Category: Uncategorized

53.8 miles today and 2483 overall

Another good day on the Katy trail, I lost my first draft so I going to post some pics and head to bed.

58.1 miles by bike (36 miles by truck), 2429.2 miles total

Refreshed, both ourselves and our bikes, we set off with Ken in command.

He drove us clear over a state line with narry a blink of recognition (Bob and Steve expect liquid recompense anyway). 

Today we would start riding the Rock Island Spur of the Katy Trail.  We were all excited about this because the Katy Trail is one of the nicest in the country.  I rode 20 miles of it near Rocheport back in 1991.  Bob has ridden most of it over the years.  My friends (and fellow instructors) Nancy and Rebecca from Cascade Bicycle Club rode the trail last year and told me great things about it.

So, we packed the bikes at the Pleasant Hill Trail Head…

…bade our farewells to Ken (also official photographer) and set off with enthusiasm.  We got around a corner and Bob said, ‘I have no shifting’.

So, there ensued 3 mins of angst and 12 mins of ‘find me a gear that works’.  The trail is supposed to be flat so that seemed like it should be good. 

So, we were off.  The trail was beautiful (Bob agreed from his two-speed).

But then he decided he had the wrong two speeds. So, another quick adjustment was made and we were off again.

The trail was beautiful 🙂

We were getting pretty hot by the time we reached Leeton, and we found our way to the lovely Di Maggio’s dinner for lunch.

We met a preacher there who was walking from Indiana to LA so he’s officially crazier than we are (Steve just bought a local paper that has a story about him and his journey).  Anyway, he engaged us in conversation and said ‘You look pretty fresh.  Did you just meet up with these guys or are you a local tour guide?  They look pretty beat’. 😂

We enjoyed the food and the barely functioning air conditioning (it’ll be fixed tomorrow) and shared a peach cobbler.  We’d go back.  But, we pressed on, and the trail/countryside was beautiful…

We arrived in Windsor…

… and stopped to rest at our first ‘proper’ Katy Trail trailhead.

Fortified by a custard donut (or two) Bob and I got his shifter working again(!!! 😁 😁)…

…while Steve surreptitiously waited to take a photo of an Amish horse and cart (several passed when he wasn’t looking).

With 48 miles under our (mostly new) tires, and with Bob saying ‘I love shifting’,  every couple of pedal strokes,  we set off again…. and the trail was beautiful.

Pretty soon we reached the high point of the Katy Trail. 

We journeyed on until we reached Green Ridge, where Bob fell off his bike and embraced the grass.

We set up camp in the local park but were distressed to see that alcohol consumption in the park was prohibited.  So we crossed the street and drank our beer and ate gas station pizza on the benches in front of the community center…

… in full view of the park; it was immensely satisfying.

Here’s a picture of a new flower seen on the trail today.

It wasn’t a puncture, so Bob’s tires remain invincible.  He ran over something that got between his spokes, broke his valve stem, tore off his fender and brought him to a grinding halt.

0 miles, and still 2371 miles overall

This was this first time we rested for two consecutive days. The plan is to resume our eastward progress tomorrow (Sunday). 

We visited more local towns in the Gardener area, made a few refinements in our bicycle configurations, and enjoyed BBQ and home made ice cream from Ken, our gracious host. 

As  a partial thanks for this hospitality, Colin mowed a small section of Ken’s very large yard, and perhaps discovered a new career in the process. 

I enjoyed a visit from an old friend in the area, Rich.  Rich is helping to capture and create an archive of our amazing journey. 

The outdoor temperatures are expected to start to moderate tomorrow, so we expect to hit the roads and trails once again bright and early. 

0 miles, (on bicycles) and 2371 miles overall

Today was our sabbath, rest, recuperation, repair and resupply. I awoke today at the gloriously civilized time of 8:30 AM and found my trail mates and host busy cleaning bikes then guiding me to breakfast of bagels cream cheese and beacon. The day began with a tour of Gardener combined with a variety of errands starting with a trip to the bike shop in neighboring Olathe. Shoutout to Darby and crew at Bikes 4 The Likes of Us who made room in their busy schedule for Bob and me. We left to continue our errands confident that our beloved bikes were in good hands. As we rolled through the beautiful neighborhoods of Ken’s youth he told us tales of various shenanigans and near misses of his younger days. Our last stop was to pick up eggs from the Eggs Lady, Ken’s friend with a farm not far from Ken’s home. After a lively and fun conversation we headed back to Ken’s place to work on bikes with some parts delivered in advance to Ken. We also got to use a washing machine that didn’t require a half pound of quarters.

30.6 miles by bike, ~125 miles in Ken’s pickup, 2371 total (bicycle) miles

Yesterday in Marysville we had a team-talk.  We had been alerted to an impending heat-dome and we were relatively close to my friend Ken’s house where we had intended to spend a couple of nights, resting and getting bikes serviced, etc.  Ken had offered to pick us up within a couple hundred miles of his home.  We decided to take him up on the offer and, hopefully, recuperate and service bikes during the worst of the heat.

So, we had a more leisurely start to the day than usual, and we set off east on Hwy 9 past many wind turbines, noting that they were all spinning. 

We turned south, into the wind, on Hwy 99 at the small town of Frankfort…

… and rode on to the smaller, unincorporated, town of Blaine.  There we collapsed in the shade of a tree beside the, very substantial and good looking, church. 

While Steve was napping and I was chatting to my parents, Bob walked to this repair shop…

…and returned, excitedly, with a pre-made sandwich and a cold drink.  Steve and I soon followed and made similar purchases.  The proprietor was a very nice, talkative, older lady; transactions took a while. 

At about the same time we got a text from Ken telling us he was 30 minutes from our intended meeting place.  We were approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes from said meeting place!

After quickly renegotiating the pickup point, we made a mad dash 2 miles down the road to Pottawatomie County State Lake #1.  Steve rolled in with a flat tire 😄, we didn’t bother fixing it.

We stripped the luggage from our bikes beside the lake, Ken arrived within 10 minutes and we gladly loaded the bikes.

In the next two and a half hours we covered three or more days of riding-distance and arrived at Ken’s with everything present and correct.

Before long we were unloaded, showered and dressed in clean clothes.  Ken treated us to salmon and vegetables with rice. We gleefully put the dishes in the dishwasher.

It was a good day.  Steve’s tire remains flat.

49.2 miles, 2340.5 miles total so far. 

Today we experienced the magnificence of the Chief Standing Bear Trail and Blue River Trail.  These are great examples of  what communities can accomplish and create for locals, and dor visitors like us.

There was beauty around every turn, and the riding surface was so nice. 

Today was also a three-flat-tire day. This was not so good for getting lots of miles covered, as might otherwise have been possible with the reasonable tail wind.  

We did make some surprise progress at the end of the day.  After starting to settle in at Marysville, Kansas we decided to pack up and move on to Blue Rapids upon receiving a friendly and inviting call-back from a gentleman with the city of Blue Rapids.