The Katy Trail and Jefferson City

With our bikes all fixed, Dan decided to find us a state park to go ride in.  He discovered an apparently well hidden, from us, Missouri treasure, the Katy Trail.  The trail used to be a railroad that ran across the state.  It was no longer being used as such so several years ago, the state park service converted into in a cross state biking/walking trail.  It's crushed limestone and very flat...perfect for a family bike ride.  We started out in Jefferson City.

The scenery was gorgeous.  I can say several bad things about Missouri, but I also have to admit that it's a beautiful state (even if the beauty makes my throat hurt).

 

Caden is our weak link still, but those little legs are getting stronger day by day.  He stopped often on the way out for water breaks, but after lunch, he seemed to recharge and had no trouble heading back towards the car.

 

Jaelyn saved and nurtured a spiderwort plant in Maryland.  We found it growing wild everywhere along the trail.

 

We saw a lot of nature...turtles were out in force.  The kids spotted what we think was a baby fox and we nearly ran over two black snakes.  Someone told us "there's an otter in water up ahead" (are you singing "there's a zamp in the lamp and a jurtain in the curtain" along with Dr. Suess? - I was.)  We never did find the otter or the water up ahead for that matter.

 

I just got a new lens for my camera (18:270).  No more switching lenses.  I had fun playing with the zoom.

 

 

 

How would you like to live on top of this bluff?  If you look closely at the right hand corner, you can see a huge house.

 

In total, we road 12 miles.  I was beyond impressed with the kids.  I think the girls could have gone further, but we were all pretty tired at the end.  Allie said she had pudding legs while Jaelyn thought hers felt more like wet noodles :).

 

Since we were there, we drove into Jefferson City to tour the state capital building.

 

Jefferson City is named after Thomas Jefferson.  Missouri was the second state formed from the Louisiana Purchase after Louisiana.

 

The massive steel doors were amazing.  Too bad we couldn't go through them.

 

My Griffons are scarier than the ones that guard the building.

 

This capital was built in the early 1900s.  This was is all stone as the first 2 were destroyed by fires.  After it was completed, they still had one million dollars left over.  That money was put into a special endowment on to be used for art in the building.  The ceilings and murals were amazing.

 

Just a little Missouri history for you.

 

 

We wrapped up our day with an early dinner at Chipotle followed by ice cream sundaes at home.  I wish we had discovered this trail sooner.  It would have been fun to ride the whole thing over the course of our time in Missouri.  We saw several families with camping gear riding it with their kids.