We're all packed and getting ready to leave my grandpa's house in Newton. We're headed for Hutchinson tonight, and we will stay at First Mennonite Church there. We'll try to keep you updated from the road!
heidi
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
more photos from Council Grove to Newton
I meant to throw this one in earlier - me riding on the Lawrence bike path
Matthew doesn't believe in Gatorade - only Mountain Dew.
Trusty Betse outside of Herington
Matthew fixing a flat outside of Herington
If you can't tell, it says "Herington - you're right where you want to be."
Matthew with his grandparents, Lenora and Don, in Hillsboro
Photos from Council Grove
A wagon at a historical marker in Council Grove.
Downtown Council Grove
The Last Chance Store
It seemed like every hill around Council Grove and Osage City had these metal figures on top of them - sometimes a whole wagon train of them.
Another historical marker for the Santa Fe Trail - right outside Council Grove
Photos from Northern Kansas
Lone Star Lake
Globe, Kansas
Cold Kansas morning outside Globe
Council Grove, KS - Santa Fe trail marker
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Since bicycles
Okay, folks, we're now on bicycles. After an easy 20 miles into Lawrence (Heidi's mother dropped us off) we stayed with our friends CJ and Allie for a day while the rain passed over head.
After that we headed down to Lone Star Lake, 28 miles of hills away, in hopes of a relaxing night of camping. As it turnes out, the campsite closed several days before we got there. No, the state-park service did not mention that on their website. Not wanting to break the law, Heidi called the sheriff's department and asked if we could stay there anyway since we don't have any options. They said, "No" and at that time the phone service cut out. After some debate as to our next step, I mosied up to a trailer home-with a very large lawn and several picnic tables- on park land and asked if there was any place that we might camp out that night (hint hint). The man said, "No there wasn't a place to camp because the campsite was closed, but if it were him he'd try it anyway because sometimes the sheriff doesn't mind"........ 'Thanks alot', I thought. Let it be known that I will now extend hospitality to all travelers in need and who aren't dangerous. We ended up "sleeping" in one of the bathrooms at the lake. It's not as bad as it sounds. It was clean, didn't smell and it was dry. The only trouble was that every time I heard a car drive by I was afraid that it was the sheriff and he was going to kick us out. That and there were guns going off all night. I didn't sleep much that night.
Seven AM-after all of three hours of sleep-the next morning I said, "Heidi, let's just go." And we did. We started biking and 15 miles later we stopped in Overbrook, Kansas and had a great breakfast at Shirley's Corner, a wonderful little old-school diner that serves great biscuits and gravy. The waiter told us that cyclists sleep in the city park all the time, so after our nourishing breakfast (less than $10.00 for both of us) we headed off to the park, rolled the sleeping bags out in the sun and slept for about two hours. A nice way to spend the late morning. We ended up in Osage City (45 miles) and camped out behind the police department. It wasn't a bad place to be: there was a gas station next door, well groomed lawn and a grocery store accross the way.
About 11:00 am the next morning we took off for Council Grove (35 miles). There were very many hills and much gnashing of teeth (more panting then gnashing). Council Grove has a great atmosphere. I don't know what it is, but it's a nice place. The air smells sweet. We stopped for a large soda and headed to my favorite campsite so far: Council Grove Lake. Council Grove Lake has showers, and heat lamps in the shower rooms, and a nice lake. It was heavenly to shave, shower and then watch the sun set over the lake. I felt like a real person for the first time in days. We ate falafel and hummus for dinner and slept 12 hours. Thank goodness for this camp site.
Matthew
After that we headed down to Lone Star Lake, 28 miles of hills away, in hopes of a relaxing night of camping. As it turnes out, the campsite closed several days before we got there. No, the state-park service did not mention that on their website. Not wanting to break the law, Heidi called the sheriff's department and asked if we could stay there anyway since we don't have any options. They said, "No" and at that time the phone service cut out. After some debate as to our next step, I mosied up to a trailer home-with a very large lawn and several picnic tables- on park land and asked if there was any place that we might camp out that night (hint hint). The man said, "No there wasn't a place to camp because the campsite was closed, but if it were him he'd try it anyway because sometimes the sheriff doesn't mind"........ 'Thanks alot', I thought. Let it be known that I will now extend hospitality to all travelers in need and who aren't dangerous. We ended up "sleeping" in one of the bathrooms at the lake. It's not as bad as it sounds. It was clean, didn't smell and it was dry. The only trouble was that every time I heard a car drive by I was afraid that it was the sheriff and he was going to kick us out. That and there were guns going off all night. I didn't sleep much that night.
