The Graffiti Wall

We rode our bikes out to the Graffiti Wall that keeps the Mississippi River from eating the city.

We watched the movie adaptation of Out of Africa. I read the book while on my own personal quest to get out of Africa.

Meryl Streep and Robert Redford are apparently really old.

Katy Trail Blazing

We took the bikes out to ride at Katy Trail State Park.

It was romantic the way the setting sun reflected off of this Missouri junkyard.

Augusta Bike Breakdown

We all headed out to Defiance, Missouri for our pretty much annual winery bike trip to Augusta.

Things were going fine until we arrived at a section of the bike trail that was closed due to flooding. There was a detour path but it was much rockier. My newly renovated bike lasted about 5 minutes before one of its slender tires popped. I'm accustomed to riding bikes with like monster truck tires so I hadn't even considered such a thing being a problem. I walked back to the rest stop and Lydia rode back to get the car. I still had fun despite the mishap.

I'm beginning to learn about the joys of riding a bike with a friggin leather seat. Turns out, if it gets wet, either due to rain or even body sweat, it will dye your butt brown. It's quite a feature.

Good news was there was still beer left when we drove back to Independence. 

Biking the Missouri Weinstrasse

Today we brought back an event we've done once or twice before: a round trip bike ride from Defiance, MO to Augusta's wine country.

Augusta is situated in the Missouri Rhineland region. The land near the Missouri river is apparently similar to Germany's Rhineland, so when German immigrants started arriving in the area they already knew what to do: grow grapes and make wine! According to trusty Wikipedia they wined so hard that around the time of the Civil War Missouri was the largest wine producing state in the nation.

Wikipedia: "The area along Route 94 between Defiance and Marthasville has so many wineries that the highway has been nicknamed the Missouri Weinstrasse (wine route)."

"We drank wine, senator."

Some of the wineries were pretty specific about their rules.

One the way home we stopped at a Mexican restaurant. Lainey tried to order enchiladas with beans only, no meat. Apparently that order got lost in translation because she got this watery refried bean mess instead. ¡Ay, caramba!

Back in St. Louis we did some more Lime scooter corralling.  It's fun to ride them around in the hallways.

$$$!