To the ARCH and St. Charles, MO - July 2nd
Up at 5:00AM and down to the river. I wanted to get by the arch and out of the water as quick as possible.
Doing this today is going to work out for the best, for it is Sunday and I should have less traffic on my bike portage over to St. Charles.
Got in the water around 6:00 and worked my way towards the arch. Just a beautiful morning. What a sight when I first saw the arch glistening in the sun. Snapped a couple of pictures and continued to work my way to the front of the arch. This is something to see and hopefully my pictures do it some justice.
Well, the first chapter is history. It went a whole lot better than I expected. When I first started out, like I've said before, I was hoping to get as far as Paducah, but once I got a handle on what one could do in a day, the goal became St. Louis.
Now I must get over to St. Charles and find a place to store my gear before I leave for home tomorrow. I'm going to St. Charles because it's close to the airport and it gives me a chance to scout out the Missouri River. The plan is to take 180 through St. Louis to the 370 Missouri bridge and onto the KATY Bike Trail which is part of the Lewis and Clark Bike Trail and runs from St. Charles to Kansas City.
Got to St. Charles with little trouble. Again, being Sunday, there was little traffic. As I came down off the370 bridge, signs directed me to the KATY Trail. The trail had an excellent dirt hard pan surface and was very easy to ride on. A lot better than the C&O trail along the Potomac River. As I approached town I ran into Erv Ermeling who was part of what I assumed was a large 4th of July volunteer group preparing for the day's events along the waterfront.
Once Erv understood what I was doing he introduced me to Linda Roche, T.S. Slattery and Larry Muench. Larry was a City Council member and after pictures he took off in a golf cart and came back with a city pin, which I wore proudly all day and will on my way home to Superior.
St. Charles is a neat town. So far my favorite. The above people and I'm sure many others have done a fantastic job in organizing this 4th of July event which goes on for three days. It's easy to tell they are very proud of their community and rightly so. Along with the nice waterfront it has a neat historic district and for the gamblers, a huge riverboat casino.
It also has the perfect place for the storing of my gear! Bob Maxwell has been real concerned about what I was going to do and I'm sure wondering why I wasn't. Over the years I've learned not to bother worrying about such things. For some reason everything seems to work out. If not, back to re-adjusting! In this case it worked out again, for I found a motel right next door to a Bass Pro Store! Yep, they greeted me with open arms and said they'ed be honored to store my gear until I got back.
Over the years I've bought a lot of hunting gear from Bass Pro. My wife LuAnn and our good friends, Charlie and JoAnn Wright go to Branson, MO every spring and always make the stop in Springfield, MO at the orginal Bass Pro Store. Anyone who's a hunter or fisherman or just plain outdoors person must at least once go to Springfield and visit Bass Pro. If not Springfield then to St. Charles. This is an awfully nice store. (Good thing I'm traveling lite) Thanks to Matt Prost for making this possible, and also to Bret Donaldson, Brian Belter, Matt Beckman and Rich Dalton.
As much as I look forward to going home, I also look forward to my return to St. Charles. I plan on spending a day here before I start out and I hope I get to see Erv, Linda, T.S. Larry and the Bass Pro people again. Maybe even make a dollar or two at the casino!
Time to get to the motel and rest up, enjoy the evening and head home in the morning.
I will be at home for three weeks and returning to St. Charles on July 23. In the next day or so I will post some of my reflections about this first segment of the trip.
Again, thanks to all of you who I've met along the way. I will not forget you.
COACH
Doing this today is going to work out for the best, for it is Sunday and I should have less traffic on my bike portage over to St. Charles.
Got in the water around 6:00 and worked my way towards the arch. Just a beautiful morning. What a sight when I first saw the arch glistening in the sun. Snapped a couple of pictures and continued to work my way to the front of the arch. This is something to see and hopefully my pictures do it some justice.
Well, the first chapter is history. It went a whole lot better than I expected. When I first started out, like I've said before, I was hoping to get as far as Paducah, but once I got a handle on what one could do in a day, the goal became St. Louis.
Now I must get over to St. Charles and find a place to store my gear before I leave for home tomorrow. I'm going to St. Charles because it's close to the airport and it gives me a chance to scout out the Missouri River. The plan is to take 180 through St. Louis to the 370 Missouri bridge and onto the KATY Bike Trail which is part of the Lewis and Clark Bike Trail and runs from St. Charles to Kansas City.
Got to St. Charles with little trouble. Again, being Sunday, there was little traffic. As I came down off the370 bridge, signs directed me to the KATY Trail. The trail had an excellent dirt hard pan surface and was very easy to ride on. A lot better than the C&O trail along the Potomac River. As I approached town I ran into Erv Ermeling who was part of what I assumed was a large 4th of July volunteer group preparing for the day's events along the waterfront.
Once Erv understood what I was doing he introduced me to Linda Roche, T.S. Slattery and Larry Muench. Larry was a City Council member and after pictures he took off in a golf cart and came back with a city pin, which I wore proudly all day and will on my way home to Superior.
St. Charles is a neat town. So far my favorite. The above people and I'm sure many others have done a fantastic job in organizing this 4th of July event which goes on for three days. It's easy to tell they are very proud of their community and rightly so. Along with the nice waterfront it has a neat historic district and for the gamblers, a huge riverboat casino.
It also has the perfect place for the storing of my gear! Bob Maxwell has been real concerned about what I was going to do and I'm sure wondering why I wasn't. Over the years I've learned not to bother worrying about such things. For some reason everything seems to work out. If not, back to re-adjusting! In this case it worked out again, for I found a motel right next door to a Bass Pro Store! Yep, they greeted me with open arms and said they'ed be honored to store my gear until I got back.
Over the years I've bought a lot of hunting gear from Bass Pro. My wife LuAnn and our good friends, Charlie and JoAnn Wright go to Branson, MO every spring and always make the stop in Springfield, MO at the orginal Bass Pro Store. Anyone who's a hunter or fisherman or just plain outdoors person must at least once go to Springfield and visit Bass Pro. If not Springfield then to St. Charles. This is an awfully nice store. (Good thing I'm traveling lite) Thanks to Matt Prost for making this possible, and also to Bret Donaldson, Brian Belter, Matt Beckman and Rich Dalton.
As much as I look forward to going home, I also look forward to my return to St. Charles. I plan on spending a day here before I start out and I hope I get to see Erv, Linda, T.S. Larry and the Bass Pro people again. Maybe even make a dollar or two at the casino!
Time to get to the motel and rest up, enjoy the evening and head home in the morning.
I will be at home for three weeks and returning to St. Charles on July 23. In the next day or so I will post some of my reflections about this first segment of the trip.
Again, thanks to all of you who I've met along the way. I will not forget you.
COACH
posted by Coach at 5:28 AM
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