Harrisonville to Clinton, MO

41 miles. The ride today was pretty forgettable although not unpleasant. The road from Harrisonville to Clinton is a busy 4 lane highway, something like an interstate highway. But it has a 10 foot wide paved shoulder, so cyclists can ride on it safely even though it's not the kind of ride people would normally choose to do. So why did we do it? Because Clinton is the western end of the Katy Trail, a state park and the longest converted railroad bed to bike trail in the U.S. It runs from Clinton to St. Louis, virtually across the entire state of Missouri. On Tuesday we plan to begin the first of 3 days on the trail, riding from Clinton to Marthasville - a distance of about 180 miles. More about that later, but in the meantime you can get more information, including see the trail's route and pictures at bikekatytrail.com.

The downside to riding on the shoulder of a road is the debris you have to contend with, including obvious tire hazards like glass, nails and other metal fragments as well as fragments of truck tires (although we also saw an entire tire today, along with what looked like a complete truck bumper), gravel and God knows what else. We did as well as can be expected but nevertheless managed to hit a sharp rock head on that quickly punctured the rear tire. I shouldn't complain since it was our first flat in over 700 miles (on our trip from Colorado to Minnesota a couple of years ago we had 11 flats in less than 1,000 miles). But another one of those cycling axioms that have been unscientifically developed based upon the experience of many I have talked to (like the axiom that the wind usually blows in the direction opposite to whichever way you are riding) is the axiom that 90% of flats occur in the rear tire. True to form, we had the rear tire go flat today. Why does it matter which tire goes flat? Because changing the rear tire - particularly on a loaded tandem that is pulling a trailer - is a far greater pain in the butt than changing the front tire. We had to remove the front panniers, detach the trailer, turn the bike upside down, disengage the two rear brakes (the drum brake in particular seems designed to maximize the use of curse words) and remove the rear wheel from the dropouts while avoiding the freewheel, chain and the rear derailleur (a job that cannot be done without getting chain grease all over your hands). Then you can finally get to work removing the tire from the wheel. And we got to do this on the side of a busy highway with the road kill and other debris for company. At least it didn't rain on us, which would have really topped off the whole experience. Just as we finished up and had righted and reloaded the tandem, a guy pulled over to ask us if we needed any help. I tactfully refrained from saying what I was thinking ("where were you 45 minutes ago?") and said we appreciated the offer but we were fine. We chatted for a few minutes about our ride and his upcoming ride from Montana to Denver. He was just another example of the many kind people, all of whom have encouraged us while telling us (genuinely, it seems) that they hope we have a safe trip.

Roadside statute

At guns and ammo store south of Harrisonville. This was the only thing photo-worthy today.
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