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. 

Saint Louis 

Familiar face in a different place

Schlafly lunch !

Museum arts!

Suspended in the air at city museum

Above the city lights ...

We've reached the Mississippi !!!

We're Not In Kansas Anymore

       And we are blazing right through Missouri! Missouri has been a pleasant change of pace for us. Actually, everything about Missouri has been pleasant for the most part. From Lone Jack we had to continue on highway 50 a little longer, which is probably the scariest road that we have ridden on during the whole trip. That was the only unpleasant part. Once we made it to Sedallia everything became smooth sailing. To start things off, we spotted something beautiful when we rolled into town. An ALDI grocery store. We didn't realize how much we missed it, but we definitely didn't hold back when it came to scoping out the deals. That alone was enough to satisfy us for the rest of the state of Missouri, little did we know that we had a lot more coming.  

      A nice lady named Wilma checked us out at the counter. It was obvious that she was trying to work quickly to get through the long line of customers and didn't have a lot of time to chat but she did ask about our ride and Ride for Reading. She seemed to appreciate what we were doing but still stayed very focused on what she was doing. Then as I was packing up my things she said to hold on for a second she had something for me. She ran in the back then came back with a donation for our ride. Once again we are amazed at the people we have encountered along our trip. We have seen very little greed and lots of very giving strangers. We are still blown away everyday. 

       Outside it was cool and raining. We sat on the sidewalk underneath the overhang, snacking on our new deals and trying to figure out where we could camp. We asked several people going in or out of the store about the best places.We had a lot of good suggestions but honestly, biking across town and setting up camp in the rain did not sound like a very fun time. That is when we met Nita. She originally gave us some camping suggestions, then after walking to her car, came back to tell us that she would like to put us up in a hotel. She did long motorcycle trips and said she understood what it was like to get caught in the rain. As we sat in the hotel and listened to the rain fall harder we became more and more thankful for Nita's kind deed. And it is especially nice to not have to pack up a wet tent in the morning.

        By the morning the rain was clearing out and it was mostly just overcast all day with a light shower here and there. It turned out to be a day of pretty much perfect riding conditions. Even better, this is where we started on the Katy Trail so we had no cars to worry about until nearly St. Louis. The trail is one of the most successful Rails-Trails projects and we could see why. The very mild terrain allowed us to cruise along easily under a tunnel of lush trees and other  vegetation. There are stops every so often with history about the area of the trail and quite a few neat towns along the way as well. It was a nice change of pace. We enjoyed riding the trail so much on Tuesday that we didn't decide to settle down in a campsite until it was nearly dark.

       We were all thrilled with the trail so far which had us excited to get back at it the next morning. We hopped on the trail and crunched out several miles before stopping for lunch in Jefferson City. It was getting hotter for sure and the humidity was leaving us constantly drenched, welcoming us back like we had missed it. Jefferson City had a neat little downtown area where we grabbed some lunch and took it easy in the air conditioning for a while. The rest of the day continued to be pleasant. The trail makes the miles go by really quickly since it is split up into short segments and you cannot see miles and miles in front of you like we could in Kansas. Our day stretched on and on and before we knew it we had done one of our biggest days at 80 miles. We rolled in late again to the city park in Hermann, a little town with a big German influence. We met a fun group of cyclists who were camping out there as well. It was the first bike tour for a company called Cycledellic out of Fort Worth, TX. They were doing the trail from end to end. As tired as we were, we chatted with them for quite a while before hitting the sack. The 80 miler left us with just one more day on the trail before heading into St. Louis. St. Louis is another mile marker for our trip. We will be in the biggest city of the trip and get to see a few friends but also loose a vagabond due to time constraints. However, we will have to update you guys about it later!

How's the weather up there?

The doctor said I could figure out how to do it myself...

Showing Sedallia's Ragtime love and history

Yay! No more highway!

This gnome memorial is measuring the height of the 1993 flood.

Jordan exploring a Lewis and Clark cave.

Living Like Kansas City Royalty

      We hope that we have not disappointed anyone with our leisurely pace. We have come to the conclusion that it would have been much easier to meet our deadline if we were zero fun. If anything, we have learned that we like to have fun as much as the candidates in dating service videos. If you are not following, type in "80s dating video montage" on YouTube and enjoy.

You're welcome. So our friends John and Alicia, who also like to have fun, were just too fun to leave and we had to stay an extra day with them. Plus Alicia surprised us with coffee every

morning and "If you give a Jordan a Coffee.."well you know the rest.

