As I mentioned in the last post, we camped in the city park while exploring the charming town of Hermann, Missouri and riding on the Katy Trail. The park proved to be a very convenient place to stay as we could walk or bicycle everywhere in town, and with full hook-ups, we had all we needed. At $30/night, this was not the least expensive place we've stayed, but we had a nice shaded site, far away from the park crowds, pool, and sports fields. Here are some of our photos from walking around and seeing the sights in charming Hermann, MO, often called "Little Germany". We have lots more photos from Hermann to share, so please stay tuned!
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Back in the fall of 2013, Barry bicycled the entire length of the Katy Trail in Missouri, from Clinton (west) to Machens (east) in four days while I drove with Paisley. Each day I'd drive to our next motel, get Paisley settled, and in some cases was close enough to be able to hop on the trail and ride my bicycle out to meet Barry. If you're interested, you can read all about this adventure in a series of older blog posts. This time, we stayed in a spot near the Katy that I'd noticed along the way and really wanted to see: Hermann, Missouri. This town, often called "Little Germany", looked so quaint and charming as I'd driven through, I wanted to get a closer look. However, all the lodging there was bed & breakfasts, which would make traveling with Paisley difficult as very few B&Bs allow dogs. So, the trip didn't happen in 2013 or 2014 while we were living in the greater KC area. But now that we're traveling in Pearl, we were able to return. There's a nice city park with RV sites and hookups right in Hermann, a great spot from which to see the city (more on this in the next post). And as you can see from this map, the Katy Trail is just a few miles north of Hermann, so we could ride a portion of it during our stay. We chose to ride our Bike Fridays this time. Barry had ridden his mountain bike before but said that it was overkill, since the Katy is well-maintained, firmly packed crushed limestone. The 1.35" wide tires on our Fridays would do just fine. It proved to be a good choice, as these bikes are a bit faster and lighter than our mountain bikes, and certainly much better for the road to and from the trail. Before setting out, we pedaled to a charming bakery in downtown Hermann that Barry had sniffed out the day before. He has a nose for donuts, I tell you! There, we stocked up on goodies for our ride. We got to cross the mighty Missouri River on the way to the Katy Trail access point. There's a protected ped-bike portion of the bridge, making it a very safe ride. We had an enjoyable ride on the trail from the access point just west of McKittrick to Mokane and back. I'd originally planned on going only to Portland, but there was no water there, so we forged on. If you look closely, you can see that Barry is wearing his Katy Trail jersey from his earlier ride! This is Standing Rock. It looks like an isolated boulder but is actually a part of a bluff that has resisted erosion. This portion of the Katy Trail runs right through the Grand Bluffs Conservation Area along the Missouri River. This is an exceptionally pretty part of the trail, and the shade was much appreciated on this hot day. This section of the trail is quite rural with almost no services. No restaurants, no bakeries, no ice cream shops, just a couple of rest rooms and occasional water spigots. On a hot day, a water spigot is gold! On the way back, we took our last rest stop in Rhineland, where there was a pretty garden. And we found a soda machine! We each indulged in one, giving us the energy we needed to pedal the final few miles back to Hermann. We ended up with over 55 miles on the day, at least 15 more than I'd planned on! I won't lie, the last ten miles or so, I was suffering a bit. But looking back now, I only remember how much fun it was and feel fortunate that we got to enjoy another great day on one of America's premiere rail-trails. We've had A Slice of Pie on our bucket list ever since Barry read about it while researching things to do in the states surrounding Kansas City a few years ago when we were living in the KC area. Somehow we never made it over. But now we've finally been! Barry negotiated Pearl through the downtown streets of Rolla, Missouri and we found a level parking spot just up the street. Perfect! A few steps later, and the angels sang. We were there at last! I learned from their website that this small business has been open for 27 years, makes all pies in-house, and that some pies weigh as much as 5 to 6 pounds. That's a monster pie And, as the website admits, these pies are not cheap. But this was probably the only time we'll get to Rolla, so we felt it was money well spent. After all, it's PIE. And let's face it: As the sign says... Barry was one happy camper. Here's our haul. We got four half-pies: cherry-raspberry, strawberry rhubarb, Snickers, and Peanut Butter Twirl (frozen). The small containers are chocolate and caramel sauce, to add insult to injury. After all that fun, we made our way to Lane Spring Recreation Area in the Mark Twain National Forest, a few miles south of town. The campground was mostly empty and absolutely gorgeous, with huge deciduous trees and tons of privacy. Pearl settled right in to a lovely site for two nights, or so we thought. Turns out, this beautiful place had the most mosquitoes we'd encountered at any campground to date. We really couldn't sit outside, and it would not have been a good hiking spot this time of year. Also, the road cycling in the area was not great as the park was situated off a somewhat busy highway. We still had our colds and weren't feeling all that great either.
We decided to cut our losses and leave after just one night. Fortunately we'd paid just $11/night with Barry's Senior Park pass. Onward to Hermann! |
Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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