right now we are stopped for lunch and afternoon break in carrollton, missouri, quite the lovely town. the library is well air conditioned and pleasant. last night we stayed in the lovely slater christian church of slater, missouri. so much gratitude to the kind folks there who opened up their church to us (including some pretty comfy pew cushions), and cooked us not only dinner but breakfast too. (and i was SO excited for that fruit and yogurt!!). the last few days have been really long and quite warm. we spent some time on the katy trail, which was at times quite pleasant, and at other times, really hot and monotonous. also gravelly. while we were originally scheduled to ride through all of missouri on the katy trail, but, due to flooding we've moved to state routes, complete with many "rolling" hills.
at one of our shorter stops yesterday, at a fantastic convenience/general/antique store that also had costume jewelry, i got an excellent pair of earrings with unicorns on them.
the most exciting news of the afternoon, aside from a great pot of chili, is that our adventures are being written up in the carrollton democrat, the local newspaper. thanks to pauline and mary for bringing us over to the newspaper office and not letting us get away until the story had been reported.
two more days until kansas!
love,
linden
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4 comments:
I'm following your ride - it's a huge effort! Glad things are going well so far --
Fruit and yogurt - mmmm. Having some myself for my snack here at Bethany while I type up the bulletin for Sunday! Safe riding for all -- prayers are rolling with you! -- Roberta
Hey OneBigBike!!
Glad to see things are going well! Almost to Kansas, eh? This weekend I am hammering out the CO details. It would be lovely if someone could email me (aallen@obe...) to let me know if there are any changes to your schedule/planned arrival time (I have it as being the 28th.) I am also curious if Amy had any luck finding accomodations in the towns she was looking at. If not, I can try to find something.
Alright, I'll have more news on Sunday. Ride on!
Ashley A.
Hey kids--
Glad to hear you're still alive. The folks in Belleville and Smith Center Kansas are gearing up for some great workshops on environmental sustainability! woohoo!
Also, I had a dream about some of y'all last night and woke up missing biking. My legs are cramping, I think due to not quite enough exercize (you know, about 5-6 miles of jogging instead of 50-60miles of biking that you wonderfully strong people are doing). I think in my dream I threw a short bbq skewer (which resembled Linden's knitting needles) at John (no hard feelings, I hope, John?), and found myself crowded in one little bed with a whole lot of people from the trip. Sound familiar? :)
I'm headed out of the country tomorrow (to a holy land of many hills in the near east, where i'm *hoping* to join an anti-coal battle in ashkelon with a great student non-profit called Green Course) but i'll continue to check this site, so keep postin!
Stay safe, inspired, well-fed, and well-meaning! :)
Love,
Johanna
ps.yesterday (6/20) i heard a really great interview with Bob Criss, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Wash U @ St. Louis on PRI's "Here and Now" yesterday. he talked about the major flooding in iowa and missouri (hope you guys didn't get hit too hard). the prof was chiding commercial developers for paving and building on flood planes and formerly forested areas, and the government for building up levvies which constrict the rivers to artificially norrow spaces. he explained that prior to these developments the missouri and mississippi rivers were hardly affected by substantial rainfalls (like the 15 inches iowa received recently), since the water would be absorbed by the ground. he also said that many of the affected areas were not covered by manditory federal flood insurance because the kind of levies used there are deemed too small to indicate that any serious flooding could come to the areas they're supposed to protect, yet they are also too small to actually protect said areas from any extreme rise in the rivers, as the region saw this year, and back in 1993. it's a sad story (with a possible solution--stop building wal-marts, apartment buildings, parking lots, etc. on flood planes) that you guys should make sure to tell folks you meet on your trip.
link to interview with Bob Criss:
http://www.here-now.org/
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