Another hot day. Traveled 65.8 miles today for a total of 115.8 miles

We ate breakfast at the B&B and got started at about 9:30. Beautiful Sunday morning and there were a lot of bikers out on the Katy Trail. It was fun to watch the faces of other bikers as they looked at our bikes. Some were admiration, but most were wide eyed disbelief. We traveled the Katy Trail from St. Charles to Herman today. The Katy Trail is one of the longest, but narrowest state parks. It is an old railroad that has been converted to a biking and hiking trail. The surface is crushed limestone. It is touted for its beauty and history. I’m not sure I like the trail. The crushed limestone takes more energy to ride and the uneven surface makes handling a loaded bike more of a challenge. You always have to have a good grip on the handlebars. Also, the bicycle tires make the dust from the crushed limestone fly in the air, coating everything from our knees down with a fine white dust. We went a number of miles on roads the paralleled the Katy. It was a good diversion.

We met some nice people. Some asked us about where we were going. We met one gentleman in a way we would rather not. He had just hit an unexpected surface anomaly at a high rate of speed and ended up off his bike in a less than graceful fashion. He scraped up his elbow pretty good, but otherwise he and his bike were in good shape. We helped him wash his woods and made good use of the baby wipes we have in our first aid kit. His elbow will hurt for a few days, but other then that he should be OK.

At different times, we would ride separately, in a paceline or side by side as traffic on the trail allowed. After we had gone over 50 miles we were both feeling pretty tired. Keith was riding beside me and we were talking when something momentarily distracted him and he briefly lost his balance and had to swerve to regain it. The only problem was that he had to swerve in my direction. I tried to hold the course but soon was off the edge of the crown of the gravel surface and couldn’t correct back. We both bit the dust (literally). After picking ourselves up and evaluating the damage, we discovered that, except for Keith having one minor scratch and one minor abrasion, we and our bikes were just fine.

A few miles further we discovered a large oak tree with a 2.5 foot truck and about a day earlier decided it was tired of standing on the hill by the trail and decided to lay down – across the trail. We stopped, took all the panniers and gear off our bikes, passed them over the tree and it’s branches, and then put then reassembled everything on the other side. Ah, the unexpected adventures of Bicycle touring!

The weather forecast is saying that most of the remnants of hurricane Dennis will miss us. We may get some rain but we shouldn’t get the full deluge.

Tonight we are staying in a city park that has campsites, in the town of Hermann, Missouri. The town is about 3 miles off the Katy Trail. The cricket and chirping and a light, cool breeze is blowing.

GPS Track Day 1 & 2

A beautifully clear day. Also hot! We rode about 50 miles today. My Uncle Wes Peterson picked us up at our Motel in downtown St. Louis about 9:30 and took us to our starting point. With last minute packing and adjustments, we didn’t get of until almost noon. We started from the Lewis and Clark Bridge in Alton and rode along the Mississippi and then Illinois rivers. There is a bike trail which is well maintained in many places.

Approaching Gafton we saw a little Visitor’s Center and decided the appeal of a break in air conditioning was very tempting so we stopped in. After looking at the usual visitor’s center items, we spied a half completed, 300 piece puzzle on a table and decided to finish it for them. It was just the break we needed.

We crossed the Illinois River on a ferry. The area between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers is very rolling. Some of the hills are killer climbs, but fortunately short ones. The rewards and the great descents! The last one, though, we couldn’t take full advantage of because the steep descent ended in the Mississippi River. We took another ferry across the Mississippi and began riding to St. Charles.

Approaching St. Charles, we stopped for rest in the shade and met Jordan, Marc, and TJ (thanks Marc for posting a comment) on their bikes. These kids were riding to Jordan’s mother’s house nearby and had many questions about our trip and equipment. We had a fun time chatting with them.

Once we made it to St. Charles we were pretty tuckered out from riding and the heat. We looked for a place to stay, but all the motel rooms were full in the entire town and no pace to camp. We looked for stealth camping opportunities, but didn’t see anything we liked that was free of poison ivy and trash. We finally were directed to a Bed and Breakfast. The sign in the window said they had rooms. So we called and left a message. While we were waiting for a return call, two ladies stopped by and talked with us and helped us call for other lodging. We successfully confirmed that all motels in the areas were full. We really appreciated their help. It was nice to have some helpful after a long day.

We got a call back from the B&B and took the room. Shower, air conditioning, and a soft bed – with breakfast!

See GPS Track on Day 2.

Today we parked the van in front of the library in Hartford and took the Confluence Bikeway to Alton.  We discovered a great museum on the way up.  The National Great Rivers Museum is a new museum that Keith and I both enjoyed.  It’s right by a navigational lock and dam on the Mississippi and you can watch the barges travel though the locks.  It’s a new museum with many interactive displays,  Both Keith and I wished we had more time to spend.  Unfortunately, we had to get back to the convention so we couldn’t stay as long as we wanted.

