Exciting Event #3

We can see the Rockies! We've been searching the horizon at the crest of every hill for the past two days. Finally, as we biked through a feedlot haze into Ordway, CO, we saw the sun setting behind mountains.

Exciting Event #2

After weeks of terrain like this, we entered a town with an elevation of 4200 feet. We climbed thousands of feet without realizing it.

Exciting Event #1

New state! (This picture is from the day before yesterday, but the excitement hasn't faded.)

Kansas Wind Turbines

Calderesque

Ness City, KS

Kansas at Night

When you get up at 4am noon is your happy hour

Kansas does beer right. Served in a frosty chalice. Too bad the only things on tap are bud, bud light, coors light and keystone light. Still hits the spot after 60 miles.

From Spandex to Suit

Today Leah headed back east to jump into the pre election fray and start prepping for work. We will miss her, but are excited to have her pioneer the transition back to normal life. We'll be seeking her advice on hiding weird chinstrap tans and working with numb fingers in a couple of weeks. For now Katrina and I are headed back onto the windy Kansas roads!

Kansas

We've made it from Missouri to Dorothy's lovely state of Kansas. While not as flat as everyone claimed (thank god, the slight hills are actually way better than just plain flatness) it's definitely as windy as they claimed. We biked through what we thought was a windy day yesterday only to be informed by every local we ran into that that was not in fact windy and that we would find out what windy was in a few days. We did however turn north for the last 16 miles of our day and get a lovely tailwind which allowed me to get into my highest gear for the first time in the whole trip. It was amazing and felt like we were flying. At first i thought that the wind for the day had just died down but then we took a sharp 90 degree turn only to find out that it was not dead and had in fact been pushing us along, luckily we got to another 90 degee turn and got pushed a little further to our destination - the town of Cassoday KS. Here we spent the night in the city park, after being turned away by the local pastor. This was the first time a church had turned us away and he was not very nice about it at all - so much for do unto others, but whatever. We ended up having a very loud night in the city park since there were train tracks near it with trains that seemed to pass and ring their alarms or whatever they do about every two hours all night.

Yesterday we also ran into the second group of people going our direction, a British couple, who said they'd been chasing us down since Kentucky, constantly seeing our names in all of the various log books you sign along the route. They inevitably caught us since they are doing around 80 to 90 miles a day - they called a 60 mile day a half day! They were really nice and it was exciting to meet more poeple going our direction, though they will be taking a more southern route once we get to Peublo, CO.

I'm getting really exctied for the rockies and for the first glimpse of them after the nothingness that will be eastern colorado. We will definitely be posting some pictures when they appear.

The Campsite

(per the request of Katrina's mother)

"Today I'm a Tiger."

Vacation From Our Vacation

First a big thank you to Kate and John who let us spend not one but two nights with them and showed and shuttled us around St. Louis yesterday. We had a great day off.

We are now on a little "vacation" on the Katy Trail across Missouri. We started the day as you would with any vacation, at the airport. And then crossed the Missouri river to join the oasis that is the Katy trail. We are currently enjoying an afternoon beer at one of the many breweries/wineries that run along the 237 mile trail which has been converted to a bike path from an old RR track. I love vacations!
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City Amenities!

St. Louis

We made it! New state! Day off to explore the city tomorrow.
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Great Day

Gorgeous day biking in Illinois; we avoided the rain and got this instead. St. Louis tomorrow night! Can't wait to see the arch.

Not sure bike racks were built to hold this much weight. Watching the bikes while Jeanne and Leah grab various veggies they will throw into our dinner. At some point we will have just mac and cheese!

New Photos

These aren't organized yet but here's a massive photo dump from my camera:

JKLFordtheRiver_IL

And from Leah's camera:

JKL_Leah

We will reorganize and repost these links later, but for those who can't wait, enjoy.

Bathtub Madonna

Leah claims to have seen the Virgin Mary in a bathtub repeatedly over the past week. Neither me nor the 'Bot had yet to see any such bathtub, but apparently she wasn't making it up.

Now that we believe her, we'll keep an eye out and post a picture of the next one we see. Stay tuned.

New State!

We took a ferry from Kentucky into Illinois. Better pictures to follow.

Traces of Amish

Pavement pocked by the hooves of horses drawing buggies.

Today we saw...

an ATV rolling down the road with a child's carseat (w/baby) strapped
to the back.

Video From Katrina's Bike

This is what it looks like as we ride along. I took this video after we rode down a big hill/mountain as I followed Jeanne.

Bardstown Day Off!

Today we are taking a day off in Bardstown, KY. Last night we strolled along a golf course listening to a concert at the Old Kentucky State Park Amphitheater and star gazing as we ate our McDonald's ice cream. It's amazing how many more stars you can see out here. Ice cream has become a daily part of life, and Jeanne now refuses to end a day without a milkshake.

Today we plan on doing a tour of the Heaven Hill Distillery and maybe a Bourbon tasting. However for the moment we've settled into the library to recharge phones and take advantage of some free internet. So far Kentucky has been interesting. The eastern part of Kentucky was filled with crazy packs of hunting dogs that chased us down the road and trucks with exhaust so dark we looked like we came out of one of the coal mines after we biked through it. We left eastern Kentucky (and Appalachia) on one of the prettiest descents we've seen yet, a two mile stretch of road cut through the rock of the mountain, overlooking the rolling hills we're enjoying now. We'll be heading on across Kentucky and then north towards St. Louis, where we will be diverging from the Transamerican trail for a bit. We'll be taking the Katy Trail through Missouri; it's an old railroad line that has been converted into a bike path and will allow us to skip some of the ups and downs of the Ozarks. We're looking forward to exploring St. Louis on our next day off. None of us have been there before, so if you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments!

Breakfast

Two cinnamon buns, coffees and three egg and cheese biscuits later we're finally starting our day. Yesterday's 70 miler seems to have all of us moving a little slower this morning. Can't wait for Bardstown and our next day off! Just two more days of pedaling to get us there.

Hindman, KY

We stayed at the Knott County Historical Society two nights ago. The
research center also serves as a biker haven and "cat farm".

The Runt of the Litter