July 17, Farmington, MO
We’re staying tonight in Al’s Place, a hostel created by the City of Farmington. The city manager just stopped by to say hi. This is the hostel’s inaugural year. Based on the comments of those who have stayed here before us and our own reactions, the city should get an award for best hostel along the ACA TransAm route.
We’re on the second floor of a stone building built in the 1840s that until the late 1990s was used as the county jail. The city didn’t know what to do with the building after the county donated it to the city for nearly 10 years. Then the city manager got an idea: Given the number of TransAm cyclists that pass through the city looking for a place to stay, the city should convert the second floor to a hostel. It’s air conditioned, furnished with 14 bunk beds, a washer and dryer, dining table and chairs, two bathrooms, lounge area with cable TV, a computer wired to the Internet and a kitchen. Cost: $20 per person. Tonight 5 of us will stay here. Our bikes are stored in part of the first floor.
“You cyclists have been coming through here since 1976 looking for places to stay and we’ve been sending you to the city park,” said the manager. “It took us awhile but we think this is a better alternative.”
All of us shouted, “You bet.”
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