Day 25 July 4th St. Charles to Hermann, MO

Andy looking, fine? this look didn't last long.


picasso's (rich on right) (tom and betty behind andy in the window)

less than flattering of me, but the river is good!


for mom (named after the Martha grape that grows here)

Bridge to Hermann!


Ahh. July 4th is probably the great holiday of this ride. It seemed that we were in an appropriate place to be celebrating it. Riding down the bricked road through Old St. Charles, passing buildings from the late 1700s, we were feeling something like patriotism. We turned down the street with the only cafe open by luck, Picasso's Art of Coffee, and met a few fine folks there. We were to discover that Missouri is by far the most talkative state we've been in thus far. Rich, who was sitting outside in his red, white, and blue tie-dyed t-shirt, gave us the rundown on the locals. He was our tour guide for the morning, as some few of the waking town passed us by. A older biker (also in spiffy red, white, and blue) passed us by, also training for an iron man. He was clad in all the spandexy bike attire, but looked like he had a very Irish farmer's face with a lifetime's sufficiency of sun and whisky and friendliness. Then Betty and Tom pulled up. Tom also gave us some touring, mostly of Astoria, OR (where we hope to end up and where he is from). They also shared their story of driving across Kansas on their honeymoon, waiting and waiting to open the bottle of champagne they had brought along until they saw the mountains, finally one appeared, so POP, but then, later on, it turned out to only be cloud.

So we were off finally, after 2 croissants a piece for breakfast (a dream I had as a child), we hopped back onto the KT, and set off on this journey, a total indulgent break from traffic, depressing roadkill (one day we saw over 30 dead turtles in a 30 mile stretch), and flatness.

We were enjoying our new found gravel road friend, chatting with another family of bikers, whizzing past others (we are not whizzers so this boosted our egos a bit), when a bolt for Andy's back rack broke and we spent a good 1/2 hr trying to piece something together (not one person asked if we were o.k.) which we did using parts of our dinging bell, only to find that 1/4 mile down the road in Defiance a bike shop was open with a drill to reopen the hole and fix it properly.

At the shop we spoke to MORE people, John and his wife in particular. He is an avid bicyclist who had done the US in 4 sections over 4 years. He was bringing his wife along this time to try her out (she seemed to be having some seat problems TMI!) and then they were off to visit his 102 year old mama! (she seemed ready for her to maybe kick the bucket). Also spoke to a man who just thought we were overpacked like his ex-wife until he found out we were not just doing the KT.

Dutzow for lunch, German place, good sandwiches, Naughty Nanas for dessert (sugar coated bananas in a pastry shell with vanilla ice cream on top), then off back down the trail. The trail runs along the Missouri and all of it kinda looks the same, which is beautiful with lots of bunnies and turtles hoping about.

At around 6:30 we hadn't gotten quite as far as we had planned but a nice grandma farmer lady who was taking her first bike ride down the trail told us they had fireworks in Hermann (a couple miles back across the Missouri). We had our trusty (sort of) guidebook to tell us there was camping in their city park, so we headed over their very fine bridge complete with bike lane. Hermann is a very German town up in the hills along the south side of the Missouri and seemed to be in full swing with the festivities of USA. We set up camp, trying desperately to avoid ant hills, and then rode our bikes to Trapper's Grill, spoke to everyone, and rode down just in time for some chilly fireworks over the river. Coal trains came by behind us as we watched these original "made in China" gunpowder artworks. It was the perfect American celebration.

If anyone goes along this trail (which is pretty much suitable for anyone reading this blog) definitely stop in Hermann. There are lots of wineries all along the trail too. We did not visit, but they are there waiting for you with open goblets.