Katy Trip for September is getting in Shape

Have the train reservations set up for getting to Sedalia and probably a stay at the Hotel Bothwell and some place to stay for all but one night, the last night, on the trail before getting to the eastern end at St. Charles. Really looking forward to caching, benchmark hunting, wine tasting and maybe even buying a corn cob pipe in Washington at the Meeerschaum corn cob pipe factory and museum. Oh, yeah, the bike riding will be great, too. Also, don't want to miss the Augusta Brewing Company in Augusta. It's on a little hill just by the trail and doesn't look like a lot but the 3 times I've eaten there the food and beer has been great. The wineries in Augusta are also good but visiting them would mean a bike ride up a hill and don't know if my brother and I will be up to that.

Katy Trip and Wanderings in Indiana

The Katy Trip is coming along slowly. Have reservations from central Illinois to Sedalia. Haven't figured it out from there. Hope to do about 50-60 miles a day and at least get by the corn cob pipe factory. Other than that, not sure about the rest yet.

Did a little caching coming up through southern Indiana with my new caching toy, the iphone caching app. That is pretty neat but hard for me to get used to the way the map shows on the screen. Found two caches and a TB in Jasper, IN, with the iphone. Could have found many more if I'd had time. There is a neat restaurant called the Mill House at 1340 Mill Street in Jasper. Has a really nice wasabi salmon salad at a very reasonable price. The service is also very good. You'll have to look that one up on your smartphone or gps because it is not easy to find that Mill House in a residential area of Jasper.

Katy Trail Trip This Coming Fall

My brother and I are planning to do a bike trip on the Katy Trail, which goes east west in Missouri, this coming fall. We haven't finalized plans yet but so far are planning on starting as close to the western end of the trail around Clinton, MO, as we can and come back east to St. Charles, a little north of St. Louis. We will probably spend either five or six full days pedaling on the trail and camp some days and stay in B & Bs other nights. Still working on whether we'll take an Amtrak or rental car to the west end.

There are a lot caches along the trail and in the little towns along the trail and there should be a number of benchmarks as well. So, I'll be researching the overnight stops and the geocaches along the route and checking out the Amtrak schedule and hope to leave plans here as they develop.

Have a very good book on the trail written by a fellow who owns a campground and bookstore along the way. I'll definitely get full use of that. Will list the name of the book on here.

I put in a note on the last blog here that I visited a neat restaurant called Lynn's Paradise in Louisville, KY. Here is a night time picture of the restaurant with the moon in the background at the upper right corner of the photo.

Louisville is a pretty flat area and seems to be good for bicycling and there are a number of caches in the area I want to search for next time I'm there. Let me know of any good caches and bike trails, etc you know of in the Louisville area.

Louisville area Visit

Went to West Virginia last week and on the way went to Louisville, KY. Stayed at the Tucker House Bed and Breakfast and visited Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Both were well worth the experience. The Tucker House is operated by Devona and Steve Porter. They are very nice, the rooms we saw were furnished nicely with antiques and it is in a pretty setting just out of the business of Louisville. Lynn's is a great restaurant in Louisville which has great funky tables and decorations that kids will love. Every table seems to be different and have games on them for the kids to play. If you like the games they are for sale along with a lot of other neat stuff in the gift shop in the front of the restaurant. Oh, and the food is great, too. I mean, fried green tomatoes. Who can't like those? We also went to the Bluegrass Brewing Company, a nice microbrewery that has two locations around Louisville. There are lots of places we want to see on future trips to Louisville.

Going to list some more on geocaching, benchmark hunting, and bicycling soon. Right now doing indoor workouts and spinnng at Gold's Gym in Bloomington, IL. The Gold's Gym is not perfect but pretty nice and hope to get ready for this 175-mile bicycle ride next summer by working out at Golds. I'm not getting any money for listing Golds here. And, I'd encourage anyone who can to go to a gym, any gym, especially in the winter, if you live in areas like Illinois that have nasty winters where you have limited exercise possibilities for months at a time.

Before the weather went bad, I did a lot of servicing of my geocaches by bicycle. I have several on the Constitution Trail here in Bloomington/Normal, Illinois, and check them a lot by bike because it's the easiest way to check them relatively fast and get some exercise at the same time. I also have a lot of caches in the country south of Bloomington I check on regularly by bicycle. I could probably get in a 60 or 70 mile ride by checking them all the same day. Have never done that but think I'll try that next spring. I'm sure it would be at least 70 if I went to the furtherest north on the Constitution Trail GC1T3XTand then to the ones in Lexington, Illinois; GC1CXWK and GC1DHNC.

Traverse City and Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan

Went to the nice northern Michigan community of Traverse City last weekend and found a few caches. Didn't try bicycling in the area this time for any geocaches or benchmarks but did hit the lighthouse on the Old Mission Peninsula to the north of Traverse City, an interesting microbrewery called North Peak Brewing Company in Traverse City and enjoyed the great colors. We also went to three wineries. One was the Peninsula Cellars, in a 19th century schoolhouse 6 miles north of Traverse City. The others were Black Star Farms. and Chateau Chantal. On the way up we stopped at a restaurant called Clementines in South Holland and tried a seasonal brew from Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo. On the way back, we went to New Holland Brewery in Holland, Michigan.

I will list the geocaches I did find there on this blog soon. Most of them would be great to find on a bike and the Old Mission Peninsula website cited above lists a good place to start your bicycle touring of the beautiful area. There are also lots of places to buy local apples, cherries, and other produce in the area.