Day 118: Hermann, MO

We left Bev's house fairly early, once again hoping that an early start would get us down the road a ways before we ran into more oppressive heat.  It was in the 80s when we got up around 5:30, but the wind was blowing, signaling that another front was moving through.  Fortunately this time there wasn't much threat of severe weather, just rain and wind.

Bev sent us on our way with grilled egg, ham and cheese sandwiches (which were awesome).  We got back to the trailhead and were pleased to find that it was a few degrees cooler since it was closer to the river.  I got rolling at a fairly fast pace, hoping to get some miles in before it either rained or became uncomfortably hot.  I made it 23 miles to Marthasville before we decided to wait out the rain. 

The story about the Katy Trail.

It took almost three hours for the storm to pass, but when it did I was back on the road.  That particular section had only two trailheads, and included the longest segment of the Katy Trail between trailheads, 16.1 miles.  We stopped at McKittrick, loaded up the bike and headed across the river to Hermann, a very quaint and attractive town originally settled by German immigrants.  In all I rode 46 miles for the day.

A section of trail washed out by recent flooding.

We headed to Hermann City Park Campground ($25, power and water), being thankful to find an unreserved site with a bit of shade.

The showers here deserve a mention.  The shower house is like an oven, with very little ventilation and no fan.  The showers themselves are somewhat reminiscent of a MASH episode, in that they have no temperature control (becoming fairly warm, eventually) and are turned on by pulling a chain.  You have to continue to pull the chain for the water to keep running.  Visualize having a bar of soap in one hand and the chain in the other, and you can imagine the sorts of contortions that are required to get everything lathered up and rinsed off.  Which only makes you sweat that much more when you are attempting to get dried off afterward.

Due to the storm and the associated cloud cover, it didn't get as hot today as we were expecting (thankfully!).  We were actually able to sit outside for most of the day, though after taking the shower it was necessary to jump inside the camper with the AC for a while to get cooled back down.