KATY Ride Day 0 - Killing a whole day in St. Louis because Amtrak is incompetent.

 My train to Kansas City for the start of the bike ride left at 8:10 am. I wasn't on it.

Here I am leaving my hotel a mile from the train station at 6:30. It's just barely starting to get light out.

And here is my bike at the train station, all ticketed and checked in at 7:00, an entire hour before the train leaves. 

And here's where I had a very leisurely breakfast at a sidewalk cafe in St. Louis after the train left without me, as I sat pondering how I am going to kill the next five hours until the next train leaves.

What happened was the escalator wasn't working. You have to go up on a bridge over train tracks to get to the boarding platform on the other side. Escalator up, walk over bridge, escalator down, get on train. But since the escalator wasn't working, everyone with a heavy bag took the elevator instead, as I did because I have a heavy loaded touring bike. And since I am a nice person on a happy vacation, I got at the very back of the line and let everyone else go first, and took the next elevator. And when I finished my two very slow elevator rides, I emerged on to the platform as the train pulled out.

I was not happy about this. There is no way this should happen when you get to the train station an hour early, follow all instructions and procedures, and the train leaves without you. The issue is the people running the station did not account for all the people using the elevator because the escalator was broken. They should have opened the gate to allow people to go to the platform way earlier.

There was another train in the afternoon, departing at 3:15, and arriving at 10:00 pm. I'm on it.

My hotel in Kansas City is only two miles from the airport. And I have good lights, so riding there at night won't be an issue.

So what did I do all day?

I took my time eating chicken and waffles and grits with chicken and Jalapenos for breakfast. Then I went and sat around in the historic old train station, which has been converted to a sort of mall/food truck court/aquarium/museum and read the Internet.

Then I rode a few miles to a bike shop and bought a new helmet, which is something I had planned to do in Kansas City this afternoon. The padding on the inside of my old helmet had disintegrated, and the dogs have been chewing on it, so it was time for a new one.

And then I sat around the train station for a couple more hours until the next train came. 

The worst part of this is Jim and I had plans to go to the best rib place in Kansas City tonight. Never expect competence from Amtrak.

Here's my morning ride to the train station: https://www.strava.com/activities/16084579837

Here's my ride wandering around St. Louis trying to amuse myself: https://www.strava.com/activities/16087876712