Seven AM-after all of three hours of sleep-the next morning I said, "Heidi, let's just go." And we did. We started biking and 15 miles later we stopped in Overbrook, Kansas and had a great breakfast at Shirley's Corner, a wonderful little old-school diner that serves great biscuits and gravy. The waiter told us that cyclists sleep in the city park all the time, so after our nourishing breakfast (less than $10.00 for both of us) we headed off to the park, rolled the sleeping bags out in the sun and slept for about two hours. A nice way to spend the late morning. We ended up in Osage City (45 miles) and camped out behind the police department. It wasn't a bad place to be: there was a gas station next door, well groomed lawn and a grocery store accross the way.
About 11:00 am the next morning we took off for Council Grove (35 miles). There were very many hills and much gnashing of teeth (more panting then gnashing). Council Grove has a great atmosphere. I don't know what it is, but it's a nice place. The air smells sweet. We stopped for a large soda and headed to my favorite campsite so far: Council Grove Lake. Council Grove Lake has showers, and heat lamps in the shower rooms, and a nice lake. It was heavenly to shave, shower and then watch the sun set over the lake. I felt like a real person for the first time in days. We ate falafel and hummus for dinner and slept 12 hours. Thank goodness for this camp site.
Matthew
"Hey, do you guys, like, live on those things?"
Hello all! We're in Hillsboro, Kansas today, staying with Matthew's grandparents and letting our muscles rest a spell. Don, Matthew's grandpa, has a birthday coming up and they're celebrating it tonight. We rode almost 70 miles yesterday, from Council Grove to here, getting in around 5:30 pm. The weather was perfect - not much of a wind, cool temperatures, and sunny skies. Highway 56 from Council Grove to Herington was beautiful too - not very many cars, and the hills seem to have gotten a bit smaller. Matt got a flat tire a few miles outside of Herington, which we patched before continuing on.
We went to the grocery store for some snacks when we got to Herington, and found a park across the street to sit down in. As we parked our bikes, two nine year old kids on BMX bikes came up to us and asked, "hey, do you guys, like, live on those things?" I replied that we did for now, and that we were headed to Albuquerque, to which they responded, "that's like, a long way away." They came back over and talked some more as we were leaving.
The last stretch into Hillsboro was also beautiful, but the traffic increased significantly, and I found myself speeding along to keep up with it a bit more. We both started feeling really tired and dehydrated around Marion, and we took some short breaks as we continued into Hillsboro. It's hard to drink enough when you can't tell that you've been sweating. We were running low on granola bars, and it was expensive to buy snickers bars at gas stations, so I bought a bag of mini-Snickers bars in Osage City at the grocery store. In some ways that was smart, because it didn't commit us to eating a big snickers bar, but I think the high fructose corn syrup in them wasn't giving my body the energy it needed, and I just felt hungry afterwards. I'm going to try to avoid them from now on.
This is a rather disconnected post, but I feel the campground at Council Grove lake deserves some recognition, because it was AMAZING. The primitive camping area was right next to the lake, with a mulch area for setting up tents (our tent didn't quite fit, but the thought was nice) and a beautiful new shower house with coil heating lamps above the showers. It felt so nice to be clean again, and I dried my hair under the hand dryer so I wouldn't get cold.
heidi
We went to the grocery store for some snacks when we got to Herington, and found a park across the street to sit down in. As we parked our bikes, two nine year old kids on BMX bikes came up to us and asked, "hey, do you guys, like, live on those things?" I replied that we did for now, and that we were headed to Albuquerque, to which they responded, "that's like, a long way away." They came back over and talked some more as we were leaving.
The last stretch into Hillsboro was also beautiful, but the traffic increased significantly, and I found myself speeding along to keep up with it a bit more. We both started feeling really tired and dehydrated around Marion, and we took some short breaks as we continued into Hillsboro. It's hard to drink enough when you can't tell that you've been sweating. We were running low on granola bars, and it was expensive to buy snickers bars at gas stations, so I bought a bag of mini-Snickers bars in Osage City at the grocery store. In some ways that was smart, because it didn't commit us to eating a big snickers bar, but I think the high fructose corn syrup in them wasn't giving my body the energy it needed, and I just felt hungry afterwards. I'm going to try to avoid them from now on.
