Old Friends and New Trails

On Saturday September 14 Angela and I traveled to Overland Park, KS to meet up with some great GE colleagues and good friends of mine.  Left to right: Bill Wiltsch, Bill Amos, Steve Richards, me, Jim Dean, Norm McVey, Dan Klenke and in the center, Gene Hersh whose house we invaded for our BBQ bufffet.  Gene is 91 and retired from GE at 70. Gene was always our go to guy to help pull together complex and big project designs and estimates (like multi-million dollar) for projects. He had immense capability, respect across our business and toughness. We wanted to get together and celebrate all the good times and funny stories we shared together. 

Gene was born in Poland in 1928. His dad was killed while fighting with the Polish military against the invading Nazis. He eventually found his way to the US shortly after WWII where he earned his BSEE.  The photo on his study wall above is of him as a young US GI stationed in Germany around 1951.  Gene has faced many challenges in his life and he faces yet another challenge now.  It was wonderful being with Gene, his wife Loraine, his family and the rest of the guys from GE. I wouldn’t have missed it. 

Sunday the 15th we took advantage of being near KC by jumping on a new addition to the Katy Trail called the Rock Island Spur. 

The Rock Island is a new Rail to Trail that runs southeast from Pleasant Hill, MO to Windsor where it connects to the Katy Trail.  We started around 8:15 and pulled into Sedalia, 72 miles later just before 4. 

 

Early morning sky to the east, a nice southwest breeze and temps in the mid-70’s. That would change later in the day. 

About 28 miles into the ride we had planned to stop here in this very tiny town of Chilhowee to have a little brunch in this convenience store/cafe in an old bank building. Apparently they don’t want to be convenient on Sunday’s, they were closed.

☹️

A Mr. Pibb for me from the machine and an apple with peanut butter for both of us. 

The Rock Island is a great addition to the Katy and in the future will connect the eastern suburbs of KC with St. Charles, MO all the way across the state but it’s surface is a little rougher than the Katy and you can tell it doesn’t get the cycling volume that the Katy gets. 

We survived the ride today thanks to the Casey’s convenience stores. In Leeton, around 36 miles on, we gave ouselves ice cream sandwich injections. They were very tasty and cold in the +90 degree heat and bright sun. 

🌞 

It’s always a highlight for us to celebrate the Highest Point on the Katy between Windsor and Sedalia at a whopping 955 feet. 

  

And now the best part of the day, checking in to the historic Bothwell Hotel in downtown Sedalia where we found two bathrooms in our suite which allowed us to not have to take turns to shower off the grit, grime and sweat from the trail today. 

Tomorrow we turn around and ride back to Pleasant Hill. Maybe we’ll find a few cafes that are open along the way. 

🤞