KATY Ride Day 2 - Harrisonville to Clinton

 You know what's nice about being in the heart of the Midwest? There's gonna be a donut shop in town so you can sugar up for the bike ride.

The donut shop, Daylight Donuts, is behind that back truck. The donut shop is take-out only, and they don't have anywhere to sit, but fortunately they are next door to a Sonic, so we borrowed the Sonic picnic tables. Sonic was open for breakfast, and the waitresses bringing food out to the customers in cars didn't care that we were sitting at their tables eating donuts from next door. When we were done, Jim went in and gave them a tip, who were incredulous that they would get a tip for not kicking us out. Because this is the Midwest.

It was beautiful weather today, but 40 of the 45 miles we rode was the shoulder of Missouri State Route 7, a divided highway.

The speed limit is 70. Yikes. But the shoulder is wide, and smooth, and there are rumble strips. It was not as bad as it sounds.

Team Armadillo has joined the Missouri Roadkill League. With a very strong showing.

Here are my Missouri Roadkill League Power Rankings

1. Team Armadillo. Unmatched coverage of the playing field. Supreme endurance. I think there were armadillo shell fragments embedded in the pavement that could be a decade old.

2. Team Possum. "Playing Possum" makes Team Possum a natural. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

3. Team Raccoon. Close behind Team Possum, but apparently give up and quit the game while they can.

4. Team Fox. Not often seen, but more than you would think for an animal that's supposed to be smart.

5. (Tie) Team Deer and Team Skunk. Seldom seen, but a big impact on the game when they play.

We had lunch at the Grand River Grill in Urich, population 500. Lunch was delicious, the Grand River Grill is a nice tavern hidden away in the back of town a half mile from the highway. It's the only place to eat for 20 miles in any direction. Here's a picture of Downtown Urich.

There's the post office and City Hall. I'm pretty sure Howard County Public Schools has portable classrooms bigger than these buildings.

I ride faster than Jim does. Every time there is a turn on our route, I stop and let Jim catch up. But today, on the divided highway, there were a couple times where there were no turns for over 10 miles, and I got pretty far ahead. Which gave me the opportunity to take pictures of Jim catching up.

These are not actually steep hills, the pictures are 30x magnification, and Jim is about a half mile away.

We're at the Hampton Inn tonight. There was a nice Mexican restaurant a quarter mile away for electrolyte replenishment and dinner. There are no ribs to be had.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/16109722226

KATY Ride Day 1 - Kansas City to Harrisonville

 The bike tour has officially begun, although we are not yet at the KATY Trail. We start the actual trail in Clinton, the day after tomorrow. Today, we rode to Harrisonville, which is halfway to Clinton.

Our hotel, the Seville Plaza, looks pretty cool in the daytime.

I chose this one because Jim had a local bike shop ship his bike to a bike shop in Kansas City, who assembled it for him. This is the most decent and affordable hotel near such a bike shop. 

Two years ago when Max and I attempted the KATY trail, we got off the train in the afternoon and rode 25 miles to a hotel in Lee's Summit. Our route was east from the train station through the historic jazz district (12th Street and Vine) and then south by the NFL stadium, to rail trails. That route went through a bunch of beat-down neighborhoods, which reminded me of the older residential areas in northern Anne Arundel County, and I was wondering if there were any nice parts of KC. 

We rode through the nice parts today. They are south of downtown. Here are some very cool apartment buildings a couple miles south of our hotel.

My impression of Kansas City is that it's very livable.

As we went farther south, we had a nice stretch of rail trail, possibly an old streetcar line, then we went a few miles along the Blue River. The valley is all undeveloped. At one point the road was closed, but we ignored the sign and rode through anyway.

This situation is where the Strava Global Heat Map comes in handy. The heat map makes it clear that lots of people ride bikes through here, and the road is rideable through the closure.

It looks like the closer is because of flooding. There are a lot of washed-out sections.

This section along the river was really great, but unfortunately the river does not keep going in the direction we want to go, so we had to eventually climb out of the valley, to Grantsville, and it was time for lunch.

How about some BBQ?

It's so great when the perfect food option appears right when you need it.

This brisket was fantastic. This place is a total winner. Dunn Deal BBQ.

Unfortuately, when I was leaning my bike on the building there, I gouged my leg real bad on the chainring. It was a bloody mess. After we ate, we rode a few blocks to Walgreens so I could get some disinfectant and bandages. Where I made this very amusing discovery about Missouri.

The dtug stores sell liquor! I've always thought Missouri was chock full of Jesus, but the drug stores sell liquor!

This is also annoying, because in Maryland they won't even let grocery stores sell beer. 

I'm all cleaned up and bandaged now. No big deal.

After Grandview, it's I-41 frontage roads for most of the rest of the day. Twenty miles.

Frontage roads are generally unpleasant, but part of the deal is they tend not to be very hilly since Interstates aren't hilly, and they tend to be direct like Interstates are. We spent a lot of time on a frontage called Peculiar Drive. Which goes to Peculiar Missouri.

