Old Ways New Trip

Since returning from my cross Canada trip, I’ve been lazy in trying to keep up the three goals I had on my ride. Getting back on the trail has reminded me that I need to make someone smile, have a conversation with someone I don’t know, and help someone every day.

The hotel clerk where we stayed last night I helped smile, had a conversation with him, and tried to help. He was from India. His mother is coming for his graduation from college next month and he wanted to know where to take her to show her the United states. Which 10 square miles do you direct them towards of the 9 million square miles? We had a good visit and suggested Rocky Mountain National Park in the end.

We did not exactly rush out the door this morning but eventually reached the trailhead at about 9:30 in Pleasant Hill just a few miles Southeast of Kansas City. Our GPS told us the road was closed to the area we planned to park. Fortunately, despite the road closed sign, we ran into someone doing construction on the road and spoke with him. He said they just put those signs there so people don’t drive into the area when it’s raining like it was a few days ago. He said people keep thinking they can drive through and then they have to be rescued. That made us slightly nervous about being on the trail if it rained. Thankfully it did not rain, but there there was clearly a lot of standing water.

Despite the standing water the trail was in great condition. The views were beautiful as we could peek through the thick trees out into lush fields. There wasn’t a great deal of wildlife but we did enjoy some turtles along the way. Generally it was just a really pleasant ride, with nice weather in the sixties, and great company. In fact, I don’t think there was more than 3 minutes that we weren’t talking in the 8 hours of biking.

We pedaled about 45 Mi down The Rock Island spur Trail until it ran into the Katy trail. The Katy Trail was coming from the West where it started about 15 mi from our intersection. Thankfully there was a Sonic for a nice break and some food before we rode the next 20 miles over to Sedalia to reach our hotel.

On the trail today, we ran into a gentleman going the other direction but clearly on tour. We stopped and had a great chat with him. He’s eventually on his way through Pueblo and so I gave him information so that he could contact me when he arrives in Pueblo in a few weeks.

All three of us concluded how good people are as you get to experience them on a bike. We lamented the fact that so few people realize how many good people there are in the world, but that’s in part because they’re whirling past one another in cars and when they’re not in their cars they’re on their cell phones.