We got up early, at least for us on a Saturday morning and rendezvoused with some of our fellow Team Kaldis cyclists at the De Mun Kaldis store, the original Kaldis store. This was our first Kaldis sponsored training ride for this September’s MS-150 charity ride. They had plenty of complementary coffee already laid out for us when we arrived. We got there early enough to kvetch for a bit too. There were 25 teammates ready to ride when we launched, plus a couple more that had showed-up to cheer us on. Stew and Nancy were honchoing this ride and it was billed as a no drop ride. That means a ride where the group hangs together and waits for any stragglers.
It was nice riding with a group instead of just Anne and I. There is safety in numbers. We could take the lane on busy streets, like McCausland that by ourselves would have been too scary to ride on. From Clayton, we head south into city. We jumped onto the River des Peres Trail, which has been beautifully renovated since the last time I rode on it. The western half is all pristine extra-wide concrete. I swear that more swoopy turns have been added since the old trail was there. It is probably just an effect of the extra wide trail. We crossed over to the north side of the river and continued on down towards the Mississippi. The River des Peres ditch filled with water as we approached. We didn’t make it to the Mississippi, but instead turned north. I understand that down by the river there is another trail that connects. It runs from the new casino and from there further south to Jefferson Barracks. JB was a Civil War military installation that has persisted to today, although primarily in cemetery form.
Turning north, we entered Carondelet, which was once a colonial French town, but has been all but subsumed by the city. A bit of its old world charm still persists around its old town square, which is really a triangle, but who cares. About this time in the ride, I was beginning to wonder if our no drop ride was also a no-stop ride, but we stopped at the Macklind Avenue Deli. From there it was over “The Hill” and on into Forest Park. In a nice touch, we toured Hall of Fame Avenue, much to the neighbor’s delight. Après ride we kvetched some more, until one-by-one we went our separate ways.
Since, Anne and I had ridden over that meant we also had to ride back. We headed up De Mun again and this time turned onto Alamo, our old address. A most unusual yard sale was going on. In addition to the normal stuff, old CDs, DVDs and obsolete electronics were tables and tables of fine glass art. While riding by we were hailed by the wife, who organized this sale. I bought this bowl for $25. The back-story was this was art that had been sitting around the studio too long and needed to be moved out. It was priced to sell. It was all going for at least 10¢ on the dollar. The artist seemed not pleased with these events, but he participated in our sale. We also bought two handmade glasses, for a buck a piece. The husband was especially unhappy with that pricing. I compounded his misery with a bad joke, saying if you filled the glasses with beer, you could get much more. And yes I carried all this glassware on my bike.