The Beginning

I have always enjoyed riding bikes, the kind without motors. Although I have also ridden the kind with motors, but that is another story. Bike riding is relaxing and it gets me out of the house. It combines my love of travel with my fondness for exercise. Well, I am not always fond of exercise, but riding my bike on a lovely fall day can be fun exercise.
I have always loved to travel but you can't go very far on a bicycle or can you? Several years ago, while on an RV trip, I discovered the Katy Trail. It is actually a state park in Missouri. I have heard that it is the longest state park in the country. It is a 240 mile bike trail which spans much of the state of Missouri. In its former life it was a railroad, but that was many, many years ago. Today, it is a very nice, flat and well-maintained bike trail.
Thus far, I have ridden about the first 30 miles of the trail. I should like to ride the other 210 miles and maybe I will eventually. Many serious bikers ride the entire trail in about 5 days. This would require you to ride up to 60 miles on some days. A bit much I think. You would also have to do some serious planning ahead to figure out where you want to stay and how far you will travel each day. There are many B&B's, campgrounds and a few hotels along the way, but some are not accessible by bike, so you  must also plan for a taxi or shuttle. Seems like a lot of planning to me. Then if it rains, what fun is it to ride in the rain? Like I mentioned before, I like to ride on beautiful sunny days when I can really enjoy being out in nature.
So my plan is to ride the trail a little bit at a time, when the  weather is nice and I have a free weekend. More about that in another post.