They lean in to their peculiarity in Peculiar.

The next town after Peculiar is the last town for today, Harrisonville.

We are at the Harrisonville Inn, which is a clean, cheap, classic Red Dot of Quality motel. Everyone else staying here is working construction. It's across the street from the Quick Trip convenience store, which made the post ride tradition of fetching some beer very convenient.

Neither nor I have ever heard of Quitting Time Beer. We suspect it's a house brand for Quick Trip stores. Jim says he's never heard of a gas station with their own beer, but I reminded him about Royal Farms chicken beer. Quitting Time is cheap and pretty drinkable. It's brewed in Oklahoma somewhere.

We walked across the highway and a parking lot to get dinner at the Branding Iron BBQ.

These ribs were not great. The dry rub was flavorless. The sauce you can add yourself wasn't interesting. I think the best BBQ comes from river cities. This is probably a sign that we have left the Kansas City zone of deliciousness and now we are in farm country.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/16099146397

KATY Ride Day 0 - Amtrak Staggers in to Kansas City at Midnight

 The train ride, once I get on it, is going nice. Nothing is broken on the train, there is Wifi with Internet! And the scenery is really nice. 

This looks like some organized bike event on the KATY trail, which runs along the railroad here.

And then disaster strikes. In most of the country, Amtrak runs on freight lines. Here, it's Union Pacific. An hour before we are to reach Kansas City, it appears that a super long freight train broke into pieces, and UP has to put it back together again and make sure the rails are undamaged. So we sit at the station in Warrenburg, MO for an hour.

But wait there's more.

We are now stuck following the freight train the rest of the way to Kansas City. The freight train travels at 20 mph. We arrived at 11:30, which is 2 1/2 hours late.

I had a three mile ride to the hotel at midnight through the middle of Kansas City. Good thing I have lights on my bike. 

This was actually really cool, I love riding at night.

And Jim saved me some ribs.

These are from Joe's, in Kansas City, Kansas. Joe's is widely considered to be the best ribs in Kansas City, and it's also a gas station. They were amazing, even when cold.

Here's Strava track for the midnight ride to the hotel: https://www.strava.com/activities/16092111215

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

KATY Ride Day -1 - Alton IL to St. Louis

 Here's my bike and my truck at the end of the ride, in the Amtrak parking lot in Alton, IL.

I haven't done the ride yet, of course. I just predeployed my truck to the end location. From here, I rode to St. Louis. Tomorrow morning, I take the train to Kansas City, and there is where the actual ride begins.

The Alton Amtrak station is the closest secure parking to the end of the KATY trail in Machens, MO that is on the route between Machens and St. Louis. It's 14 miles from Machens and 28 miles from St. Louis. It's costs $8/day to park in Alton and I will be away for 10 days. But if you lose your ticket, it costs $35. I just know I'm gonna lose that ticket somehow.

I'm still pretty on the fence about spending $8/day to park. I must have ridden by 1000 free parking spaces in vast empty lots in parks by the Mississipi River on the way to St. Louis. I suppose it could flood, and $8/day is worth it to be on high ground.

Most of the 28 flat miles today was on top of the levee in Illinois.

The Mississippi River is actually just a barge canal here. You won't be seeing Huck and Jim on a raft. It's all heavy industry between the levee and the river. On the other side of the levee, there is a dirt road with occasional manufactured houses and small farms.

The donkey has character.

About 8 miles from my hotel by the train station I took a bridge over the river...

...and crossed into Missouri.

On the Missouri side, you are on a bike trail that winds through industrial parts of St. Louis. 

Since I've ridden all over the industrial parts of Baltimore, I am right at home with this. I like it. But I was amazed to find this super cool art installation in the middle of the decayed wasteland!

I would love to know how this came to be. It took some effort to build. Was it a guerrilla project? Why is it here of all places?

A few miles later, I arrived at my hotel. Easy 28 mile ride, beautiful conditions, I couldn't possibly feel better.

I walked a couple blocks to an Irish Pub/Sports Bar called Maggie O'Brian's for dinner. I'm pretty sure the food theme of this bike ride is going to be "ribs" so I got straight to business.

The best ribs ever are the dry rub ones from that place in Memphis that is in a basement off an alley. My second favorite are my own, with my own weird sauces I make myself using homegrown peppers and reduction of failed batches of mead. And I have a special place in my heart for my mom's, which were just ribs with a bunch of Open Pit Hickory Smoke BBQ sauce dumped on top and thrown in the oven. I don't think you can get Open Pit any more, which is probably because it was mostly toxic artificial flavorings and food coloring chemicals and preservatives mixed with high fructose corn syrup. I've looked for it though.

Anyway the St. Louis ribs have globs of what sure tastes like Open Pit slathered on top. I was pretty happy with these.

That's a Guinness on the top left. It is an Irish bar after all.

My hotel is next to Energizer Park, which is a major league soccer arena. Despite this being in the middle of St. Louis, in a soulless and antiseptic area that has been afflicted with "urban renewal" to become as unwelcoming and inhospitable as possible, there are buns living in the landscaping around the stadium.

