Saint Louis has many beautiful neighborhoods.  One of the most lovely is Compton Heights.  Last Sunday, Anne and I bicycled through the Compton Heights neighborhood.  While cycling through this neighborhood we took pictures of some of the homes that caught our fancies.  According to the Compton Heights Historic Neighborhood Association’s website:

Laid out in 1889 in accordance with a plan that viewed nature as neighbor and not as an enemy to be subjugated by some rectilinear grid, its wide setbacks and curving streets create remarkable vistas, which are punctuated by more than 200 homes of extraordinary and varied interest. The entire neighborhood is a national historic district.

Most of the homes in Compton Heights are made of brick.  In fact most homes in and around the City of Saint Louis are brick homes.  Our home is a brick home too.  It is decorated with architectural details, some might dismiss as brick-a-brack.  In some ways it is reminiscent of the mansions of Compton Heights.  In no way do I hold up our house to be their equal, but we love our little gingerbread house anyway. 

The Katy Trail turns twenty years old this year.  Happy Birthday, Katy!  When I rode the Katy, end-to-end, over ten years ago, it only ran from Sedalia to Saint Charles.  Still at 190 miles, that was a fair piece to go in just a weekend.  The daytime high temperatures that weekend, both of them, was over a hundred degrees.  That pretty much left the trail that weekend to myself.  There were more than a few encounters, but I think that this subject in another post.

The Katy is a rails-to-trails bike path that now nearly spans the State of Missouri.  It currently runs 225 miles in length and with an average forty-foot width it is our state’s narrowest state park.  Numerous bed & breakfasts and wineries have established themselves along its way.  

Most times when either I ride alone or with Anne, my starting point is at Weldon Springs.  It is the closest trailhead to us.  From there we always head west, usually to Augusta, but sometimes we ride onto Marthasville.  Augusta offers refreshment at the Augusta Brewery, which is conveniently located just a short walk up from the trail.  Augusta also boasts a winery, but it is at the top of a very long steep hill.

Mountain bikers complain that the Katy isn’t a real mountain biking trail, but just a dirt road.  I can’t argue with them on that point.  Road bikers don’t like the Katy because its limestone slurry is rough on their tires and it slows them down.  To them I say, get cyclecross tires.  Some complain that because the Katy is so flat and straight, it is too boring to ride.  I ask these people, have you ever ridden it end-to-end?

Today, Saturday, Anne and I will be going to the Muny.  “The Muny, what?”, you say, “We haven’t even had the Shakespeare Festival yet.”  I don’t care, in fact I am even going to bring my camera, the big one, I don’t care about Actor’s Equity.  Here is the scoop, Webster University has rented the Muny for this year’s graduation.  Annie, Dan’s friend, is going to walk in it.  Afterwards we’ll adjourn to her folk’s house for a reception.