Day Four
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Lisa: Our new friends at the Miller United Methodist Church got on the horn to other churches down the trail to let them know what we were doing and ask if they could help in any way. A church at our next stop, the Community Covenant Church of Osage City, offered to put us up at their building, but we’d already paid for an Airbnb. So they insisted on paying for our dinner in OC, buying us a gift card for Bunky’s Hickory Pit BBQ.
Marianne: I was still feeling so overwhelmed by the kindness of our friends at the church, it set a new tone for the hike…we are all connected! And that feeling continued with our new friends in Osage City. We were getting a small view of their community, and they were becoming part of our story.
Miller to Osage City
Airbnb on Market Street
13.32 trail miles, 16.08 total miles
64° at 9:15 a.m. with a high of 88°
Osage City
We wandered the town while our laundry tumbled at the ClotheSpin after dinner and found a lovely little park near the water tower and a revitalized old filling station.
Click on the yellow crosses to the right to read the sections below
Downers
Lisa:
- About half of the trail was in full sun, no shade, and it was hot!
- Our Airbnb turned out to be at the top of a very long, very steep staircase with no way to get our strollers up there.
Marianne:
- A train goes through Osage City every twenty minutes. Day. And. Night.
- We didn’t get to check out the Herald-Chronicle newspaper office on Market Street. I thought they might want to interview us!
- We didn’t sleep even though we had a very comfortable place to sleep!
Highlights
- At Bunky’s, the food was outstanding and the beer was cold!
- We met one of the owners, Sandy, and our amazing waitress was Brenda. We also talked to a lovely patron named David.
- Danielle and Colton, the owners of the beautiful Airbnb on Market Street, also own Osage Hardware, and they let us park our strollers inside the hardware store overnight.
- We were able to stock up on snacks and replenish our water supply at the Foodliner on Lakin Street.
- Market Street has beautiful old storefronts and a laundromat near our Airbnb where we did laundry.
- The clerks at the Casey’s convenience store didn’t charge us for half and half pods for our oatmeal.
Marianne:
- Ditto on what Lisa said.*
- Osage City is a cool little town.
- Grandma’s Garden by the water tower is a nice little park with a gazebo.
*Lisa: Do you see how she just keeps copying me? You see it, right??
Fast Facts: Osage City, Kansas
- Founded in 1872
- Population 2861 (as of 2020 Census)
- Originally a coal-mining town
- Named after the Osage Nation
- Home of three National Historic Landmarks
Marianne acting out a scene from Stand By Me
Photo Gallery
Click on a photo for a captioned slide show to learn what you're looking at
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