Day 24 - May 27 - Hermann MO to Jefferson City MO - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

May 27, 2023

Day 24 - May 27 - Hermann MO to Jefferson City MO

A Day of Hills (Not Ridden)

John’s Story

The decaf coffee at the coffee shop this morning was atrocious. I felt like taking it to the counter in front of the line of customers waiting to order and asking the barista not to make any more decaf until she learns how to do it properly, and then walking out. But I didn’t. Was that wimpy or just polite?

Ed has been complaining about how closely spaced the barriers are at trail intersections ever since we started this ride back in Washington DC. I have to admit these are the closest yet. I’m beginning to see his point.

This building is on the hill right next to the bridge crossing the Missouri River into Herman, Missouri. We didn’t visit that part of town so I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps it’s the County Courthouse

This is the second edifice du jour. It certainly looks like a church, but there is absolutely no community around it.

Here is Ed reaching Portland two months early. He was quite disappointed to find out he was still in Missouri.

We were looking to see the Callaway nuclear power plant, which is about 4 miles north of the Katy Trail. Not only did we not see the plant, we didn’t see any evidence of a steam plume from the cooling tower. We thought we might find evidence of the canal they dug back in the day to deliver large vessels and such by barge to the construction site from the Missouri River. No luck there either. My younger daughter worked at the plant for a few years right after she graduated from Mizzou with her mechanical engineering degree, while waiting for her future husband to finish his chemical engineering PhD.

We passed a lot of sheer rock walls along the trail today. In a number of places they warned against stopping along stretches of the trail due to falling rock. At one place there was evidence of recent closure and recent trail construction where a rockslide took out part of the trail and it had to be moved closer to the river.

I claim this rock for cycling geologists everywhere. This feature actually has a name; it’s called Steedman Rock. According to an informative display nearby it is a puzzle to geologists because the rock is sandstone and it is surrounded by limestone bluffs. It’s not a rock that has fallen from up above, but rather the rock around it has been eroded away. To my geological brain the solution is simple. What’s Missouri full of? Caves! This is evidence of an ancient system of sinkholes and caves that were flooded and filled with sandstone. The softer limestone eventually eroded away leaving the sandstone in the shape of the portion of the cave that it was deposited in.

I tried a Vulcan mind meld with the rock to ascertain whether I had properly understood its genesis. I’m not sure who learned more from this interaction, me or the rock.

I caught this hitchhiker catching a lift on Ed’s gear.

Bill Shaneyfelt, is this the plant you referred to as backpacker’s toilet paper? I’m not sure I would try it unless the expert confirmed in advance on location that it was indeed the plant I thought it was. I would not want to develop ARMBS (advanced red monkey butt syndrome).

There were plenty of horse apples on the trail, so the trail must also be used by quadrupedal creatures, so long as they’re not pulling a wagon.

Anyone have any idea what these are? My first guess is that they are bird houses of a sort.

Meet Steve and Beth from Denver. We crossed paths with them at Mokane.

After a third day of riding on the Katy Trail, I’m not sure that once we get off of it I’ll ever want to come back. The trail can get very monotonous and boring, is rough in areas and is very dusty. I’m not saying that the boredom is mind numbing, but merely mentally debilitating. For long stretches the only things that provide visual interest are the numerous squirrels diving for cover or attempting to commit rodent-cide.

Once we had ridden 10 miles or so on the trail, our bikes and everything on them were covered in fine gray dust, including our water bottles. Every time I took a drink I thought, “So this is what the Katy Trail tastes like.”

We saw not a single beach along the way today.

We also met Alan at Mokane. That’s a Pedego electric bike at the bottom of the frame. Alan said that since he bought the bike and started riding it he’s lost 50 pounds in just over 300 miles of riding. If I’m that successful at weight loss on this trip I’ll disappear in fewer than four more days.

I’d like to know what this is called. It completely dominated the side of the trail for long stretches

I thought this a lovely mixed green salad. Looks to me like a mixture of poison ivy and Virginia creeper.

Not sure if this is a menu or the invitation list.🧐

Lucky for us our hosts in Jefferson City met us at the trailhead with a trailer to haul us to their home. Jeff City streets are a maze of ski jumps, runaway truck ramps and roller coasters. They even look scary in a car. We’re grateful we didn’t have to tackle any of them today.

We stopped at Walmart on the way into town so that Ed could buy some gloves, since he left them at a store yesterday.

Tell Haley I have not seen any dinosaurs, but I did find a unicorn bicycle helmet while I was at Walmart

Our hosts Charlie (Laura) and Chris at the Prison Brewery for dinner. They are treating us very well while we’re here.

