Tag: Missouri

1984 Bike Tour: Day 29 – Charmed by flat roads, finally

GOLDEN CITY, MO. – Was this a mirage after too many hours in the saddle? We slipped into a couple of valleys after Pennsboro and were climbing out of the second one when I saw something standing up ahead of me in the road. At first I thought it was Bruce, but he was behind me. Then it looked like a tree had sprouted from the pavement. As I got closer, I saw it was a woman sitting astride a horse watching our slow approach. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/06/10/1984-bike-tour-day-29-charmed-by-flat-roads-finally/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 28 – Lazy Louie’s Bicycle Camp

The Ozarks are starting to level out, and we were on pace for a 90-mile day when we saw the homemade sign on Route 38 between Hartville and Marshfield: “Lazy Louie Bicycle Camp.” It was only early afternoon, but we knew we had to stop; we had told the Cookie Lady back in Virginia that we'd check in on him.

Lazy Louie opened the bicycle camp in 1976, the first year that cyclists started passing through on the Bikecentennial route. A eastbound couple who we met in the morning called the camp “kind of rustic.” The camp is an overgrown woodlot across the road from his house and barn. There's a shelter, picnic table, and shady grassy areas for tents. You can tell he has put a lot of work into it over the years. ….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/06/09/1984-bike-tour-day-28-lazy-louies-bicycle-camp/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 27 – Beautiful scenery and never-ending hills

HOUSTON, MO. – The hills in the Ozarks are bigger, steeper, and harder to climb than I expected. At Carl's Cafe in Eminence, Carl said we'd have to walk our loaded touring bicycles up these hills. No way. We pedaled — very slowly.
Bruce isn't feeling well this morning, but I don't think that's holding us back. Gravity's doing that. .

This whole area of the Ozarks draws lots of whitewater adventure seekers. Current River is popular with tourists …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/06/08/1984-bike-tour-day-27-beautiful-scenery-and-never-ending-hills/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 26 – Ups and downs in the Ozarks

OWL'S BEND, MO. – If you could pick a time to be sick, it probably wouldn't be the day you're pedaling the rollercoaster hills of the Ozarks.

We left Johnson's Shut-ins in a light drizzle and immediately started climbing. A little while later, a carload of Boy Scouts who we camped with the night before pulled up alongside me, and they said my friend was way down the road. I waited for him, and when he caught up, Bruce said he wasn't feeling well. After that, we took it real slow. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/06/07/1984-bike-tour-day-26-ups-and-downs-in-the-ozarks/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 25 – C’mon Missouri, “Show Me” some courtesy

JOHNSON'S SHUT-INS STATE PARK, MO — We're tenting in the group camp area near some Boy Scouts tonight. They're pretty comical, and a couple came over for awhile to talk bicycles, like: “Can you ride no-hands?”

I know Missouri is the “Show Me” state, but I don't know why it's called that. I would like to have people around here show us some common courtesy.

The folks in Ste. Genevieve were very helpful. … But as soon as we entered the Ozarks, things changed. People stare, more like glare. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/06/06/1984-bike-tour-day-25-cmon-missouri-show-me-some-courtesy/

1984 Bike Tour: Day 24 – Clearing a path for the Olympic torch in Missouri

STE. GENEVIEVE, MO. — We rode up along the Mississippi River to Ste. Genevieve to waves and some applause. If we had festooned our bikes with flags, the people lining the streets might have thrown money.

After crossing bridge across the Mississippi at Chester, we ran into the Olympic torch caravan again at St. Mary's. Everything is very low-key, compared to the scene in Berea.

Essentially two Winnebagos were parked in a roadside lot, some runners were milling around waiting to pick up the relay. AT&T sponsors the torch run, and the guys who do all the heavy lifting between cities are AT&T employees.

Two hundred were chosen, 16 on this week-long stretch, to run four miles twice a day with the torch. The torch, which they get to keep, weighs 2 pounds, 4 ounces, is about 2 feet long, and is filled with butane. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/06/05/1984-bike-tour-day-24-clearing-a-path-for-the-olympic-torch-in-missouri/

Missouri’s Katy Trail becomes nation’s longest; Washington’s John Wayne Pioneer Trail falls to No. 2

A simple name change for a 47.5-mile trail in Missouri means the Katy Trail is now the longest rail-trail in the US. Washington’s John Wayne Pioneer Trail, which had been No. 1 for  several years, dropped to second place.

The identity change happened last Saturday as Missouri Gov. Ray Nixon dedicated a new trail running east …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2016/12/17/missouris-katy-trail-becomes-nations-longest-washingtons-john-wayne-pioneer-trail-falls-to-no-2/

Proposed laws affecting Missouri bicyclists defy logic

As a reader from St. Louis suggests, “crazy season has come early to Missouri.”

At least that’s the case for one legislator, Republican Rep. Jay Houghton of Martinsburg.

It started with his HB 2046, which would require all bicycles using “lettered” county roads to display a fluorescent orange flag suspended 15 feet above the road …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2016/02/16/proposed-laws-affecting-missouri-bicyclists-defy-logic/

Another cross-state rail-trail in Missouri’s future

Bicyclists in many states don’t even have one cross-state rail-trail to ride. Those in Missouri, already home to the popular 237-mile-long Katy Trail, could be getting another.

The owners of the old Rock Island Railroad announced plans to railbank the 145-mile-long railroad right-of-way, marking the first step toward turning the east-west corridor into a rail-trail.

The tracks run …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2014/10/03/another-cross-state-rail-trail-in-missouris-future/

Did Missouri mayor intentionally hit cyclist? Charges filed

Oct. 3, 2014 — The St. Louis County Police Department has Sunset Hills Mayor Mark Furrer with 2 felonies in connection with allegations that he intentionally ran a bicyclist off the road with his car.

Furrer was charged with one count of second-degree assault and one count of first-degree property damage, according to reports in the Call …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2014/10/03/did-missouri-mayor-intentionally-hit-cyclist/