Clinton to Tulsa (or, The Rural Midwest is Not Built for Cyclists)

Leaving the Katy Trail was a pretty sad moment. It had been really nice to transition back into the ride by having a safe and scenic route to bike, but alas, all good things must come to an end. We left the Clinton Community Center with a general route planned to get us to Tulsa. The route was mostly hilly and we had a headwind that left us mentally exhausted by the end of the day, luckily the day ended well. While we were at a gas station refilling water a couple approached us and asked us about our ride. After some chatting they left, but soon returned and asked if we needed a place to stay. We gladly accepted, after the rough day we had it was nice to be indoors and have a warm bed. We biked the final four miles or so to their house as the sun set.

Herb and Diane (our unexpected hosts for the night) were a wonderful couple and really the definition of Christ’s teachings. It was clear from the books in the house and our conversations that they were Christian but we never felt like we were being pressured or converted. They had a warm, loving presence about them that was filled with a genuine desire to help others. We see a wide variety of people on our ride who express different religious and ethical foundations, but oftentimes their words and actions contradict each other. And, of course, we see such poisonous versions of Christianity every time we watch anything to do with politics. I really don’t think any political candidates are true followers of Christ and I often wonder how politically active individuals can reconcile their religious ethics with the vile actions and words spoken by politicians. I know there is a verse or two that states Christians should obey their government because it was put in place by God, but I think this is lazy and antithetical to the teachings of Christ. If man’s law is violating the teachings of Christ then Christians should violate man’s law. The heart of Christianity is anarchy towards the state, and I’d love to see that play out more vocally among today’s religious leaders.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. We had a truly lovely time with Herb and Diane at their home. They left us with some wonderful apples and pecans picked from their land and it was such a treat to meet them. I hope we can stay in touch and spend some more time together in the future.

After leaving their home we kept peddling along a similar path with hills and headwinds until we crossed into Kansas (State #13!!!!) in the evening. We slept on the side of the road and spent the early part of the next day biking to Fort Scott, Kansas where we set up camp at Gunn Park for two nights. The park was beautiful and allowed tent camping for only $5, a real good deal for us. It is really fortunate when we come across cities that actually encourage people to visit and spend money instead of passing laws that push us to the side of the road to sleep.

Our time in Fort Scott was spent working with little to report. The roads started getting noticeably unfriendly to bikes with limited shoulders and lots of debris. We ended up spending the next night in a hotel in Pittsburg (something we hate to do) due to lack of safe options.  After leaving Pittsburg things started getting worse. The weather started raining on us and we started popping tubes pretty regularly all the way down to Tulsa. The next few days of travel into Oklahoma were some of the worst we had dealt with in a long time. Not only was the terrain hell on our equipment (we had more flats during this 150 miles than we did the entire 3,700 miles before it) but the roads were seriously dangerous.

I almost got hit by a car while biking in the shoulder because a car decided to use the shoulder to pass someone. If I had not turned around to check my distance between Anna and I, saw the car, and swerved into the grass hill (hardly a safe move but instinct took over and it was safer than staying put) it is very likely Higgins would be dead and I would be seriously injured or dead. This instance made Anna and I really discuss how we are going to move forward on the bike ride. Ever since leaving Indiana we have really been rolling the dice with our safety and it has reached a point where we mentally can’t keep it up. After getting to Dallas we are going to really look into routing and plan more carefully. Our method of just plugging in cities we want to visit on Google Maps isn’t going to work down south where the infrastructure and culture is very anti-cyclist and anti-pedestrian. This means we are going to need to cut any cities off our list that we don’t have a great desire to visit (like Asheville, NC) or have a safe place to stay for 4-5 days or both. It just isn’t worth the risk, mental anguish, and time suck to visit most cities anymore while on the bike ride. We will need to just visit those cities at another time.

When we finally arrived in Tulsa we stayed at the beautiful home of one of my college classmates. Shannon and her husband Jerry were incredibly kind and generous to let us take over their spare bedroom for a night and we had such a wonderful time chatting with them. It was also incredibly informative for us because we talked a bit about the perception people have of our lives and travels. It seems that there are a lot of assumptions about what we do, who we do, and the nature of our relationship. The fault probably falls on me for that one, but if anyone has any questions we are an open book so feel free to message me or something.

We really wish we could have stayed longer in Tulsa and spent more time with Shannon and Jerry, and visited with other friends in Tulsa. Luckily, we will be back in December when we drive up to St. Louis for the holidays. During that time we will have the freedom to visit more and relax a bit. Now, we are on our way to Dallas where we will be spending two months working, relaxing, trying not to get fat, and visiting with friends and family.

On the Road Again… Leg 3 Begins

After 17 days in St. Louis we got back on the road again. The days we spent in St. Louis were fairly productive. We were able to get a new rack and pannier’s for Anna, get both of our bikes tuned up, finished a lot of work, and spent a little time relaxing. I even put on 10 lbs, which I hope is mostly water and glycogen but probably came from some fat as well. It was really nice to see some family and friends, and just relax physically and mentally a bit. We were pretty anxious to get back on the road though, and were happy to get moving.

