Today was a wonderful, and hot, day for bicycling. But to start our day off properly, we had to fill up on a delicious breakfast :) We stopped at a cafe called the Whistle Stop (just like yesterday, different town though) that was recommended to us by one of the waitresses last night at Pizza Hut. We both agreed it was the best breakfast that we've had so far - which is saying a lot. Fluffy buttermilk pancakes, steaming biscuits and gravy, thick salty bacon, eggs over easy, and bottomless cups of coffee - what could be better? Thinking about it makes my mouth water....
Right! Bicycling. We headed east from Osawatomie, usually on a paved road, but occasionally on gravel. We were making our own route through here, and I (Emily) was navigating. My navigation is sort of like cooking, as long as you are generally going in the right direction, you're good. So a few things changed from our planned routes, partially because google maps and the Kansas state map I had didn't quite agree. But we didn't have to backtrack, so all was well!
As we were biking, we crossed over railroad tracks and, well, photos speak for themselves, but we were glad we weren't there when that happened. Hopefully no one was hurt.
We met a guy in Block, an unicorporated town that doesn't appear on the maps, while he was watering his lawn. He offered us water and we happily accepted and talked for a bit. It was barely 10am and already it was almost 100 degrees. Gotta love Kansas.
The sign on the telephone pole below reads:
High Water Mark
Fri. July 13th, 1957
We were biking and biking and then TA-DA Missouri state line sign!!! Yay! New state!!! The scenery has slowly been transistioning into a more wooded landscape with many streams, rivers, creeks and ponds. Despite the extreme heat, we occasionally get a cool breeze from the shady areas. We are really looking forward to biking on the Katy Trail in Missouri, as much of it is supposed to be shaded.
Today was a rolling hills day, and as we arrived in Missouri, it seems these hills decided to combine together to form small mountains. We would climb up, with little 20ft hills along the way for 20 minutes and then we would go flying down the otherside for 10 minutes, going over decreasing hills on the way. It was fun to go down, but exhausting to go up.
These small "mountains" were relentless. We spent the entire day tackling one after the other. They all become aggressively steap at the very top, requiring us to shift down to our lowest gears.
Biking along in MO, we had no expectations of seeing any other cyclists. Ever since we left the Adventure Cycling maps and headed off towards the Katy Trail, we haven't seen any touring cyclists. We met Mike and Joan on Highway 18. They had also made a detour to bike the Katy Trail and greatly enjoyed it. We exchanged pleasantries, route information, good places to stay and eat, and blogs (see theirs at www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mikenjoan2011). they gave us their business card complete with a little map of the US and their route. (When we go bike touring again, we are going to have business cards)! They were very nice, but we all quickly headed off again as standing in the sun is VERY hot and the day was only getting hotter.
A short time later we stopped in Adrian for a bite to eat and an escape from the sweltering heat. You'll notice in the picture below the bank happily informing us it was 104 degrees F. Definitely time for air conditioning.
In many of the towns we've passed through we've noticed the sirens. I'm assuming these are for tornado warnings. You can see them located on the top of the church in the photo below. They were right above the bells.
Leaving Adrian, we still had 35 miles to go. We continued with our theme of nice rolling hills/small mountains before passing by the mostly flat Montrose Conservation Area. If I recall correctly, this is one of the largest wetland areas in the United States. We passed over the South Grand River, which currently had a very low water level, and saw all sorts of wading birds hunting and hanging out in the mudflats below us.
We biked around a few more bends before leaving this wetland area and suddenly arriving in Clinton! Yay! We found a hotel, after downing two icy cold gatorades from a convenience store, and quickly called it a night.
Katy Trail tomorrow!!!!!!!!!
Location:Osawatomie, KS to Clinton, MO
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