     Our first day there, we took the bus to venture into Kansas City. We went from vagabonds on bikes to city folk navigating the bus system over night. The River Market was our first destination of course, because we knew there would be lots of food there. It is definitely one of KC's gems. Thye have many varieties of authentic foreign food to choose from and a pretty solid farmer's market. Many of the restaurants also had a connecting store that sold food and spices specific to that culture. We only had a few hours to explore the city before catching the last bus back to Olathe and that time flew by. Mostly we just enjoyed the big city vibe after spending all summer in little towns. 

       We bussed back to Alicia and John's where we had a super relaxing evening of watching a movie and eating yummy snacks. Hanging out on a couch and watching TV is much different from our usual evenings so that was a nice change. Afterwards, they took us to a place called Austin's to get their famous Delgado Wings. Finger lickin' good y'all! And that is when they convinced us to stay one more day.

        We took the next morning at a leisurely pace before getting ready to go on a bike ride on the bike paths in town. Going on a bike ride during our bike ride...it's almost ironic. We had an interesting time trying to navigate through the unclear detours and even did a little trail blazing through a backyard or two. We worked up quite the appetite so they took us to get some world famous Kansas City BBQ at Oklahoma Joes. Visiting this place was one of the main reasons they told us we had to stay another day and it was worth it. Full, happy and tired we lazed beside the pool before getting ready for one more treat.

       We went out to Westport that night to see a band called Flannigan's Right Hook at this bar, Kelly's.  Again, we knew our extra day was completely worth it. These guys were awesome and put on a great show. They covered a lot of songs by putting their own touch on them and had some really fun Irish songs of their own. We stayed WAY later than we even imagined we would and made our grand exit by getting down on the dance floor. Getting back to the car was a whole experience within itself among the crowded streets packed with all the bar goers.

       Of course after our long night we got a super late start leaving their place but that just meant we got to spend a little more time with our excellent hosts. Thanks for showing us such a great time guys! We still got some miles out of the way and had time to stop at TWO Sonics before turning in for the night. We hadn't seen a single Sonic until after the middle of Kansas and we have not been able to resist the many we have seen since. It's starting to feel a lot more like home y'all! There are definitely many differences that we have noticed the more eastern we get and it is odd the things that we have found comforting. We stayed in Lone Jack, Missouri and today we will head for the Katy Trail which we will take to St. Louis. Keep it real errbody.

     

Awesome lady kept popping up on us in KCK

Beautiful art here in KC

MURAL!

This place at the Crown Center. That is all.

Making breakfast for our hosts.

Look closely at the detour signs. Surely this was a joke.

On the roof top at Kelly's

We tried to put together outfits appropriate for the bar, however Jordan did not pass dress code with his sleeveless shirt. Luckily they let him have this little treasure from the lost and found. . .SWAG!

Kansas City/Lander buds!

The whole gang listening to Flannigan's Right Hook.

Alicia and Superman/Jesus running guy.

Made it to the state line!

Spicing Up Kansas

   So Kansas has not gone has expected to say the least. We haven't had any tail winds to accomplish a century day and we didn't make up any lost time. Although, it definitely has not been boring, as we anticipated it to be. A trip to the ER always provides some excitement and we have met a lot of great people and taken some interesting roads. Not to mention, we made it to TWO county fairs.

      After Tawnia dropped us off in Mcpherson, the three of us spent hours lying around on benches in their parks then Nick showed up later on bike. We planned on just camping in the city park because, well, it didn't say you couldn't. However, once Natalee's boyfriend, Brian, found out where they were, a few phone calls were made and the parents of his friend Kate had offered to let us stay with them. Natalee has met Kate a few times but never her parents so that was extremely kind of them to take in potentially smelly and crazy strangers. Ruth and John met us at Mcpherson's awesome pool that we had to check out, and lead us to their home. They were such excellent hosts! They pretty much doctored Natalee's ankle, which was giving major problems at the time, back to health by forcing her to kick back and relax while keeping ice on it. We chatted with them for hours and they informed us of a new game called Yolo Polo. Once again, if you have to ask you can't afford it. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay with them. Even though we did not know them directly, it is nice to have any type of a connection while we are so transient out here traveling.

