Well, it’s been far too long since my last post but I’m determined to see this through to the end. Even if no one else is still reading, I want to finish it for myself. Since returning home my time has mostly been spent making soap & I’ve loved every minute of it but unfortunately, that has kept me from blogging. We’re currently in New Orleans (not part of the bike trip, we flew here) where I can’t make soap, so now I have a few days of free time to catch up! Here goes…
DAY 71: Karry made us breakfast – oatmeal, eggs, toast, coffee. Thank you! We chatted a bit, snapped some pictures, then off to work for her. We finished packing, did the dishes, then hit the road for KC-MO to meet up with Ben’s brother, his girlfriend & another friend (John, Serena, Andy) at an Air B&B we’d be sharing with them. Somewhere along the way we crossed into a new state – #6!
Today was very hot & humid so we showed up soaking wet from only a one hour ride. It was a frustrating ride to say the least, but not due to heat & humidity. No surprise, Ben & Garmin disagreed on the route. I was sick of fighting with them & we are both very stubborn so we parted ways the last few miles. He took his route, I took Garmin’s. I wanted to prove it was better & faster to just follow Garmin since you don’t have to stop all the time to see where you’re going on Google Maps or memorize every turn. If you just listen to Garmin, it’ll get you where you need to go & it’s more efficient – you just listen & ride. Ben wanted to make up his own route since he felt the roads we were taking were too busy. I argued it’s Kansas City, they’re all going to be busy, but in the end I didn’t want to force him to do something that made him feel unsafe. I felt perfectly safe which is why we each took our preferred route. I did arrive before him (vindication!) but was mostly happy because we both got what we wanted. No harm no foul.
After a quick rinse we all exchanged hugs – no one wants a dripping wet sweaty one! Aaaahhh, so nice to see friends & family 🙂 We caught up a bit, then hit the town for some afternoon fun: Boulevard Brewery tour, Arthur Bryant’s BBQ, drooled over gorgeous houses on Janssen Place, swimming at a community pool, WWI Memorial on the hill for a great view of the city, ice cream, then a little relaxing back at the Air B&B. After cleaning up, we took Uber back into town for the evening. Per our brewery guide’s recommendation we had dinner at Ponak’s (good choice), ventured over to the Green Lady Lounge for drinks & music, rode the free streetcar a few stops just for fun, then back home to crash for the night. Despite the rough start, it was a great day.
Day 72: Sweet bread, muesli, fruit & coffee for breakfast, packed up, took a quick drive through the plaza area on W 47th to see the fancy expensive shops we’d never go to, then said our goodbyes. John, Serena & Andy had a music festival in Iowa for the weekend but made time to come see us for a day & we’re so glad they did. It was so nice to see them even if only briefly.
After they left we biked over to Whole Foods for snacks, then on to our next Warm Showers in Kansas City – Tom & Julie. They were absolutely wonderful! One of our favorite stops on the whole trip 🙂 They were so welcoming, helpful, generous, easy & fun to talk to. When we first arrived we just hung out & talked for a long time about anything & everything. I didn’t want to stop – we could’ve talked for hours! Ben & Julie are both realtors so they had plenty to talk about there. Tom showed us around the house, sharing their remodel experiences which was fun for us as we’ve had our share of remodeling & could talk about it for hours. They also had two cute labradoodles – Hank & Maybelle. They were both so sweet. Hank was very cuddly & curious. Maybelle was a little more timid but she warmed up quickly. Her eyes were so adorable they could just melt you into a puddle. I loved them both immediately.
While we showered & got settled in, Julie made an awesome dinner: red lentil patties on a bed of greens tossed with balsamic vinegar, served with tomato, avocado, goat cheese & homemade hummus. We also had brownies for dessert, but not just regular brownies -healthy & amazing brownies made with sweet potato & just the right amount of sweetness (not too sweet like usual). Seriously, it was all sooooo good. I’m legitimately drooling thinking about it all again right now. We talked for a long time during dinner about food & clean eating – how important it is & how it affects your body. Julie made a major lifestyle change this spring after a breast cancer diagnosis & it changed her life. It was so interesting talking about it all & really made me want to be better about my eating habits after this trip.