This is a rather disconnected post, but I feel the campground at Council Grove lake deserves some recognition, because it was AMAZING. The primitive camping area was right next to the lake, with a mulch area for setting up tents (our tent didn't quite fit, but the thought was nice) and a beautiful new shower house with coil heating lamps above the showers. It felt so nice to be clean again, and I dried my hair under the hand dryer so I wouldn't get cold.
heidi
Monday, October 22, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Change in plans
After some time off to let my blister heal, we are on the road again. We've had to abandon our plans of walking (for now) as it would only re-open my bad blister, so we're continuing by bicycle. We will be starting in the Kansas City area tomorrow, and we'll continue south and west from there, still following our original route. As we will be traveling much faster on two wheels, we're hoping to explore some national parks in southern New Mexico after we reach Albuquerque.
Today we had a training ride from Wichita to Newton, about 37 miles. Luckily, we had a strong tail wind for the first 25 of them, and only a crosswind for the remainder. We met three cross-country bicyclists outside of Elbing who were headed for Virginia (they started in Oregon), and chatted with them for awhile. It was good to see that other folks are still riding at this time of year.
We're excited to be continuing, and glad that the blisters have almost all healed!
heidi
Today we had a training ride from Wichita to Newton, about 37 miles. Luckily, we had a strong tail wind for the first 25 of them, and only a crosswind for the remainder. We met three cross-country bicyclists outside of Elbing who were headed for Virginia (they started in Oregon), and chatted with them for awhile. It was good to see that other folks are still riding at this time of year.
We're excited to be continuing, and glad that the blisters have almost all healed!
heidi
Friday, October 19, 2007
Katy Trail: Treloar to McKittrick
Farmland along the Katy
Farms, and a stretch without trees - painfully hot on a day with no shade.
A snake Matthew almost stepped on. We think it was a cottonmouth.
Matthew posing proudly next to the town with his name.
The Katy Trail
Bluffs along the Katy Trail
Way cool bikecycle
Walking into Treloar
My pitiful feet. The little toe with the arrow is the one that gave me all the problems.
Some photos from the beginning of our walk!
Sorry for the long delay between posts - we've had some changes in plans, and we'll update you on those in a bit. But first - some long awaited photos from the beginning of our walk.
At the St Louis Arch
Rachel and Sam, our friends in St. Louis
At the trailhead outside of St. Charles - as Sam pulled away, he called out "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." Never had those words seemed so true.
One and a half miles into the trip - Matt poses by the trailhead in St Charles.
At the St Louis Arch
Rachel and Sam, our friends in St. Louis
At the trailhead outside of St. Charles - as Sam pulled away, he called out "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." Never had those words seemed so true.
One and a half miles into the trip - Matt poses by the trailhead in St Charles.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Hermann, Missouri
We're in Hermann, Missouri, enjoying the cold front that finally came through and having an enjoyable time exploring the town, despite some blisters and other aches and pains (more on this later.)
We started at mile marker 38, a little before St Charles, last Wednesday morning. For the first several miles, we were in the suburbs on St Louis and pedestrian traffic on the trail abounded, albeit mostly bicyclists. I started adjusting my pack and shoes approximately 2 minutes after Sam dropped us off and haven't really stopped doing that! The trail was beautiful, and so was the weather. Unfortunately, the first town with water on the Katy was 21 miles away from us, at Defiance. We made it 18 miles the first day, and had to camp at the Weldon Springs trailhead that night. A blister that had started forming early in the day on my pinky toe popped about a mile before camp, and I limped the last bit. We hadn't really planned on walking that far the first day, but because of limited water options, we had to. The next morning, we had just enough water to get to the next town.
We walked around 8 miles the next day, to the Klondike County Park. It was fairly hot and very humid, and we didn't want to push it too much. The park was terrific, with nice showers and campsites, but the mosquitos were terrible! We began the next day in much better spirits, and took off for Marthasville, which was around 14 miles away. We got started a little later than we had hoped, and spent some time exploring the town of Augusta for lunch, so it was nearly dusk when we got to the baseball diamond in Marthasville and set up camp.
