Jul
06
Okay, okay. So I know we were supposed to make it back to the Trans-America trail today, but we got a little side-tracked in St. Louis. 
To start with, we had a wonderful night on Sunday at the Lococo House in St. Charles. Rhona and Leo were amazing- donating a night at their B&B, shuttling us to and from the airport for the wedding, cooking us amazing breakfasts and snacks and even bringing us into St. Louis to a bike shop when we decided to replace Alan’s ruptured rear wheel rim this morning. Thanks a million guys!
Anyway, we got Alan’s rear wheel replaced and headed to grab some food and figure out the best route out of St. Louis. To make a long story short we ended up staying with some folks here overnight and we’ll head to the Trans-America tomorrow. We met some folks who live in an intentional community in north St. Louis and we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to learn about their lifestyles and the area they live in! This area of St. Louis had a bad reputation, but there are many people living here who are really reaching into the community and making great changes. We joined in their delicious communal dinner and got a walking tour of the neighborhood and surrounding area at sunset. One of the amazing things about St. Louis is the architecture. There are hundreds of abandoned buildings that are just so beautiful it’s hard to believe no one has snatched them up to renovate! But the area is very poor and St. Louis has a relatively small population compared to what it used to be.
Anyway, we’ve learned so much about the community and the area- and we’re in awe of the work that these folks are doing! Tomorrow we’ll head into Illinois and back into rural America.
Oh, and we just couldn’t resist throwing in two photos tonight. We met this young member of the intentional community…
…and he took a liking to my camera so I charged him with the task of photographing everyone at the dinner table. He came away with some pretty lovely shots, including this one of his mother which we just had to post:
We suspect he may have a future in photography! Alan gave him a holga camera to use for the evening and he ripped through a roll of film pretty quickly. We’ll develop it when we return to NY and send him back the photos… we had some trouble trying to describe what film and development were, but maybe after he gets the photos it will help to clear that up!
Jul
06
Hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July weekend! We are in a town called St. Charles, Missouri. It’s right outside of St. Louis which is where we flew from this weekend to attend the wedding of one of my best friends. It was a great time- so good to catch up with everybody. We’ve been on the road so long, sometimes it feels like life is going on independent of us and we have to catch back up to it when we return!
We took some of our travel time to update our Photoshelter account with shots from Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Check them out at our Photoshelter site: http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/projecttandem
Today we hit the road again! We head from St. Louis south to pick the Trans-America trail back up in Illinois. We’re excited to get back on the Adventure Cycling Routes! Update on our progress to come this evening (if we have service).
Jul
01
Yesterday we pushed further east on the Katy Trail to a tiny town called Bluffton. All day we were passing through some of the smallest towns we’ve seen on the entire trip:
The ride took us along the Missouri River as it wove through the bluffs and farmland of this part of the state.
Not too much to report- lots of flat trail riding in lovely weather. Without internet last night we couldn’t research where to go tonight, so we were winging it a bit and the best way to wing it is to ask locals. Fortunately we met several today and they recommended we hit up the Klondike Park in Augusta. So here we are! It’s a beautiful campground and we rolled in just in time to catch a really great sunset over the small lake.
We also got an interview today with a woman who grew up in the area and is a landscaper. She talked all about sewage systems and the clean up of the rivers of this area- very interesting stuff! Tomorrow morning we’ll get to interview a gentleman who is a bike ranger here at the park- that should be great too! Then we’re headed to St. Charles tomorrow after the interview!
Jun
29
One word pretty much sums up the past couple days for us: sunscreen. We are religious about using the stuff and the higher the SPF the better. Our favorite is an SPF 50 made for babies. It’s tear-proof, which is good since it always runs into our eyes when we sweat.
So after lathering up this morning and having a delicious breakfast at the Franklin Hotel, we hit the trail again. The storms the other night must have been awful because there were several very large trees down across the trail. Here’s Alan lifting my bicycle over one of them:
The trail has some huge advantages though- you don’t have to worry about cars at all and it takes you through some really neat places. Here’s an old rail tunnel we rode through today… it was massive!
We also got to check out a cave where the railroad stored their explosives:
It was a little dicey getting in there, but it was pretty cool to see. Tonight we’re camping in a tiny town park in Hartsburg and tomorrow we’ll have our last night on the trail! It’s 90 degrees out still (at 7pm) so we’re hoping it will cool a little overnight! But a local man brought us over some sunscreen (we’re out) and a bottle of ice cold wine to enjoy with our dehydrated food dinner! Not too shabby…!
Jun
28
We’ve had no internet for the last couple days and it’s weak tonight, but here’s a brief update!
On Friday night we found ourselves in Garnett, KS without being able to camp (it was 100 degrees with 88% humidity) and with the two local hotels being booked. We tried the fire station and four local churches… all to no avail. Fortunately Jackie, who works at the public library offered to let us stay with her and her husband Fred, who is the veterinarian. They were wonderful and we really enjoyed getting to find out about their practice and the town. We left around 4am the next morning to beat the heat and enjoyed a really beautiful ride for almost 2 hours before that brutally hot sun started baking us again.
And then we crossed into Missouri! Yay!
Along the trip we’ve tried sometimes to take photos of us together… we thought you might enjoy this one we got as we joined up with one of the bike paths on our route.
This morning we jumped onto a 260 mile path called the Katy Trail. It’s a Rails to Trails trail, which means it was laid over the old railroad. That’s great for riders because it means it’s relatively flat (trains can’t climb steep grades). We rode 15 miles of it yesterday and woke up this morning to wonderful weather- sunny and in the 80’s. What a difference from the past couple weeks! We took off and rode 60 miles of the trail by 7pm.
The town we landed in is called Boonville, MO and it was apparently hit pretty hard with some nasty storms last night. There are trees down everywhere and the local authorities told us we couldn’t camp in the park! Not good for us. Fortunately the Fredrick Hotel offered us a room for the evening and we were thrilled to accept! It’s an absolutely beautiful old hotel on the river that makes us feel close to the incredible history of this place. Apparently Jessie and Frank James were known to hide out around this area and Frank James’ trial was held here! How cool is that?
Tomorrow we’ll hit up the local bike shop to pick up new handlebar grips (ours are worn through) and head back out along the trail!