      We left their house feeling much more solid as we hopped on the bikes again, but we were still going to take it easy with a medium length day to Marion Lake in which Israel hulked up to pull Natalee's trailer. We definitely didn't expect to be camping on a lot of pretty lakes in Kansas but this one was gorgeous. It was also sadly where Nick parted ways from the vagabonds but, we expect to run into him someday since we can't seem to stay away from each other for very long. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise reflecting a burning color off of the water. Time to shoot for another day. Today was different though, and yet the same. Our beloved and so terribly missed headwinds were back and stronger than ever. And it was HOT. We powered through the winds for several hours, which is not too easy to do when someone has a gimp leg, and finally made it 30 miles to Strong City. We really hoped to make it another 25 to Emporia but there was no telling how long it would take. 

      Once again the timing couldn't have been more perfect and we met Paul who happened to be driving a big cargo truck for John Deere back to his store in Emporia and just happened to have grown up in the cycling community. He felt for us riding into the winds and didn't mind to help us get to Emporia. When he asked where to drop us off and we clumsily stumbled over our words since we had yet to even look into where we could possibly sleep, he told us that he would take us to his house to get cleaned up and to stay for the night. One of our hardest days quickly turned into one of our best experiences. Paul and his wife Sara had twins, Julia and Pierre. They were an incredible family so full of love. It was so apparent how much love they had for each other, God and even random strangers like us. We loved playing with the twins while Paul fixed us a wonderful meal. Then we met another amazing person. His friend Sal came over for dinner. Sal was another positive and loving person that anyone would be grateful to have a conversation with. He even took us all to breakfast the next morning. Sara was an excellent host for us once we returned, bellies full of pancakes. She even let us use her van to go to the bike shop and the grocery store. Letting someone drive your car who has barely even been inside a car in 2 months..now that is trust! We had such a great time with them that we even stayed for lunch. They gave us an experience and taught us lessons that we will never forget. We hope you guys are starting to realize that the bike has not been what this trip is all about.

     After we left Emporia, the real adventuring began. We have started doing a little off-roading in Kansas. We took The Flint Hills Nature Trail for a good part of the day. The first part of the trail was great with very small gravel on mostly dirt, then it got pretty rough with big chunky rock so we decided to abandon the path. It was an adventure non the less and it is always nice to get off of main roads with cars zooming by. We camped on Pomona Lake, which was also beautiful and had a super clean bathhouse. It would be a place worth spending a couple of nights for a camping trip.

      We set off this next morning with the intentions of leaving Kansas, but better plans came about. We met Alicia and John a few weeks ago back in Lander, Wyoming. They live in a suburb of Kansas City and when they found out what we were doing they said that we had to come and visit them. So once in Ottawa we made the decision to just go for it. In order to go the shortest route we could possible find, our i phone maps took us some interesting ways. Most of our turns were less than 2 miles apart so it kept us on our toes. It followed quite a few dirt roads and paths that weren't really roads at all. Besides being lead through the woods to a bridge that was not fit for crossing, we were impressed with the route and did eventually end up at John and Alicia's house in Olathe. 

       We could not believe that we were actually seeing each other again after randomly meeting in Wyoming. We ate dinner and talked until we were all yawning too much to finish a sentence. Today the plan is to explore Kansas City, which will be quite different from the small towns of Kansas that we have been going through. We are keeping things interesting so stay tuned for what is to come!

Nick enjoying Mcpherson's city pool

We have mastered those selfies. Our wonderful hosts in Mcperson, John and Ruth.

Julia showing off her Woody pajamas.

"Safety First!"

We were so thankful for Sara and Paul.

How did we get here?

I am just not sure.

Oh the places the iPhone will take you.

More dirt roads

Tennessee!

This is quite the change of scenery.

Curve Balls from Kansas

       Kansas hasn't exactly been the smooth sailing we thought it would be. It is the state that most people look forward to for raking in the miles and easy riding. If you're behind on your average, there is always Kansas so no need to worry. Well that hasn't exactly been the case for us. We have had a rough time getting in any sort of rhythm in Kansas. First we had headwinds that turned 60 miles on flat terrain into an all day event. We were expecting to do 80 miles easily on most days. When we left Scott City the winds were finally starting to come straight out of the south rather than the southeast. That makes a world of difference. We arrived in Ness City at a decent hour and we were deciding rather to continue on while it was still early to some unappealing areas or stay in Ness City to experience their county fair and free camping, then take advantage of the better wind patterns the next day. Then it would be our time to shine and really start getting into our rhythm. About that time another curve ball hit us.                    