Again, we could’ve talked all night but Tom & Julie offered to show us around town on a different set of 2 wheels…SCOOTERS! They own 6 really awesome scooters so the 4 of us took a tour of the city at night & it was SO MUCH FUN! We got to see lots of gorgeous old houses, hip Old Westport, the plaza area again, & WWI Memorial view by night (very enchanting all lit up). There had apparently been a ceremony up there earlier in the evening for a relighting of the Western Auto sign. It was a very unique & distinct marker of the Kansas City night skyline that hadn’t been lit for 18 years & it was pretty cool to see. There were lots of people up there checking it out. A little more zipping around town to see pretty houses, then back to their place for the night. They live in a great location – perfect for sightseeing. A little reading then off to bed. Another great day 🙂
Day 73: Julie made us tasty healthy pancakes & smoothies (yum) & Tom made fantastic lattes. It was a great breakfast & very generous of them. We took the dogs for a quick walk before meeting up with another group of our friends who drove down from MN (Mariah, Bethany & David) . They had driven down the night before but didn’t arrive until 3am so after catching up on sleep they picked us up at Tom & Julie’s.
We spent the day exploring the city again: WWI Memorial view (never gets old!), Union Station (train depot), rode the free streetcar to City Market for lunch & wandered around the booths a bit, then took some fun pictures outside the public library parking ramp painted to like giant books (turned out really neat). As a storm rolled in we planned to do the Boulevard Brewery tour but they were closed unexpectedly for plumbing issues so we went back to the hotel where we met up with two of our other friends (Erik & Julie), who left early this morning from MN. We hung out for a while, swimming, soaking in the hot tub, relaxing & catching up. It was really nice.
Back to Tom & Julie’s to change & throw a load of laundry in the washer, then off to the Old Westport neighborhood for drinks at Harry’s & dinner at Beer Kitchen (per Tom’s recommendation). He didn’t disappoint – they had great food & a huge drink selection. We walked around the area for a bit after but were all so sleepy from a long day that we turned in for the night (us back to Tom & Julie’s, first group of 3 in their hotel room, the other 2 at an Air B&B). Another fun day with friends 🙂
Day 74: Tom whipped up his great lattes while Julie generously made us breakfast again. We had toast, omelettes & smoothies. As usual, it was all so good. Healthy & tasty – can’t beat that! After breakfast we packed up, got some pictures, exchanged some really nice hugs & said our goodbyes. We were sad to leave Tom & Julie. They were so great, I would’ve loved to hang out more! Thank you so much for a wonderful stay – one of the best.
We only went a block away to meet up with everyone to watch the final World Cup game at Brookside Barrio. It was a relaxing time hanging out, watching the game & catching up. Nice & chill. Bethany & I ended up talking with a nice woman there about her bike touring days through Central America. It sounded so much harder than ours! Just the logistics alone, not even the physical aspect: language, lodging, water, maps. It sounded amazing, but also hard & made me appreciate how relatively easy our trip has been. The game was over by 1pm, at which point we got ready to hit the road again & said more goodbyes to our MN friends. Thanks for visiting! It gave us an extra boost for the next chapter.
After they left we picked up some electrolyte chews at The Vitamin Shoppe, food at Cosentino’s Market across the street, & were on the road by 1:30pm. Our ride out was through a rougher part of town, that left me feeling sad. Today was hot, but not as bad as the last few days. The afternoon consisted of riding through old towns seemingly abandoned by business but not people & of course, more disagreements about our route. What’s new? Ben wanted shorter & flatter. I wanted longer, hillier, prettier & safer (which I thought Ben would’ve appreciated) but he wanted the direct route (aka busy road). We settled on a mix & it worked out well.
A nice guy pulled over to ask if we were OK while we took a break on the side of the road. We’d hit up two gas stations for water refills along the way so were were good but that was sweet of him 🙂 We also met a nice couple at one of the gas stations, in Orrick, out exploring on their motorcycles. They were fun to talk to. We made it to Richmond, MO just after sundown, took a sink-bath in a park bathroom, rinsed & hung up our clothes, then biked into town for dinner at Sonic, despite my disapproval for fast-food. Ben’s reasoning being: no motel = we eat out; motel = cooking. Eh, whatever – I was too hot & tired to convince him otherwise. Our waiter was really sweet. She asked about our trip & just couldn’t believe it. She thought it was the coolest thing she’d ever heard in her life! She’s young, I’m sure she’ll hear about cooler things as she gets older.
