Day 24 June 10 Katy Trail adventures

We’re traversing the 240 mile Katy Trail in Missouri and enjoying the relatively flat grades of one of the longest rail-trails in the USA. Taking the Katy trail puts us a bit off the TransAm but puts us on this iconic trail. This is essentially 240 miles of flat with zero cars. Angie and I are spending the evening in Easley, MO where we’re enjoying a local southern rock band and our camp area is right on the Missouri River. It feels like an evening of cultural immersion of life on the Missouri.

Day 23, June 9 Wash Day on the Katy Trail. by Eric

 The Katy Trail was a little hard to get to from the Transamerica trail but well worth it,  Our first night was spent in Hermann at a very nice city park.it rained but we were under cover.

Day 22 June 8 Pinckney to St. Louis, IL

Another night under cover only this time it was the Fairground pavillion in Pinckery.  With water, restrooms and tables we did well.  It was just a little muggy for sleeping.  Our treat was a watermelon that Tom carried on his bike from the grocery store.  
This morning the thunderstorm started at 8 am.  We couldn't avoid it.  But we dried out by the afternoon.  Our Google Maps bike route, for once, did not send us to a dead end road or gravel.  It took us all the way to St.Louis... almost.  Well, we took advantage of a metro train ride. Literally we came off a trail; pushed our bikes up onto the platform; waited 2 minutes and pushed our bikes on to the train.  It was amazing.  The next thing we know, we are looking at the Arch.  St. Louis is a beautiful town.  We were able to ride downtown with hardly any traffic.  We found great BBQ at Paddy's Smokehouse.  We rode out northwest to get a hotel and tomorrow we will start on the Katy Trail.

 

Day 21 June 7th Goreville to Pinckeryville, IL

The converted barn we stayed in had a lot of decor.  Note all our stuffed friends. They chose not to ride with us.  We had the most pleasant morning along Devil's Kitchen Lake.
Carbondale was like a dream come true with a bike shop that repaired 3 of our bikes, a coffee shop one block away and the Tourism office 2 blocks away.  When we headed back out on the road to Pinckery it was all new pavement.  Unfortunately Bill had 5 flats from construction material and he was separated from the rest of us.  With no more options to fix his tire, he was sitting on a road side looking for help. Instead he got a lady who told him to get out of her yard.  She threatened to call the cops.  He said "Go Ahead. At least they will give me a ride to Pinckery."  To his rescue came a couple who turned around their pick up and took him back to Pinckery where they had started from.  He almost did get arrested when the City Police pulled over the truck for missing a stop sign.  The cop and the couple were all friends so no tickets were issued.

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Day 20, June 6th Cave in Rock to Goreville, IL

We left the campground at Cave in the Rock in a group of 6 with Tom and Jaz. Rollers were the name of the game all day.  As we were stopped to regroup early on, 5 dogs came running towards us. A lady in her car pulled between us and the dogs and told us the dogs wouldn't bite.  We were a bit leary of this advice though it was true. The dogs had been dumped there. Her name was Jan and she invited us to her house further up the road.
We took her up on the invite.  This is in spite of the Trump sign at the front of her driveway.  Jan had made us fresh coffee and let us sit on her porch as we fueled up.
She was a great host along with her dog, Stubby.  She had worked in the coal mines. These experiences make our trip much more interesting.  
At 11 am the thunderstorm rolled in. Lunch was in the pouring rain. We could not wait 3 hours or more to continue so the last 17 miles were also in the rain.  Everyone agreed it wasn't that bad in the end.  We are getting the hang of it!
Our camp for the night was a Airbnb built in a barn.  See Eric's helpers for bike repairs.

 

Day 19 June 6th Sebree Methodist Church to Cave in the Rock, IL

We left our great church host with clean clothes and a good night's rest.  The first two hours of our ride were flat through beautiful fields of, yep, corn and soy beans also huge mowed lawns.  We saw and smelled two big Tyson chicken farms.  Pastor Bob, our host, told me that Tyson raises 150,000 chickens every 5 to 6 weeks in their county.  I can attest to the fact that there is just a lot of fried chicken here!
We hit rollers and heat about the same time but we powered through to catch a ferry across the Ohio river to Cave in the Rock State Park.  There are only a few campers in this huge park.  Our group of four has turned into a group eight as Tom from DC, Jaz from England and two girls from Texas have joined us for the evening. I guess if I count the bugs here, there a lot of inhabitants!