August 9 From Boonville to DC

there are some great people in Missouri here are six

After riding 52 miles mostly along the Katy Trail I was too tired to be able to post last night. And to top  the ride off the last two miles included a climb that seemed to be 1,000 feet high over just a few blocks. But I don’t want to take away from the signature part of yesterday, being that I had meaningful conversations with six people.

Terry, a retired construction worker.

The tone of the day was set at an old style cafe diner. Toast, potatoes, eggs and coffee are the fuel of this bicyclist, high on the glycemic index and high on caffeine. It was a two mile ride from my motel to this cafe, the very last storefront in Boonville before the bridge over the Missouri, last chances do happen. There was another slightly younger man also in the cafe and we combined tables and talked about our lives and the forces that brought us together yesterday morning. It was one of those conversations, disclosing parts of ourselves, that I will sometimes have with a stranger I will never meet again. 

Our conversation concerned each of our journeys, our similarities, and of the presence of spirituality in our lives. I am not a practicing religious person but I am also still very much the person that once wanted to become a priest. Now if there ever was a physical setting to be in when contemplating spirituality bicycling along Missouri River is it. Early this morning it was very warm and moist. So much so that whenever I stopped pedaling for a moment my glasses would fog up. 

Vapor permeates the air. The land is lush with vegetation and critters. And the Katy Trail separates riders from the presence of the hustle of modern vehicular traffic. There are monuments along its path that took me back to stories of my youth, Daniel Boone and Lewis and Clark. Outdoor explorers that conjured memories of my father’s youth and of the family camping trips, his legacy to his children, that we still take today. That was a very good cup of coffee yesterday morning.

Tim, the friendly cynic.

About an hour into the ride another fellow also about my age pulled along side of me and we talked for a bit. He has ridden this route regularly his whole life. We had a short conversation before he sprinted off brought to a quick close with his pronouncement that profit and greed is the motivation for war. We would meet again farther down the trail when I stopped and talked to him while he fixed a flat tire. 

Tina and George

It was a Saturday and that brings more traffic to the Katy. I was not the only bicyclist with panniers and backpack. It is a great place to be in the open and get away from the work week rat race. This couple are very much younger than me but still at the age where George is trying to find a means out of construction. He has nearly completed is curricula for a degree in environmentalism. 

Tina and George and I leapfrogged along the trail, each stopping a various locations to rest and eat. This trail is an old railroad line that stopped at each community, I am assuming to collect the harvest and deliver supplies to the hamlets along the way. They were riding as practice for a potential trip to Alaska and then down the Pacific Coast into South America. At one stop they were telling another bicyclist about my journey. 

Louie

The day had been threatening rain, in Missouri at this time of year that generally means thunder and lightening. Before Tim had finished fixing his flat he told me that a good place to stop if the storm arrived is Catfish Kate’s, a small convince store near a recreational park along the river. And as I could not disregard the increase in frequency of the drops any longer a just accumulated dew I did stop and met Louie. He is a young man minding the store for friends who were away for a few days. We chatted and he was very supportive of my ride and he told me of a lecture he had recently heard about spreading desertification of agricultural land. The lecture included a solution that reminded me very much of the Marin Carbon Project, that employed managing grazing in sub-Saharan Africa and was having success in pushing back the desert and increasing the lost carbon content of the soil. I had given my next to last leaflet to Tina and George so Louie got my Facebook link.

And finally the younger me.

I was resting in Hartsburg on what I thought was a public picnic table. I was moments too late for the local cafe. In many of the towns in this part of the world the homes do not have fences. The houses seemed to have been set on a continuous lawn that never needs watering just a lot of mowing. As I was snacking on my traveling food supply I heard a man ask where was I headed. When I told him just north of San Francisco he came over and we chatted for awhile. I often answer that question with, I going to DC to talk to my Congressman about climate change and peace.  And this is true. A friend from Marin has put me into contact with Jared Huffman’s office and we might well meet up if we are both in DC at the same time. 

I am also hoping to be in DC while the the Pope is addressing Congress. I find his message to the more than one billion Catholics of the world refreshing reminiscent of John the 23rd’s convocation in the early 60’s. Pope Francis is calling for the transformation of the world’s economy to address the needs of the environment as well as the needs of the majority of working people. This young man is in his thirties and is trying to run his construction company, residential and commercial. He was very concerned about our environment, talked of the aging nuclear power plant not far from Jefferson City, a of the cynicism of our politicians. He had many ideas for alternative forms of electricity including using the force to the Missouri River. 

I will be in St Louis in three days and 140 miles. I hope to connect with a fellow I connected with from Veterans For Peace. I hope to hear about their recent annual convention in San Diego, and with luck meet other peace and environmental activists as well.