Travel to St. Charles was under cloudy skies that have persisted since the start of our journey. Thunderstorms are predicted for the next five days. Until we reached the outskirts of St. Charles we had a delightful time cycling. We crossed the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers on ferries and traveled bike trails and rural roads most of the day. Before we boarded the Mississippi River ferry we stopped at the ferry café on the Illinois side of the river for pie. Joe and HP had the last 2 slices of fantastic blue berry pie ala mode leaving Jeff with an ok slice of apple pie.
As we got closer to St. Charles the traffic increased almost to the point of being uncomfortable. Each of us had a GPS that took us to within a block of our hotel…but we could not find it. Actually, Jeff’s GPS was turned off and HPs and Joe’s GPSs pointed us toward two pubs—one with 100 beers and the other with 6 that were brewed on site. HP chose the brew pub where we wet our whistles and had a great dinner. To finally get to our hotel Joe wanted a technology solution, HP just wanted our hotel, and Jeff asked several folks (not a manly thing to do but he did it anyway) and got us to our hotel. Before Jeff gets a swelled head, you should know that he got us lost today. He was in the zone and cycled beyond the GPS’s warning of an approaching turn. Joe followed blindly and HP stopped us and got a paper map to save the day. Since today was a low mileage day a few extra miles were not a problem.
According to Wikipedia, St. Charles is the second oldest city west of the Mississippi and was founded in 1765 by Louis Blanchette, a French Canadian fur trader. It was the last "civilized" stop for the Lewis and Clark Expedition; BUT HOPEFULLY not our last taste of civilization. From 1821 to 1826, the city served as the first Missouri capital.
St. Charles is also the trailhead for the Katy Trail State Park. The trail is 225 miles long and follows the Missouri River westward. We plan to cycle most of the trail over the next several days. It is the longest developed rail-trail in the country and it was built on the former corridor of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.
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Here are some pointers as you travel in Missouri:
ReplyDelete1) As you get closer to the Western border, you say "Missourah!"
2) When someone asks who the first president of the US was, you say, "George WaRshington."
3) And in the next week or two you should have a Catfish dinner, as you travel along the Mighty MO (Missourah River!) Happy Pedaling! Sue