FOR OUR MOST RECENT BLOG POSTS, BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR NEW SITE: www.brubikers.com
It rained last night. We stayed dry but putting away a wet tent is a lot of fun! Haha! We climbed back out of Meramec State Park and headed on our way to Washington State Park. This was THE SCARIEST DAY from all three years. On County Road A there were mobile home trailers that looked uninhabitable. There were windows missing, doors missing, parts of the side of the trailers missing but people were still living in them. The Yards were full of junk and unmowed grass. It was really sad. The road was very curvy and hilly but the trailers and the roads weren't the scariest part. It was the worst day for dogs. We lost count of how many dogs ran out at us. One was a bullmastiff which was taller than us on the bike. At least there was a lady yelling at her dog which wasn't listening and then yelling for her husband who also wasn't listening. We could still hear her a mile away yelling. The next dogs that came out, with owners standing there who did nothing, was a muzzled pitbull and a mixed breed. They knew what they were doing because they got between Bob and I and were charging us. We were blowing our air horns and it would stop them for a second and then they would start charging again and we would blow again. Finally we got away from them! If a pitbull is muzzled it's probably bred for fighting. We have never rode our bikes in such a high alert state. We started quietly signaling whenever we saw a mailbox and we would try not to make a sound as we passed. A little chiwawa dog tried to run out but it couldn't get through the tall unmowed grass. When we turned off of this road things got much better however we were still on edge. As we passed a house we thought we heard somebody yell but we couldn't see anybody. Then a guy stepped out from his garage and said come here. He, another man and his wife talked to us for a while and gave us a cold can of Mountain Dew. They were very nice and said they had seen us a few days earlier in another town. Right before entering Washington State Park there was a Dollar General store so we stopped and got a couple supplies. When we pulled into the campground the camp host was right there and told us where we could camp. Jim Bolding, the camp host, came over and talked to us while we set up our tent. He covered our night's stay for us. Thank you Jim. Linda, her two grandchildren Mason and Lexie invited us to their campsite for supper. They were having brats, hotdogs, pizza Pudgy Pies and apple Pudgy Pies. We got our tent setup and headed down that way. It had thundered and sprinkled off and on all day. When we would arrive somewhere and talk to people they would tell us they had just had a terrible downpour and rain. We always seem to miss it thankfully. Everyone said it wasn't supposed to rain tonight. They were all wrong. It started to rain and rain and rain and we were unable to have our dinner with the neighbors. They ended up going home and left everything to come back tomorrow and clean up. By the time we got back to our campsite we were really wet and our tent was not in a good location. We picked it up and moved it to Higher Ground. Then we went under and awning and had Tuna on wraps for supper. It stormed all night! There were a few small leaks in the tent. We went 33 miles on very steep hills and I pulled the trailer/anchor all day. Bob wasn't feeling strong. It was in the upper 80s with the "real feel' in the mid-90s.
We went to the continental breakfast at the motel. Then we finished working on the blog before we left so we got a later start. The site crashed last night and my wonderful niece Allison finally was able to get it going again. We rode on historic Route 66 part of the way today. Two dogs came out on the road today one of them a pitbull. We started yelling and blowing the air horn . No one came out of a house to check on them and they kept following us and I kept blowing the horn. Finally they stopped. The next Campground seemed a bit too far since we got started late. So we stayed at Meramec State Park. It was over a mile climb to get to the campground. At one point it was so steep, worse than the Rockies, that my front tire was sliding sideways so I had to push my bike up the hill. Not fun! Our journey tomorrow will begin by climbing out of this place. It is very pretty. We used our jetboil Cook stove and had Cuban coconut black bean and rice for supper and a banana. No flat tire today! We were warned about raccoons at this state park so thank you to our neighbors Keith and Debbie let us put our food in the back of their pickup to keep it safe from the raccoons. That young adults camping behind us for the first time offered to blow up our air mattresses with their electric pump which doesn't work on our mattresses. So they gave Bob ice instead. When we asked the state park ranger what made them a handicap site he said we put a sign there. But then he gave us a discount and we used a regular site. It was sunny and hot in the upper 80s again today. I wore a long-sleeve shirt and capri pants because once again I have a sun rash and mosquito bites so my skin is all speckled. We rode 21 miles today.
We went to the continental breakfast at the motel. Then we finished working on the blog before we left so we got a later start. The site crashed last night and my wonderful niece Allison finally was able to get it going again. We rode on historic Route 66 part of the way today. Two dogs came out on the road today one of them a pitbull. We started yelling and blowing the air horn . No one came out of a house to check on them and they kept following us and I kept blowing the horn. Finally they stopped. The next Campground seemed a bit too far since we got started late. So we stayed at Meramec State Park. It was over a mile climb to get to the campground. At one point it was so steep, worse than the Rockies, that my front tire was sliding sideways so I had to push my bike up the hill. Not fun! Our journey tomorrow will begin by climbing out of this place. It is very pretty. We used our jetboil Cook stove and had Cuban coconut black bean and rice for supper and a banana. No flat tire today! It was sunny and hot in the upper 80s again today. I wore a long-sleeve shirt and capri pants because once again I have a sun rash and mosquito bites so my skin is all speckled. We rode 21 miles today
After leaving Marthasburg we headed to our last town on the Katy Trail, Dutzow. We said goodbye to the Katy Trail at Dutzow and headed on the road on route 47. For a couple of days we had heard how bad the bridge was going into Washington. It is very narrow with no shoulder and high-speed traffic. We were told buy a few cyclists to stop at Straatmann feed and ask a farmer with a pickup to take us over the bridge. So that is what we did. Amazingly our bikes fit in the back of the pickup and then drove us across the bridge. We paid Ben $20 for the ride. They are building a new bridge with a bike lane but it won't be done for 2 years. In the town of Washington I saw an Aldi's grocery store so we pulled over to get some bananas. While Bob was sitting on his bike waiting for me, several people came up and talked to him. One gentleman asked if he could pray for us and gave us $20, exactly what we had paid to get across the bridge! Later in the day while going uphill I got another flat on the same tire! I had to pull my bike with the trailer/anchor the rest of the way up the hill to a turn off. That way we could be off the highway to fix the tire AGAIN! After dodging dead armadillos on the shoulder of the highway that was very busy we decided to call it a day at St.Clair. We got a motel and I even went for a swim. One tire tube was all we had left with no bike shops in route for many miles. I was very nervous about this. We called a bike shop and they came and delivered 3 tubes to the motel for a price. That gave us peace of mind. It was in the upper 80s and sunny. |