Tragedy strikes.
This morning we had breakfast with the Mayor of McKittrick. Joey not only runs Joey's Birdhouse (the B&B we stayed in), she is also the Mayor of this town of 27 adults and 27 children and a good cook to boot. It was a fine way to start the day.
One of the nice things about the Katy trail is the solitude. You can go for miles without seeing a house or crossing a road. This remoteness means we often have little or no cell phone coverage. After a few hours we must have passed through an area with coverage, because some disturbing text messages started trickling through from back in Florida. We found a place with enough coverage to make some calls and find out what was going on.
We live on the second floor of a town house. The people who live downstairs are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. But sometimes you have no idea what demons people are struggling with inside. It seems last night one of our neighbors parked his car in the garage, closed the door, wrote a note and started the engine. Some other neighbors noticed the smoke in the morning.
When the fire department arrived the carbon monoxide level downstairs was so high they had to back out and put on breathing masks to enter. Both downstairs neighbors and their dog were dead. We will miss them.
Our son has been staying in our house for us while we are cycling. Fortunately he was away on a business trip last night. The fire department was concerned the carbon monoxide may have gotten upstairs. Hearing no response from inside, they broke in through the door. Our house seems to be ok, and our cats survived. That was a relief, but we were left with a front door that would no longer lock.
That could have been a big problem, but we are lucky to have family living nearby. Our cousin Grace went to check the house and cousin Mike went over and installed a new lock so we could secure the door. Is there anything better in life than family? I don't think so. Thanks Mike for bailing us out.
By the time we had figured out what was going on back home, it had started getting warm. We had told team S to go on ahead. One thing we learned while we were stopped is never leave your bike under a cottonwood tree.
We passed the spot where on this day, May 30, back in 1804 Lewis and Clark had spent the night. We've had dry weather along the trail. They endured rain and hail storms. All of the historical markers refer to both officers as captains. I think it is fitting that history remembers them as co-leaders of equal rank, not with the official ranks assigned to them by the war department. That was the way they lead the Corps of Discovery, and that was what lead to their success.
The Katy trail follows the route of the old Missouri, Kansas, Texas (MKT) railway, which was known as the Katy. In 1870 when the railroad was being built, there was a race with another line known as the Border Tier railroad to be the first to reach Kansas Indian territory. Only the winner of the race would be allowed to build across Indian territory, and the Border Tier had a big lead.
The MKT didn't give up. They worked through rain and floods, but still couldn't catch up. So they got creative. They had some Indians convince the Border Tier that the Kansas border was many miles East of the actual border. Thinking they were almost at the Kansas border, the Border Tier fired a bunch of laborers to save money. The MKT hired those workers.
When the Border Tier reached the fake "border", the MKT secretly provided whiskey for a celebration party. While the Border Tier crew was celebrating and then recovering from their celebration, the MKT pressed on and reached the real Kansas border first. All's fair in love and railroading.
Thanks to a comment from my Mom, we now know that the asparagus stuff is "horsetail". This was confirmed by information provided at one of the trailheads. It is also known as scouring rush because it can be used to clean pots and pans.
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i never met downstairs neighbors and dog ;(
How cats doing?
5 years ago
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