Hartsburg to Rhineland

We were up and ready to go early, and breakfast was highlighted by some awesome home made muffins. We were dispatched down the road with bags of muffins for each, which was a nice addition to the day.

Standing Rock

We spent the day looking at the swollen Missouri, watching it lap at the trail as we went along. We passed Standing Rock and looked at past flood levels on it. Every major flood from 1903 to the last one in 1993 are marked on the rock. There may be more, but a lot of what's there is no longer legible.

We pedaled in to our destination in plenty of time. The Doll House in Rhineland. This place was chosen because the web site had images of good looking french toast on it, and good reviews of that same french toast, and I share my life with a woman who loves . . . you guessed it: french toast. Destination decided by breakfast food. I had thought the name of the place was because it was formerly owned by Ken and Barbie, but it didn't look at all like the Malibu Dream House Which was a good thing, actually. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to that much pink. It turns out the Doll family had lived there originally.

The house was easy to find, they had their own sign off of the trail, just past the ball field. The town is a bit odd. After the last big flood in 1993, most of it was relocated to the top of a bluff not to far away. There's an interesting footprint left behind in the form of part of the old street grid.

Doll House

The Doll House is the only original building from town left on the old town site. We had the place to ourselves. Apparently, the state website had reported this section of the trail to be flooded and everyone else was staying off of it. There was a  bit of weather that night, a thunderstorm that was pretty impressive even by Colorado standards. The tornado siren right outside out window didn't go off, so all was good. Storm aside, there's nothing like a good ride to lead to a good sleep.