We traveled on up to Alton.  Someone in the visitor’s center told us about an eagle’s nest that we could see from the trail.  We looked for the nest but couldn’t spot it.

In Alton we rode across the Lewis and Clark Bridge.  It’s a neat suspension bridge across the Mississippi with a bike lane both directions.  Unfortunately the it’s not well maintained for bikes and we had to always be on the lookout for debris and broken glass.  The bike path on the other side wasn’t all that well maintained either.  Too bad.  It’s a beautiful place to ride.

On the way back we were able to spot the eagle’s nest, but didn’t see any activity at the time.  A great section of trail to ride!

Today we drove up to the Missouri side of the Chain of Rocks Bridge and rode our bicycles across to the Illinois side and connected to the Confluence Bikeway trail.  We were planning on getting water at the Lewis and Clark park just south of Hartford, but discovered upon our arrival that the Vistor’s Center was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  So we rode on up to Hardford and got water in a convenience store restroom.

To get to Hartford, we had to cross Hwy 3 which is a 4 lane road.  We waited at the light, but our bikes were not heavy enough to trigger the sensors so we had to wait until a vehicle came to for the light to turn.

Part of the ride was along the levy that runs right beside the Chain of Rocks Canal that the shipping traffic runs though.  It was neat to watch a tug move down the canal.  We rode faster than it traveled down stream.

We decided to start our trip with short day rides during the GC Session.  This is the first of three of those rides.  I’m calling this day 0.1 as it is part of our ride, but we are not fully self sustained yet. We are riding with panniers but not competely packed and loaded.

Yesterday we rode from our motel across the street to the arch and we touched the arch.

Today we rode fro our motel up the Saint Louis Riverfront Trail to the Chain of Rock Bridge.  We crossed the bridge to the Illinois side and then returned to our motel in downtown St. Louis.  It was about a 25 mile round trip.  The trail itsself was nice all the way and resonable well maintained.  The secenery for the first 4-5 miles left something to be desired.  The trails followes the edge of the river though the industrial area north of downtown St. Louis.  So we passed though scrap yards, junkyards and by factories and processing facilities of all kinds.

The Chain of Rocks bridge is a rather nice bridge.  It is the old Route 66 bridge that is closed to moterized vehicles.  It is open during the day for walking and riding across.

UPDATE

Today’s GPS Track

We have arrived in St. Louis for the General Conference Session. In just a week and a half we will be starting our Lewis and Clark Tour.

It’s finally here! Spring and our first bike!

Keith’s bike came in a at the end of March and we have put about 120 miles on it so far in training rides. Today was the longest so far and also the longest that Keith has ever ridden. He did great. After we had some oatmeal, we started out about 8:30 am. It was a bit chilly (54F) but gradually warmed up throughout the day to a high of 74F. It was threatening to rain so we took rain gear in our handlebar bags, which did the job of keeping it from raining. We stopped in Eaton Rapids for a “second breakfast” at on all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. I think they lost money on us! Definitely did on Keith.

This afternoon we planted two cherry trees in the back yard. Hopefully the deer won’t eat them first!

Waiting always is the hardest part. Most of the bike parts have come in, but some parts we are still waiting on. The most significant is Spring. But that is promised – as highs are finally scheduled to be in the upper 30’s in the near future with lower 40’s not too far off. We are hoping that the “in like a lion, out like a lamb” adage holds true as we got 8” of snow on March 1.

Other than the weather we are waiting on rear hubs and my frame. The frame is built, but has to be shipped from where ever in the Far East the build the Long Haul Truckers so it will be about 3-5 weeks until it gets here. We ordered different rear hubs that will cost a bit more today, so we should be able to get Keith’s bike built up this week. I’ll ride by Trek until my bike gets here. It still should leave enough time for shake down rides before we have to leave for the tour.

Most of our other equipment has been purchased: tents, panniers, racks, fenders, stoves, first aid kit, and more. Now we are just itching to ride.
In the mean time we are doing couch touring by reading together the adventures of John Seigel Boettner, his wife, and five school children ages 12-13, in the book, “Hey Mom, Can I Ride My Bike Across America?” We got it from Adventure Cycling, and it’s a great read. I highly recommend it to inspire young people that they can ride long distances. Quite amusing as well! Well worth the read.

Another item we purchased that has become a big hit is a GPS unit. We got a Garmin GPS 60. Keith was introduced to Geocaching last summer at the Faith on Fire Camporee and we have really enjoyed it. Geocaching is a high tech treasure hunt game using GPS coordinates and clues. We will build our training rides around finding caches. To learn more about Geocaching, “the sport where you are the search engine,” visit GeoCaching.com. This, along with DeLorme’s TopoUSA software will enable us to produce maps of our travels. We had to do a bit of tweaking to get DeLorme and Gamrin to talk to each other, since DeLorme’s GPS support is not up-to-date, but we found a way to make it work.