On Saturday we walked from Marthasville to Treloar, where the owner of the local bar and grill allowed us to camp behind the restaurant. Camping was marked as available on the official Katy Trail map, but we never found where it was at. We managed to fall asleep despite the noisy Saturday night activities going on all around us, and woke up before dawn to try to get to the town of McKittrick before the afternoon heat. Sunday was my favorite day on the trail, as the views of the bluffs and the river were beautiful and our early start afforded us more shade. I was able to ignore my blisters until we got there with the aid of an extra ibuprofen, but by the time we finished my feet were on fire. We ended up deciding to stay the night across the river in Hermann and take a rest day to let our blisters recover.
All of our blisters have been healing quite nicely except the initial one on my pinky toe, which is needing a few more days without my boots and the weight of my pack, so we will be taking a brief hiatus to allow it to heal. We'll keep you updated on our plans.
heidi
We started at mile marker 38, a little before St Charles, last Wednesday morning. For the first several miles, we were in the suburbs on St Louis and pedestrian traffic on the trail abounded, albeit mostly bicyclists. I started adjusting my pack and shoes approximately 2 minutes after Sam dropped us off and haven't really stopped doing that! The trail was beautiful, and so was the weather. Unfortunately, the first town with water on the Katy was 21 miles away from us, at Defiance. We made it 18 miles the first day, and had to camp at the Weldon Springs trailhead that night. A blister that had started forming early in the day on my pinky toe popped about a mile before camp, and I limped the last bit. We hadn't really planned on walking that far the first day, but because of limited water options, we had to. The next morning, we had just enough water to get to the next town.
We walked around 8 miles the next day, to the Klondike County Park. It was fairly hot and very humid, and we didn't want to push it too much. The park was terrific, with nice showers and campsites, but the mosquitos were terrible! We began the next day in much better spirits, and took off for Marthasville, which was around 14 miles away. We got started a little later than we had hoped, and spent some time exploring the town of Augusta for lunch, so it was nearly dusk when we got to the baseball diamond in Marthasville and set up camp.
On Saturday we walked from Marthasville to Treloar, where the owner of the local bar and grill allowed us to camp behind the restaurant. Camping was marked as available on the official Katy Trail map, but we never found where it was at. We managed to fall asleep despite the noisy Saturday night activities going on all around us, and woke up before dawn to try to get to the town of McKittrick before the afternoon heat. Sunday was my favorite day on the trail, as the views of the bluffs and the river were beautiful and our early start afforded us more shade. I was able to ignore my blisters until we got there with the aid of an extra ibuprofen, but by the time we finished my feet were on fire. We ended up deciding to stay the night across the river in Hermann and take a rest day to let our blisters recover.
All of our blisters have been healing quite nicely except the initial one on my pinky toe, which is needing a few more days without my boots and the weight of my pack, so we will be taking a brief hiatus to allow it to heal. We'll keep you updated on our plans.
heidi
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
St. Louis
Right now we are in St. Louis staying with our friends Sam and Rachel Voth Schrag. Sam is a Pastor at the local Mennonite church, and Rachel is a MSW student at Washington University. We ate sushi and played Settler's of Catan. It was a nice domestic end to our pre-walk time.
We have enjoyed the last week of preparation. I'm anticipating that the break in period will be a painful, yet enjoyable experience. We start tomorrow tomorrow about 8:00am at the Katy Trail trail head just outside of St. Louis.
Matthew
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My parent's drove us out to St Louis today with their dog Hanna in tow, and we arrived at the house of my friends Rachel and Sam early this evening. It's nice to start the walk after visiting with old friends! We took some pictures by the St Louis Arch and watched Hanna play in the sand on the banks of the Mississippi River.
It's hard to believe we're starting tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be real enough after 15 miles tomorrow!
heidi
We have enjoyed the last week of preparation. I'm anticipating that the break in period will be a painful, yet enjoyable experience. We start tomorrow tomorrow about 8:00am at the Katy Trail trail head just outside of St. Louis.
Matthew
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My parent's drove us out to St Louis today with their dog Hanna in tow, and we arrived at the house of my friends Rachel and Sam early this evening. It's nice to start the walk after visiting with old friends! We took some pictures by the St Louis Arch and watched Hanna play in the sand on the banks of the Mississippi River.
It's hard to believe we're starting tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be real enough after 15 miles tomorrow!
heidi
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