Day 16 we spent around Springfield. I showed Guru around the town, and we stopped at several shops, etc. My family arrived that night and it was nice to see them again. Guru and I left the next morning and headed north. We ended up camping south of Jefferson City, in a cow pasture that we found in some relatively remote backwoods. It was a nice green campsite with thick grass and cicadas loudly buzzing in the trees. We tried unsuccessfully to fire up the gas stove, and ate another cold supper. We were hoping to use our ‘new’ cooking equipment that consisted of two homemade pots. We made them from cutting a very large can of peaches in half. We put the peaches (almost 7 pounds of them) into a water jug. The next day we drove up through Jefferson City and we explored the capitol building. Along the route, we saw a guy walking along the interstate trying to hitch a ride, so we turned around and stopped. We had to do some shuffling around of our gear to make room, and it was very crowded, but we managed to give Water, a ride down the road about 30 miles. He said he has been traveling America for twenty years, and described himself as a Jesus Freak. He knew a guy named Gypsy, who was a transient person that Guru had met a couple years ago around Flagstaff. We continued on north up to Iowa, passing through some Amish territory. Arriving at Iowa City, we are waiting now for Guru’s friend, Charles, the King of the Potato People, to return.