The Katy Trail is an amazing ride so far but there have been some tough parts. The gravelly terrain and headwinds can really slow me down at times. It isn’t too bad but I definitely feel the strain when i go through any open areas. On a good note, my tan is starting to even out and now I have a redneck style tan from wearing a tank top all the time.
It has been incredibly cool following the Missouri river with all the markers of Lewis and Clark’s expedition. I like to think that I would have pursued a similar path if I would have been born in that time. Unfortunately it seems much more difficult to just venture out into the wild these days. Maybe it isn’t and I’m just making excuses. Regardless, it is an inspiring ride and I’m really enjoying it so far.
The butterflies around here behave kind of oddly though. They lay on the path in the sun and I do my best to avoid them but when I approach they fly into my spokes and often get killed. I don’t know how to stop them from killing themselves on my bike. It is so weird, if they would just move away from the giant, heavy metal object they would be okay.
For lunch today I grabbed a burger at this crazy dive bar in the middle of the trail. It is kind of cool to pay $3 for a burger the size of your face. The crowd was all locals and they just kind of ignored me, I guess they are used to random trail riders coming into their city for food. They were also smoking in the bar, which I haven’t seen in a while. I actually hope it is illegal to do that here because I would love an entire community that just says, “fuck it, that laws dumb” and smokes inside anyway.
The day ended in a tiny town called Harsburg, Missouri. There is a little park near the trail that allows tent camping for free so I set up there. While setting up I heard music coming from a restaurant across the street so I wandered over there to grab a cold beer on this hot day of riding. The crowd was, umm, interesting. There were lots of redneck stereotypes including a guy wearing a “6th Annual Redneck Bash” t-shirt that he cut the sleeves off of and a really drunk (it was 7pm), possibly pregnant woman yelling “Play Johnny Cash!!!” every few minutes at the band. The music was good though and I could hear it from my camp site so I got to listen to it while I thought about the day and prepared for the next leg. I’ve been doing a lot of mental preparing for the Kansas City to Denver leg and I think it is going to be the most mentally difficult for me.
Starting to mentally prepare myself for Kansas and Colorado.
At burgers at a dive bar. It’s cool paying like $3 for a burger the size of your face, and the crowd is always local and kind of interesting. I haven’t been around when there are big crowds but maybe in the next day or two. They also smoke in the bar, which is awesome. I’m curious what Missouri law is in regards to this, I kind of hope it’s illegal. S
Wandering Oak 