We woke up (my sleeping pad has a leak somewhere though unfortunately, so I woke up laying on the ground!) and packed up camp. We grudgingly decided to get breakfast at Sonic because there wasn't going to be another place to eat for about 25 miles. As exciting news, we have an official mascot! Rihanna, the tater tot cheetah -- otherwise known as the Citta Cheetah! She's blazing the trail for us and breaks the wind for us as much as she can. We're excited to have Rihanna on board.
We got on the road at about 7:30, but Alec's superior navigation skills brought us in a circle for the first mile or two... A minute after I asked him if he was sure this was the right way we rode back by our campsite..! I took over the map for the day after that.. :)
After our warm-up circle, we got in the Katy trail. The trail is so nice, and though it's a little slower than pavement, it's almost completely flat, there are no cars, and the trees covering the trails are beautiful and the shade is great.
And we rode it to the end of the trail! We think it's pretty cool that we got to start at the start of the trail and end at the end. Of course we had to divert from it for most of our ride through Missouri, we were probably on the trail for only about 60 miles or so, it was fun to see both ends.
We got off the trail and continued on headed for the Kansas-Missouri border. A few miles from it in MO still we came across a sign for organic strawberries and local honey, so OF COURSE we stopped. It was such a great farm. It was run by this sweet, wonderful farmer named Randy. It was a pick it yourself farm, so we got to take buckets and go out into the fields and pick our own organic strawberries! It was so much fun, Alec nor I had ever picked strawberries before! It was fun, and it was interesting hearing about his whole farm, what he grows, when everything will be ready for picking (blackberries, blueberries, apples, pears etc etc). He was also telling us about how the droughts from the past couple years had effected everything, and how wonderful the rain has been this year. We bought some local honey from him, also, and he gave us the strawberries free of charge. Thank you Randy! It was a great stop.
We left the organic farm and crossed the border to Kansas just a few miles later! We were on gravel, back roads though, and there wasn't even a sign for the state line. I guess we're in Kansas...!
These things right past the border we'd never seen before, but they look like giant moragne candies (marane, mirain, moragne??).
The gravel back roads seemed never ending, and there were actually some big hills! I thought Kansas was flat, no fair! We came across this turtle also... who was gigantic, and when I got closer it would turn to me and open his mouth, and it was scary! I was scared to get close, but I did for this picture...
After that Alec tried to touch it's shell, and it LUNGED at him and almost bit him! It was frightening. We hopped back on our bikes after that...
Oh, and not long after crossing the border I completely fell in a ditch... I was looking up at a telephone pole because it was a weird one and different than the others (things that catch your attention in Kansas...) and just rode right off the side of the road into a ditch. Luckily it was grassy and not rocky. Plus, it was an adventure. Alec RUSHED to help me -- wait, no, I got that mixed up with that he rushed to take a picture of me..
And with all that grass it doesn't look like too deep of a ditch, but let me be the first to tell you, it definitely was deep.
A few miles later we passed a sign on a house for the Bicycle Doctor. We decided to go check it out and say hi. The Bicycle Doctor is a guy who fixes bikes and sells bikes he refurbishes. We stopped in to say hey and fill up our tires with air. He actually had air compressors (that, unfortunately, didn't get a high enough psi for our tires) and the only bike pump there wasnt his and was broken. We got them all filled up eventually though! And he gave Alec a tube free of charge, which was great. Thanks Bicycle Doctor!
Just a few miles later we arrived to our destination -- warm showers host, Michelle. She was amazing!! It is actually her son who is on Warm Showers, he was out of town, but she was glad to host us. And host us she did. We arrived to wonderful showers, and the greatest meal... A stuffed pasta shell bake, yummy salad, and garlic bread. She made us SO much food, it should probably feed 8, but we are the entire thing. And had a great homeade muffin/cobbler for dessert -- yum.
And their house is beautiful! They've been renovation and adding on for a long time, and have been doing EVERYTHING themselves. And I mean everything. From floor joists to roofing and interiors and everything in between. Michelle made her own stensil to paint this design in the beautiful kitchen:
And they made their own stained glass windows (that's amazing!!!).
They're installing a waterfall into their entryway, and so much more. It's a beautiful house and it's even more amazing when you discover they've built it all themselves!
They also built a cat house in their backyard for all their cats -- they have 20! Only a few live in their actual house, the oldest of which is Spaz who is 17 years old and iis so sweet but has breast cancer, sadly. Michelle said they had a tough time deciding not to do a masectomy on her, and the vets at the cat clinic they go to gave her 6 months. So sad, such a sweet cat!
This is the cat house:
After doing our much needed laundry, we went to sleep in a super comfortable bed and had a really good nights rest. Thanks you SO MUCH Michelle!
Daily stats:
Mileage: 93.2
Average speed: 11.05
Riding time: 8:24
Elevation gain: 3151
Max speed: 37.05
Our favorite sign:
We think that's a great sign/message for our trip, but are slightly confused as to why it's on a church's sign.
Also, as a summary of our first impressions of Kansas:
- 20 miles on a loose gravel (hilly?!) road
- Different mean looking dogs that chased us about every mile (one that sprinted SO FAST, it was the fastest dog I'd ever seen, straight at Alec from nowhere. He didn't see it until I yelled up to him that it was headed for him because it wasnt barking, and the dog almost ran into him and could barely stop. It didn't give us too much trouble after Alec sprayed pepper spray near it, but scary!)
- A bike doctor with no bike pump
- A turtle that almost bit my face and Alec's entire arm off
- I fell in a ditch
- really nice generous people!!
Daily haiku:
Entering Kansas,
Fastest dog I've ever seen,
Why are there hills here.
-AW
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