Other Touring Cyclists Are Out There

It is safe to say we've wrapped up another state today.  Missouri began in Saint Louis and has concluded in Kansas City and we shall leave her in the past.. after a rest day.  We've challenged ourselves, riding much longer days than we had been.  And along the way we've had the pleasure of finally running into other cyclists.

Posing with the Golder office.
I love how I'm the ONLY one looking at the camera.

Outside of Saint Louis and across the Missouri River is the town of Saint Charles where Golder has an office.  True to my word, I paid the office a visit and met a handful of the staff and office manager Mark Sandfort.  Our timing was perfect.  Having arrived in Saint Louis on Thursday night, we were able to head over to Saint Charles (borrowing Luke's car - best host of all time) and ended up havin lunch with Mark and a few of the guys from the office out at Trailhead Brewing Co.  It just so happened that the Golder 50th Anniversary BBQ was also that afternoon and so Geoff and I hung around to join the office in celebrating.  And so, 1000 miles from the Conshohocken office, I was able to partake in this hearty celebration that took place across the US and the world.  My intent in visiting the different Golder offices throughout the US is to provide a common link and show just how small our company is in reality.  Not to mention to raise awareness of the Golder Trust for Orphans and raise funds for the cause.  The Denver office is next on the list and we should be there in early June.

The Saint Charles office is located prominently off of the Katy Trail, a 200+ mile rail trail that runs across Missouri.  The proximity to Golder coupled with the Katy's pretty direct route towards Kansas City made it an obvious choice.  While the path is unpaved, it gave us a chance to ride without worrying about cars or directions, so it struck a balance between speed and comfort.  But beyond that, the trail gave us an unexpected bonus: actually seeing other cyclists!  Imagine that, after 7 weeks of cycling, we had not seen one other touring cyclist.  It was on the afternoon of our first day on the trail that we rain into our first group.  As we approached each other on the trail, I sensed with horror that the import of our meeting may be lost on these strangers, so boldly I stopped my bike and probably said something idiotic like "looks like you guys are riding bikes, too."  No matter, this had the desired effect and delightful conversation and wine and protein bar exchanges were had.  We parted ways with plans to meet these folks in their town, but I am sad to say the plans fell through.  We must assume that it was not meant to be.  Perhaps the diversion to visit these new friends would have derailed our plans.. perhaps.

In any case.  Having parted from our sibling cyclists, we made our way to the town of Hermann, which I must say was strangely German for being in central Missouri.  Or is that not P.C.?  Who knew a German enclave would have settled out here and then raised half a dozen generations in their native culture?  Anyway, we found the town's brewery and had a few pints to celebrate the afternoon and then headed off to a nearby cafe to wait out our buzz before continuing on with our ride.  While there, we ran into a cyclist, Chris, who we had actually seen that morning, 50 miles back, and now ran into again randomly in this cafe in Hermann.  So since we were all biking West, we decided to venture on together, adding spirit and newfound vitality to our group through fresh blood.  We rode on until sunset and luckily happened upon a campsite off the trail, where we made our first camp fire of this trip under a clear sky of vibrant stars.

We parted ways from Chris the next afternoon, but not before getting a police escort from another bike touring group across the Missouri River.  I'd say this was a lucky break, since we planned to cross this bridge anyway and hadn't realized that it was illegal (and insane) to do so without the escort.  That falls into the 'unbelievable trail magic' category.

Our next encounter happened the next morning.  I recall looking back after Geoff had fallen back to see three cyclists.  Alex and Will from England and Kenya, respectively, are also riding across the US to raise $40,000 for Autism research - http://www.x-america4autism.blogspot.com/  With loftier goals, and being just out of high school, these guys instantly won my respect.  Once again, since we were all heading in the same direction, it seemed sensible to ride on together.  It was with Alex and Will that I made my last blog post, locked in a McDonald's.  We ended up splitting a motel 4 ways with them to avoid camping out during the Tornado storm and to dry out our already soaked clothes.  Packed much lighter, and being in much better shape than me and Geoff, Will and Alex wound up pushing us to ride harder than we have yet on this trip, which I'm thankful for.  If anything our ride today has inspired me to shed some weight and send some excess gear home.  Alex and Will are on their own now, staying somewhere in the Kansas side of Kansas City, but there's a chance we'll meet up with them to ride through Kansas.  I can only hope that we will continue to run into other cyclists who will share their stories and joy at being out doing what we're doing.