Missouri State Capitol building. I’ve never seen it lit up at night. Tomorrow we plan to take a tour inside

Jeffersonian Land Grid (continued)

I think some folks did not understand what I was saying about correction lines in the land grid yesterday. Here’s a little experiment you can do which will help you understand correction lines. Take one basketball, some glue and several sheets of graph paper. Cut the graph paper into 2 inch squares. Wallpaper the basketball by gluing the graph paper squares onto it, taking care that all the lines on the graph paper line up with the lines on the graph paper around it. You will soon understand what a correction line is. You can’t meet a flat surface onto a curved surface without distortion.

Personal Note

Normally when I’m on vacation I take an SLR camera with a selection of lenses. My favorite subjects are the small things that you notice when you’re walking, only sometimes when you’re biking, and never while you’re driving. My favorite photographic subjects are mushrooms, ferns, berries, flowers, moss, tree bark, etc. If I were stopping to take pictures of things like that this tour would last many times longer.

Ed’s Story

I was able to test my new sleeping bag last night as the temperature got down to 44 degrees. I liked the way I could engulf myself in the bag.

After a breakfast of oatmeal and a peanut butter Naan bread sandwich, we headed to a local coffee shop as there were no services on the trail.

The coffee was OK as was a piece of banana bread. It was a touristy shop that sold a lot of stuff.

Had some great views of the Missouri River as we crossed back to the Katy Trail. The bridge had a nice wide berm to ride our bikes on.

I talked about being in the Navy submarine service. As we rode along I could have sworn I saw a submarine in the distance. I asked my submarine friends what type of sub it was and got various responses:

Hay class, only 13 were commissioned.
Baleous
Haydo in VERY drydock

I also worked at a nuclear power plant for 28 years. We were fairly close to the Callaway Nuclear Plant along the Katy Trail when suddenly we see:

The park people continued to give us warnings along the trail. They really wanted us to be aware of the potential problems:

We weren’t exactly sure where the plant was in relation to us or what it looked like. Well now you know.

I was beginning to get worried about the radiation dangers as we saw quite a few dead armadillos. Coincidence…maybe, maybe not?

I could feel electromagnetic radiation from the high wire lines burning my brain and the looked up and knew why. We had to get away as soon as possible.

Finally, we were safe.

Remember I’ve been talking about bridges. Here’s two: a short one and one that’s 240 ft long. Like I said; lots of bridges.

I did say earlier that there weren’t a lot of services on the trail. We finally found one but they weren’t open. Not sure what they served there and maybe was afraid to ask.

No one knows what they’re serving up here

John’s talked about various plants he’s seen along the trail. Not sure what type of plant this processes.

We were near the Tebbetts trailhead when suddenly we had a massive downhill followed by a killer uphill. It was really steep and burned my legs on the way up. Wait, the Katy Trail is flat so where did the dip come from. Only the GPS knows.

We finally made it to the Jefferson City trailhead. Charlie and Chris were waiting with their trailer to pick us up and take us to their house. Jefferson City is just full of hills. There is no place to go here without going up or down numerous hills.

I got the choice of rooms tonight, so I picked the room with a nice queen size folding couch with a 4 inch foam mattress on it. It is very comfortable.

A comfy bed in a comfy room with room darkening shades

Our hosts took us out to both lunch and dinner. We went to the Ecco Lounge for lunch where I had the portobello mushroom on Texas toast. For dinner, we went to a brewery called the Prison Brews. I had the black bean chipolte burger with a sample flight of beers: amber, brown, porter, and truthfully, I don’t remember what the fourth was. The amber had to be replaced due to a bug swimming in it.

Got back to their house; called my wife; and finished a journal. Tomorrow will be some by cleaning and bolt tightening. I think we may do some tourist activities also.

I would normally tell you where we are going on tomorrow’s ride, but we’re not. This is a two day stop in Jefferson City. We are not riding again until Monday when we go to Rochefort.

Until then, happy biking!

Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 2,801 miles (4,508 km)

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Nancy GrahamA few years ago I had scheduled to ride the Katy with road Scholar tour. I got to St. Louis and spent time with relatives, the second day I was there - the day before the ride was to start - I got a message back at home in Seattle, the ride was canceled due to flooding in too many places along the trail. A bit of a late notice! Since then I have read more about the Katy, and feel much as John describes it as boring for a long ride, dusty and tiresome. So am not sorry to have missed it. But am virtually enjoying your ride with you ;’)
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1 year ago