      Before going to the fair we were going to take advantage of the city pool to cool off. Little did we know there would be some obstacles between us and relaxing in the cold water. There was a very steep sidewalk leading to the pool area. On top of that, a swarm of monstrous looking hornets. Under these circumstances, Natalee decided the best thing to do would be to run through the swarm of hornets with her bike. Within less than a minute of this decision, the sidewalk was covered in a decent amount of blood. The weight of the loaded down bike made it roll much faster than expected and the teeth of the chainring essentially ended up puncturing her ankle. Luckily it happened only a few feet from lots of bored lifeguards. Connie was the pool manager and she and her lifeguards were very nice and caring. We didn't know at the time how much of a set back this would end up being.

      After cleaning up the mess we set up camp alongside and interesting group of people, not that it was a surprise or anything this far into the trip. They were a group of all natural nomadic Christians, some of who have been traveling since 1979. Interesting right? They were following the TransAm but we slowly realized that it wasn't just a summer thing for them, it was there life. They were incredibly nice and cooked us dinner and breakfast. Natalee some how even fell into a strange reflexology foot massage due to her injury that began growing more and more tender.

     After dinner we hit the fair. It was free entry and all the rides were about a dollar. Natalee was also a living legend by that time. Many people were saying they had heard what happened and wanted to make sure that she was okay. News travels fast in a small town. The fair was full of rides that make you want to vomit. Perfect. The Vagabonds are always really happy to be able to get the full experience from any town that they stop in.

    The next morning looked like it might become an unexpected day off when Israel had to piggyback Natalee from the tent to use the restroom. It then seemed like receiving medical attention in Ness City was going to be impossible! The first clinical was full, the second clinic would not take out of state BCBS so I guess you're not supposed to get sick or hurt outside your home state. The hunt ended when the ER took her right in. The only thing was that the nurse had to go down the list of doctors until she could find out who was on call that day. Don't ever have a real emergency in Ness City if you want to live. One X-ray, 4 stitches, a tetanus shot and an antibiotic later we were ready to get things back on the road. We decided that this would be the best time to test out night riding, like so many cycle tourists do through Kansas to avoid the heat and winds.

     We napped the rest of the day and were ready to set out around 9pm. Just in time for the big thunderstorms to roll in. We made it a mile down the road before taking shelter in a strange hotel lobby. Another curve ball. We thought we could wait it out, but waiting and waiting and waiting with no letting up turned into us splitting a $40 room. 

There was an indoor pool in the main lobby, rotary dial telephones next to the toilets, the fragrance of old cigarettes and perfume in the room and Jerry Springer on TV. Totally worth the money. After a few failed attempts we would be back on the road in the morning and Kansas would slow us down no more!

       The morning started of fine. By the time Israel and Nick stopped for lunch they found out that Natalee was stranded with a swollen foot and could go no further and Jordan was also way back because he was sleeping off an oncoming cold. We have yet to worry so now was not the time to start. Israel and Nick's waitress at Papa's in Albert had offered to give them a ride to her hometown Ellinwood for the big fair they were having. We have taken a liking to random festivals in these small towns. All it took was some gas money for Tonya to drive out of the way to pick up Jordan and Natalee. She was quite the lifesaver. She even did us one better by letting us camp out in her yard.

      We met Tonya's whole lively family and they showed us a fun night. 9 year old Cody was very excited to have us and was an excellent host. He even set up his tent right next to ours in the back yard. A good rest was needed for some decision making in the morning. We would ideally be covering a lot of ground right now but we are dealing with our first injury of the trip. There also aren't many places around that are appealing to rest up in for a couple of days. Tonya insisted on taking us to the next town over so we allowed her to. We are resting in McPherson today and we will see where or adventure takes us next. Wish us luck for the rest of Kansas!

Babe watch to the rescue!

There was a lot of blood

You should hae seen the sidewalk before they cleaned it.

At the fair watching the magic show

Just looking at it makes me want to vom

The carasel is more our speed.

The interesting all natural, nomadic Christians without a name.

Cycling nomads for The Lord !

Finally some help 

You have out done yourselves at The Derrick Inn. 

Tawnia to the rescue 

We thought Kansas was in a drought?

Cody performing his light show in tbe backyard with the dogs' light up leashes

Tawnia and Cody to the rescue