It became quickly obvious on our first day out (10/4/2015) that our muscles had weakened a bit. We slowly moved our way across the western edge of St. Louis and eventually got on the Katy Trail, a magic route that will take us most of the way across the state. The trail is crushed limestone, which is not nearly as nice as concrete but it is way better than loose gravel. The dust from it gets everywhere and is kind of like Playa dust, but being away from traffic is priceless. We didn’t make a lot of miles that first day, but we are happy. For the first time in a while we are not in any kind of rush. We found a place on the side of the trail to set up our tent and we let the soothing sounds of strange and (probably) deadly animals lull is to sleep.

The next day our bodies ached worse than they had in months. It seemed every muscle and joint was beaten to oblivion during the mild 35 mile ride the day before. We got back on the trail and just kept pounding out the miles going west. The pace was slow and we took a lot of breaks to ease back into it. This gave us a lot of opportunities to talk to people. The Katy Trail was packed with all kinds of riders. After 30 miles we came upon Marthaville, Missouri, a city that I actually slept in years ago on my cross-country tour. We set up our tent in a park with a bunch of other tourists, Marthaville is one of those amazing cities that allows you to tent camp for free in the parks. The park even had electricity and bathrooms, a rare luxury for people like us.

The ride across Missouri was supposed to be an easy 7-10 days for us, at least logistically. All we needed to do was stay on the Katy Trail, visit Columbia for a few days for work, and then press on to Kansas City. Things didn’t really work out that way.

On our second day on the trail we started to worry a bit about Columbia. We couldn’t find any Couchsurfing or Warm Showers hosts, and there were not any campgrounds in the city. We decided to check for some cheap hotels (a last resort for us), but even that was coming up empty. It was at that point that we realized we were coming into Columbia the same weekend Mizzou was having homecoming… basically, a disaster for us. We brainstormed and decided to change our schedule, instead of stopping in Columbia for a few days we would stop early in Jefferson City, get a cheap hotel, and work while killing time. That way we could leave Jefferson City and be biking through the weekend and arrive in Columbia for one day of exploring and such on Monday. It was more expensive and inconvenient than we had planned but it was our least bad option.

We pressed on and eventually got to our hotel in Jefferson City (despite some shitty San Francisco level hills) on the 8^th. We stayed for two nights, worked a bit, and did errands like laundry and grocery shopping. We got back on the trail on the 10^th and planned on camping at the free park in Hartsburg, the same place I camped three years ago on my cross country ride. At this point we hit another snag, it turns out that the 10^th and 11^th is the annual Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival that brings around 50,000 people into the small 105 person town. The place was insane. The place we wanted to camp was not going to work. So, we made the best of it and explored the festival for a bit. It turns out that festivals in the middle of the rural Midwest don’t really offer very many vegan food options. They do, however, have a lot of Confederate flags… so that was off-putting. We hit the road quickly for the next town where a campground was supposed to exist.

It didn’t exist.

We found the site of the old campground but there was no sign of life. There also were no people in the town that we could ask, the one store that existed was closed. We decided to just relax for a couple of hours and set up our tent at the abandoned campground, obviously nobody would even notice or care.

It turns out the property owner noticed and cared, but she didn’t express her problems until well after dark and after we had our tent set up. She came up to us and talked, she clearly wasn’t happy but reluctantly allowed us to camp for the night. We appreciated her generosity and all, it would have been a huge pain to tear down camp in the dark and try to find some other place to camp. The next day was only a 15 mile ride to a campground where we would base out of to visit Columbia. We did have a rare treat in the morning, there was a pretty decent Thai place along the trail. It was a nice change of pace from our regular meals.

We decided to spend the next two nights at Katfish Katy, a cool little campground on the Missouri River right next to the MKT Trail, which connects to Columbia. This gave us time to relax a bit, get some work done (they didn’t have WiFi but the magic of our phones and a Verizon jetpack keep us pretty connected) and leave our stuff in a safe place when we bike the 10 miles into Columbia.

Columbia was a really good time, though one day really wasn’t enough. We celebrated my (Peter) birthday a day early and had some delicious food, ice cream, and booze. We were also productive and got groceries and such. That night we got back to our tent at around dusk and decided to roll. It was one of the best rolls we’ve had in a while as we laid curled up together under the clear sky looking up at all the stars. It was a new moon so the sky was absolutely stunning out in the rural areas near the river. It was really magical and the best way to start my new year on this rock.

We left Katfish Katy late the next morning, a little groggy and tired but feeling pretty good. The day was short, only 20 miles, and we found another campground along the trail. The next day our plan was to get off the Katy Trail and head towards Kansas City, unfortunately things didn’t go according to plan. When we got to the spot to turn off it was really obvious the roads were unsafe, it was a highway with no shoulder and incredibly fast traffic. After some more investigation into the route to Kansas City it was clear that we would be spending days on roads that just weren’t fit for cyclists. It is one thing to spend an hour (or even a day) on some sketchy roads but it just wasn’t worth the risk to push our luck for several days.