After dinner, we rolled back to the park, pitched our tent on a baseball field & called it a night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a restful night…for me at least. A throbbing thumb + stealth camping + people hanging out around the park all night + coyotes = no sleep for me 🙁 Luckily, we didn’t encounter any sprinklers so we had that going for us! We’re learning!
Reflections
1. John & Andy didn’t believe the loud electric sound we heard everywhere was from cicadas. They were sure it was either part of the streetcar, a malfunctioning light or power line, absolutely not a bug…but it was! They’re so loud & impressive!
2. The scooters were so much fun I am seriously going to buy two in the near future!!!
3. We’ve met several people, when asked where we’re from & we respond MN, who say they just knew it from our accents. Darn As and Os 😉 Dead giveaway.
4. I didn’t know until after the fact but Day 74 was National Ice Cream Day & I just so happened to eat ice cream 3 times that day! My brain didn’t know it but my body sure did 🙂
5. There doesn’t seem to be any clean natural bodies of water in this region. Everything is so murky & dirty you would never consider swimming in it. It’s a little disheartening to see lakes & rivers on the map, thinking you will have opportunities to cool off, but when you finally pass by them you’re disappointed to see how gross they are 🙁 What a letdown.
6. Riding through Missouri (& a lot of the Midwest, especially at dusk), there were so many big, fat bugs that loved to fly directly at your eyeballs! I was almost blinded by one & had to put sunglasses back on after sunset, to shield myself from the Kamikaze jerks!
7. Ordering at Sonic, as a biker or pedestrian, is frustrating. It’s typically just a drive-up joint so there’s nowhere to go “inside”. If you arrive sans vehicle, you order from an intercom that’s hard to hear & be heard from. You both end up shouting & repeating yourselves numerous times. The frustrating part was the fact that the person you’re trying to communicate with is 10ft away, inside the building, behind a glass wall so you can see each other the whole time…you could practically reach out & touch them they’re that close. Sometimes technology is great, but sometimes it makes simple tasks unnecessarily complicated. Given my already established disdain for technology & it’s ability to ruin human interaction, I was pretty annoyed & really wanted to shout “I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A HUMAN BEING IN PERSON!”…but I didn’t.
8. Ben discovered a hive-like rash on his thighs that we assumed is from the silicone band inside the bike shorts that keeps it from riding up your leg as you move. I’ve also had it on my legs most of the trip but mine is usually a lot more mild. His looked a little painful 🙁
9. (Channel your inner Ariel from The Little Mermaid): How many gas stations can one small town hold?….apparently 4. Maybe we missed the busy part of this town that required so many, but from what I could tell it was a pretty empty place, & yet they still had 4 gas stations. Interesting. I’m not sure how they all survive…
10. To our surprise, in the midst of the desolate landscape beyond Kansas City, we rode past several huge distribution centers: Guitar Center, FedEx, Grainger, & many more. It seemed like such a juxtaposition to have so many monstrous complexes in an otherwise bleak landscape. I imagine that area might like it for job security but visually it was a little jarring & unexpected.
Wow, I started this post a little over 2 months ago! Yowza, that’s bad. Hopefully the next post won’t take that long. It’s officially 2019 & now, this amazing trip we took, happened last year. For some reason, saying those words, “last year”, makes me all weepy. Before we left, during our ride, & slightly after we got back, the trip was something that was actively happening. It was tangible & something to hold on to, but now it’s slipping through my fingers & I’m afraid to let it go. I’m afraid I’ll never do anything again that made me feel the way I did on the trip & somehow my life will become insignificant. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve been putting off finishing the blog – well, that & soap. I made a lot of soap this fall to get ready for craft fairs so I got derailleured & was legitimately busy but I’ve been dreading finishing the blog because I don’t want it to be over. Once this blog is finished, there’s nothing left to do with the trip & it really is over. I’m more than just a bike trip…I know that. I just liked who I was & what I was doing on the trip & need to find ways to incorporate more of that into my everyday life. Well, I think that’s enough therapy for now. Until next time!
Whitney