Day Eighty Eight

Friday, June 17, 2011
Distance: 12 Miles

I find it hard to marshall my will after my brief stays in cities. I did not go very far today and I did it slowly as well.


Brush Creek, on my path out of Kansas City


Statue at intersection


One of many lining the street outside KC.

My path now runs along the Santa Fe Trail.


I tried to locate a pair of shorts I prefer without success.

Sunset:

Day Eighty Five & Eighty Six & Eighty Seven

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Distance: 0 Miles

These three days were spent enjoying Kansas City. I visited the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. These are some of the works that captured my fancy.








Later in the day, I returned to Country Club Plaza. Kansas City has between hundreds and thousands of fountains. No one is quite sure.


I saw a special screening of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.





The theater was packed. Peter Jackson said nice things to us. It was three plus hours. It was grand. I went back my room for the night, and snapped a fountain of Poseidon.





The next day, I visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.


Panorama:
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

I was struck by this landscape. The scale and scope of this landscape exists in this painting.


I watched movies in the evening and kicked around for the next days. Pictures of Country Club Plaza, which was the first shopping mall designed to expressly accommodate automobiles; all the buildings are built employing stucco and Spanish tile.


























Stucco, brick, profile bust relief, parking behind.


Column tile detail


Apple Store


Parking Garage


Stairway


Aerie sculpture in bronze


Sunset, parking structure


Fountain, mother and child


Storefront, bell tower





Sunset, street lights


Corner

Day Eighty Four

Monday, June 13, 2011
Train: 158 Miles

The weather was poor today: rainy and storming. I was feeling low and sequestered to my room. These are numbing and dangerous feelings for me. I choose, at a late moment, to move on and avoid the weather. I hopped onto the morning Amtrak train and rode it to Kansas City. I got out at beautiful Union Station and plotted the cities attractions and where to stay. I choose the museum and shopping district. I found the bus, latched my bike to the front rack (incompetently), and transited south. I got out and booked my room at the Courtyard. I ate dinner at a fabulous steakhouse: Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue. I returned to my room and watched X-Files episodes and went to sleep.

Day Eighty Three

Sunday, June 12, 2011
Distance: 0 Miles

Today I rested.

Day Eighty Two

Saturday, June 11, 2011
Distance: 29 Miles
Train: 47 Miles

Today started poorly. My bathroom locked itself, with me outside if it, twice. Once in the evening and once in the morning. It was a chore to pick. I was gripped with despair until it did eventually spring open as relief washed over me. I tried to make a reservation in Hermann, MO, but the listed, published phone number was connected to a modem. I made a request on their website successfully, but received no confirmation. My first stop was to replace my broken plastic pedals with sturdy metal pedals. I learned of a gentleman biking the country. A gentleman who had done it as a younger man, was six foot five, on a titanium road bike, and cranking out 160 miles a day. Wow.

When I made to Hermann along State 100, of course there were no vacancies and the clerk was unhelpful and confused and prickly. I wandered back toward the Amtrak station, calling local B&Bs along the way with no options, and lucked out with an incoming Missouri River Runner Amtrak train ready to whisk me along to the next stop, Missouri's state capital Jefferson City. We pulled up to the station, I exited and passed the Governor's Mansion and the Capitol Building on my way to my hotel. I ate dinner in the top floor observation restaurant as the sunset. It was a warm ending to a pockmarked day.

Day Eighty One

Friday, June 10, 2011
Distance: 40 Miles



Waterfall in Creve Coeur Park. Legend tells that the waterfall's water flows from the tears of a heartbroken Native American princess who lost a lover in battle.


Connecting to the Katy trail.

Today I linked up with the Katy (MKT: Missouri-Kansas-Texas) Trail. It is a rail trail which runs along the Missouri River's riparian plain. The crushed rock path was slower than the pavement I was used to riding upon. I took the trail for quite a while, sat through a thunder storm, crossed a busy two-lane bridge over the Missouri river and pulled in for the night.

Day Eighty

Thursday, June 9, 2011
Distance: 18 Miles

Today I met my friend Mark Andrews for lunch.








He was working on tornado and hail damage assessment done to the St. Louis airport. We ate at Lombardo's, an Italian restaurant with an overactive waitress. I was underdressed in sweaty Under Armour and shorts wearing my Donkey Kong t-shirt.











I made my way through and out from St. Louis and was stymied by the heat. I chose to stay at a Drury Inn out of curiosity. They were all over St. Louis.

Denver

I've been water-boarding (haha, jokes) myself with Diet Coke for the past 36 hours and I am now living Mountain Time in Denver, Colorado. More to come - sleep, hopefully immediately.