This was a pretty big disappointment to us. We both have friends in Kansas City that we haven’t seen in a long time and were looking forward to reuniting with. Though, one of the lessons that is constantly drilled into us on this ride is that things change and you really can’t get your heart set on any expectations. It is possible that circumstances beyond our control will change our route daily, leave us with no place to sleep at night, or even end the bike ride entirely. All we can do is enjoy the moment and do our best, and I hope our friends can understand. We will be back someday when our travel isn’t restricted because of the shitty ass infrastructure.

Our final day on the Katy Trail started off pretty well. With about 40 miles to the end of the trail in Clinton, Missouri we needed to move quickly. Normally, 40 miles isn’t that bad, but as we slowly move towards winter we are running out of daylight hours and heat to bike in.

About halfway through the day we spotted two stray dogs on the trail. They were super skinny so we got some dog food out and fed them a meal. They became increasingly sweet and affectionate and clearly were friendly dogs. They were also obviously puppies. We spent some time playing with them and after some discussion realized there wasn’t anything we could really do for them. So, we took off… and one of them followed us. For ten miles.

After ten miles with a dog trotting behind us we stopped at a trailhead to try and figure out if there was anything we could do. We searched for a Humane Society or Animal Control but couldn’t find anyone to take the dog. About 30 minutes into our discussion the second dog appeared and solved the problem for us. The puppy sisters reunited and started exploring the trailhead and surrounding community where a group of children called them over to pet them (and hopefully convince their mother to adopt them). Seeing our chance for escape we hit the trail again with daylight dwindling. The last bit of the ride was a race against sunlight but we pushed hard and made it to the Clinton Community Center just after dark. The Community Center allows free camping in the back area so we just went over and set up. I think we were supposed to check in with someone but they were having an event at the center and we didn’t want to interrupt, so we had some dinner, set up our tent, watched an episode of “Six Feet Under” on Amazon Prime, and drifted off to sleep.

Libertine to St. Louis (or, Illinois Wants to Kill Us or Give Us Money)

If you want to view pictures check out our instagram (@shifts_and_higgles) and our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/shiftsandhiggles). Love you all!

 After leaving Bloomington we had to move pretty quickly to St. Louis. We had dental appointments scheduled for the 17th and didn’t have a lot of days to spare. Things started off the same it had for a while, we had some hills getting out of Indiana and we mostly camped on the side of the road. The roads were traditionally mid-west, meaning they had no shoulder, no bike lane, sharp turns, high speed limits, big trucks, and dangerous drivers.

The second day out of Bloomington may have been the worst we have ever experienced. On top of the terrible roads and awful drivers, it started to rain on us. We also had a lot of hills, a busted tire, and construction that limited our route options. To be honest, it was completely shitty. We were frustrated, short-tempered, and low on motivation. I want to like the midwest, but outside of a few cities (like Bloomington) the infrastructure is terrible. Some of the people are nice when we talk to them face-to-face but we have had more drivers run us off the road, almost hit us, yell at us, or throw things at us here than the rest of the ride combined. There seems to be a cultural anger towards cyclists (or maybe it is just against outsiders). People seem threatened by anyone who isn’t a conservative farmer. It is sad and infuriating. There also seems to be a perception here that we are transients without jobs, we’ve had lots of people offer us money, food, and supplies out of nowhere. We didn’t accept because we aren’t in need, and it is a strange feeling to have people make assumptions about you.

Crossing into Illinois brought much of the same. We stayed along old Hwy-40 for several days, and normally highways that run parallel to interstates are good for us. They tend to have decent shoulders and are rarely used due to the nearby interstate. That isn’t the case with 40. For some reason there was a ton of traffic on it all the time and the road clearly hasn’t seen any maintenance since the Roosevelt administration. It was an awful couple of days.

There was one high point, a kitty. Anna heard a kitty meowing while biking along the highway and she was able to rescue it. We gave it a little food, rigged up a transportation system for it, named it (Princess Buttercup Effingham or HAM – Hard Ass Motherfucker), and rode to the next town. We were able to find it a nice home with a lady we met at a grocery store. It was clearly abandoned on the side of the road by someone, which makes me want to punch that person in the face. People are such assholes to animals sometimes, it makes me so angry. I am glad we were able to save this one.

As we got closer to St. Louis it became harder and harder to find campgrounds. We had three separate “campgrounds” tell us that they don’t allow tent camping. This is a huge pet peeve of ours. If you are only going to allow RVs you should call yourself an RV park instead of a campground. Don’t hijack a word that generally means people spending time in nature and change it’s meaning to mean people living in $1,000,000 buses with satellite dishes.

Our last day getting into St. Louis was pretty smooth. The first 20 miles were along a beautiful bike trail that almost took us to the bridge that crossed the Mississippi. After that we wandered through some industrial areas, rode on some dangerous urban roads, and eventually made it safely to Anna’s parents house. Now, we get ten days off or so for maintenance, sleep, and getting fat. This marks the end of Leg 2 of our ride and covered ~3,500 miles, 7 new states, and 125 days. I’m not sure yet how the next leg will go, but we are excited to continue our 48-state tour in a couple weeks.