Viva La Vagabond: REACHING THE MISSISSIPPI !

We rise to ride another day! The portion from Hermman to St. Charles was bitter sweet. The last 85 miles into St. Louis proved to have some of the best riding of the entire Katy Trail. We rode through many quaint and historical towns all along Missouri. A very necessary stop at the Augusta Brewery was in order. We enjoyed delicious food and heavenly beers for several hours while we hung out with our Texas friends from Cycledelic for the last time : / The day also proved to be bitter sweet upon realizing that Israel had lost his helmet and that it was Natalee's last full day of riding. It was made official that Natalee would have to end her journey in St. Louis. Time constraints and other factors pressed Natalee to retire from the tour. Regardless of the less exciting news, we finished a great day of riding in St Charles. In St. Charles we were taken in by our wonderful Warmshowers host, Marty. We shared a great dinner and beers with his incredible family and two dogs. Also, Natalee had a crazy creepy night terror that night which woke Israel ad Jordan from their beauty sleep and made for great breakfast convo.

The next day took us to St. Louis, but not before spending a bit of time at an awesome bike/coffee shop in St Charles called The Bike Stop. The short ride from St. Charles to St.Louis to was hard to navigate but proved to be quite entertaining. From Israel nearly getting knocked into oncoming traffic, to Jordan's urban Mtn biking...things stayed pretty interesting. Upon reaching the outskirts of St. Louis, Jordan took off to stay with his hosts, Israel met up with his wonderful girlfriend and Natalee unexpectedly squeezed in a car with boyfriend, Brian, and his friend Jon to save her parents the drive the next day.

The following day in St. Louis, Jordan visited the botanical gardens with his hosts while Israel and Caitlin enjoyed Forrest Park's art museum. A much deserved lunch took place at Shlafly's tap room. After many tales and tasty ales, the gang headed to City Museum for a night of ridiculous, childish fun. For those who have not heard of the City Museum, it is a huge building turned into an incredible life-sized playground. Check it out. Our night ended back at the hotel with Imos pizza take out.

Our last day in St. Louis, we headed to the zoo because it is ranked as one of the country's best zoos, but mosty because it is free. (we love free ) There was an awesome top spin master that mesmerized Jordan with his skills. The Zoo turned out to be top notch and quite the treat. Our favorite animals turned out to be the lemurs, running giraffes, and the Andean bear! Our day came to an end by having Caitlin's give us a bump down the road to Marion Illinois. There we parted ways again and found an awesome baseball dug out to perch up on for the night! More to come stay put

St Charles. Place of Lewis and Clark launch to the west.