140 inmates at the local federal prison, most of them awaiting final disposition of their cases. She regaled me with the vagaries of preparing food for so many people, including the fact that both Rice Krispy squares and Pop Tarts are off limits for people who avoid pork.

After that I walked back through a more residential area. Our hotels are usually at freeway interchanges, which look almost all alike, with the same hotels, fast food restaurants, and Wal-Marts. I feel the Brits among us are getting a very skewed look at America.

There’s a local Technical College whose clock reads differently on its two sides.

Then things got weird. We (Todd, Chad, and I) got a cab into town. I mentioned the woman at IHOP, although I was concerned the driver might know her. Indeed he did. He launched into a 10 minute profanity laden rant about how she calls the cab to take her home at noon, often going all the way across town to the Flying J truck stop for coffee on her way home, even though home is on the other side of town. Sometimes she goes home first and then gets the cab for coffee. Needless to say, the driver disapproves. He then went on a further rant about his plan to retire in a month and travel with his Harley and his travel trailer.

Emporia advertises itself as the “Gravel Bike Capital of the World” and hosts a large gravel biking event this weekend, the highlight of which is a one day 200 mile gravel bike race. The town was filled with young volunteers getting ready, signs everywhere, and bike shops cleaning their windows (but not any of the other businesses).

It’s also a disc golf mecca. Who knew?

Then we saw this building. It’s now an assisted living facility, but it has a control tower on top. Why? It’s at least a mile from the rail yard and there is no airport. Through Google Chad finally found an explanation from 10 years ago in the local paper. The building was built in the 1920s and the observation tower was added about 1955 to watch for incoming aerial attacks. It was staffed by volunteer women who would alert the local air base. It’s not clear who would have attacked Emporia, Kansas, where they would have come from, or how they could have flown to nearly the center of the continental US without being discovered, but there you have it.

Tomorrow, Topeka.