Then I started noticing stuff. There are these blocks every 12 feet or so, with a plaque between each one with a number. They represent walls of row houses and street addresses.

Above that are these monoliths.

Hidden inside the monoliths are quotes.

And above that is a big block with people's names, ages, and occupations.

And then a block that explains it.

It's a memorial for the vanished African-American community that was cleared away for the stadium and the modern hotel where I'm staying. The quotes are reminiscences from people who grew up there, and the names are of people who were relocated. This is a very impressive work.

Here's the Strava track for today: https://www.strava.com/activities/16078951164

KATY Ride Day -2 Driving to St. Louis

 My friend Jim and I are going to ride the KATY Trail, which is a rail trail that goes from near Kansas City to near St. Louis. I am driving my truck to St. Louis with my bike, leaving the truck near the end of the trail, taking the train to Kansas City, and riding back to my truck. Jim is just flying to Kansas City, and flying back from St. Louis.

It's a day and a half of driving to get to St. Louis. I did as much driving as I could stand today, which was 10 1/2 hours to Terre Haute, Indiana. I decided to stop at Terre Haute because there are a bunch of cheap motels here, and if I leave early, I have time for my daily bike ride before it gets dark.

So I packed everything up the night before, and left at 6:30 AM, which is about an hour before dawn.

This is my bike in the back of the truck.

The dogs were very confused when I drove away in the morning. They generally can tell when I'm going away from watching me packing. Which makes them nervous and upset. But yesterday, they watched me do all the packing, and got all nervous, but I went to bed. False alarm? They didn't know what to think when I drove away before dawn. Debra reports they are very sad and depressed now.

It was a very, very boring ride, almost all I-70, and it poured down rain the whole way across Ohio. I got to Terre Haute around 5:00. Here is my room at the Super 8. I don't know why Wyndham bought Super 8, and I am even more confused as to why they admit to owning it.

I rode around Terre Haute for an hour and a half for my daily bike ride. I went up to the Rose Hulman Instute of Technology campus, which is just outside of town on a nice bike trail. I remember being interested in RHIT when I was in high school looking at colleges. I don't think I applied, but they did send me the famous "Ski Terre Haute" poster which I hung in my bedroom.

The RHIT campus is pretty small, it's all modern, and it's boring. No gargoyles.

My motel is just off the Interstate, and it's surrounded for several miles in every direction by ugly shopping strips with every fast food and chain restaurant that exists. But, luckily, I discovered on my bike ride that Terre Haute does have an actual downtown with interesting places to eat! Who woulda thought?

And there is a giant painting on the side of the local history museum depicting the momentous contributions Terre Haute has made to Western Culture.

It seems the Coke bottle was invented here.

I wasn't expecting much for dinner, since Terre Haute is pretty far from anywhere interesting, but it turn out that there is some upside to being halfway between Chicago and Cincinnati.

That's Cincinnati Chili and a 3 Floyd's Zombie Dust draft. This is at the Terminal Bar downtown, which is very popular. 40 minute wait on Tuesday night! I lucked out and snagged a seat at the bar.

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/16068742009

Ride to Pittsburgh - the Aftermath

I'm home now, with the very clingy dogs. Max is now at school, and Debra is in San Francisco through Friday. The dogs hate it when anyone is away.

Here are some numbers for the trip:
Total days riding: 5 1/2
Total miles: 340
Total climb: 8300 feet

Nights camping: 3
Nights in motels: 2
Nights in AirBnB: 1

Flat tires: 0
Failed rear wheel: 1

As soon as I got home, I got the bathroom scale out to figure out if maybe the reason the rear wheel failed is because me and the bike are too heavy.

Me, fully clothed: 200 lbs
Loaded panniers: 47 lbs
Bike, with water, tools, spare parts, etc.: 52 lbs.

Total weight of the whole deal: 300 lbs.

That's a lot. It's more than the new wheel is rated for.

Looks like I'm shopping for another wheel.

Ride to Pittsburgh Day 6 - West Newton to Shadyside in Pittsburgh

 The ride to Pittsburgh is over. Here I am by our AirBnB. It's before noon.

I only rode 30 miles today. My plan was to finish in time to watch the Ravens preseason game in a bar somewhere. Such a bar does not exist in Pittsburgh.

Most of the ride was very easy, but Shadyside is way up high and the GAP trail is way down low, so I had to do a big climb in Pittsburgh. Strava routed me on a "road" in Frick park which was fairly direct with a reasonable grade, but the road turned out to be a barely paved or gravel walking path, so that took a long time.

There was also a bit of a climb to get over this ginormous bridge:

I thoroughly researched the nonexistent options for watching the Ravens, replenishing my electrolytes thoroughly along the way with several Bloody Marys. No celery was observed at any point. What is going on here?

Instead of watching football, I walked around the Shadyside Art Expo, which was six blocks of vendors selling extremely ugly art for the arriving college students to hang in their dorm rooms.

Here is the Strava Track for today: https://www.strava.com/activities/15559914808