Katy Day 10 Windsor

Our last big day today, 58 mi to Windsor from Booneville, started beautifully with morning cloud cover and cool temps.  We were on the road by 7:30 with hopes of getting in without getting rained on. 

Our plan was to ride steady until we get to Sedalia for lunch and find a dry way to get to Windsor between the little rain systems that were blowing through.  We took a quick stop at Pilot Grove which was celebrating 150 years with a big festival and an A-10 Warthog flyover from Whitman Air Base!!!

A tasty lunch at Fitters Bar around 11:30 in Sedalia. The last 22 miles to Windsor look pretty good as far as weather so we maintain a slow and steady (tired!) pace. 

Kim of Kim’s Cabin meets us at our cabins at 3:45pm to greet us and introduce us to the cabins and the town.  She’s very involved with the state legislature and supporters of the expansion of the Missouri Rails to Trails effort.  

We showered, collapsed on our beds for about 30 minutes and then waited for the rain to stop. We pampered a black cat for a while and until the rain had stopped long enough to walk to El Jalisco for great margaritas and food before collapsing in bed for the night. 

Katy Day 9 Booneville

We’re leaving The Globe, after a leisurely breakfast and another nice chat with Leia at 9am.  We had only 38 miles to ride today but Tom snagged us a 2pm tour at the Warm Springs Farm, home of the Anheiser Busch Clydesdales just 15 minutes before so now we had to ride hard. 

We had time for a quick picture of Boat Henge shortly after passing Cooper’s Landing. 

We also managed to find the +400 year old Burr Oak just before McKane.  Tom looks so tiny. 

Tom also arranged our transportation from Meriweather Cafe in Rocheport to the Clydesdale farm via Donna, a local bike shuttler. She was a peach and waited about an hour  to take us back.  

Donna worked her magic to get us in through the guarded gates to the farm. That turned out to be our guide Emmy in the golf cart. 

Emmy’s leading our tour in a very entertaining way and we learned many things. She’s telling the smokers to leave before they start a fire in the stalls. 😬 

We learned that Angela is 161/2 hands tall. 

We learned that Clydesdales come from Scotland, there’s a lot of horse sex going on with stallions and mares in the breeding room, and we learned that Clydesdales are HUGE and their baby’s are also very big but also very cute. 

After the tour Donna returned us to our bikes in Rocheport and we rode 14 miles to Booneville.  We started finishing our ride to Booneville around 3:30 so this would be our longest “day” on the trail. It was a bit hard, especially after the free Budweisers back at the farm.  

After a fat boy (speaking of me and Tom) and lovely dinner at the Fred we wandered to the convenience market and stocked up on snacks to eat tomorrow on our long ride to Windsor and Kim’s Cabins. We took a nice stroll back to the Frederick where we quickly crashed for the night.  

But not before a visit to the war memorial and the setting sun. 

Katy Day 8 Hartsburg

Heading south out of Hermann at 8am after our pleasant stay at the Vinchester last night. The forecast looks pleasant today with a chance of rain.  We shall see as we head west to Hartsburg 54 miles away. 

Really nice conditions today, on the trail and the landscape as weather above is. Tom leads the way through yet another cool canopy of trees. 

Towards the end of our ride Angela and I bring up the rear into Hartsburg with a quick rest at the N. Jefferson trail head.   

Sharie and our host Leia share a moment on the front porch of the Globe Hotel B&B before dinner. 

Speaking of dinner you can see that Thursday is not our night of dining options. We have one choice, the Hitching Post which offered beer, liquor, smoking, billiards, a rowdy local crowd at the bar, and frozen pizza.  Oh, I forgot  one patron’s cattle dogs who had been clearly begging for food every night at that bar for years! Our young server was great though and the pizza was pretty tasty, with beer and Pepsi products to wash it down with.  There a 102 people in Hartsburg and one out of four of them were at the bar tonight. Good times.  

After the Hitching Post we wandered 1/2 mi to the local little league field to see some 8&9 year olds battle it out on the Field of Dreams.  The Dixons enjoyed their first even Walking Frito Taco. It’s been a big day, and a big night!

Good night Hartsburg!

Katy Day 7 Hermann

Sharon leads Tom and us west on the Katy on a much cooler and cloudy day than we’ve been having. The high today was low 80’s and we had mostly cloudy skies and even a bit of rain before noon. But it was good riding. 

So many black snakes and so little time to spend with them.  

That black snake must have been bad luck for me today because as I crossed the highway behind me I picked up a sound in my rear wheel like a stick was plucking every one of  my 36!spokes.  I stopped immediately and did all the usual visuals and could find nothing.  Pulled the wheel out of the frame and it spun like a top, so, setting it back in led me to a tiny little spring clip that had moved out of place in my disk brake assembly and it was grabbing every cooling perforation in my disk.  After tweaking the spring somewhat out of the way with my Swiss Army knife it only rubbed on the perimeter edge of the disk and I caught up with our group 30 minutes later, quietly squealing all the way. 

It’ll be good enough to get me home and who knows, I may wear it down to a ignorable nubbin!

Katy Monument treasures along the way.  

Finally, 64 miles later we enter Hermann, the winery, whiskey distilling and beer brewing capitals of east, middle Missouri!!

There’s a place called Doxi Slush that has 20+ slushy machines filled with liquor flavored frozen drinks.  Tom didn’t like his “margarita” flavored drink so hating waste like I do, I volunteered to take one for the team  and drank it outside of The Concert Hall and Barrel Tavern before dinner. We should have brought our Marlboros because they allowed smoking in there.  Crazy Town Hermann. 

Katy Day 6 St. Charles Down Day

A day of rest ahead for us in the nice town of St. Charles. 

Aftet late morning massages the Dixons took time to give there bikes a little TLC too. 

William and MariKay Byrnes, Angela’s friends from Wednesday Night Zoom Trivia who live in St. Charles, offered to take for a nice drive in the car back Montelle Winery for a tasting and luck over looking the Missouri River Valley and the Katy Trail near Augusta. 

Katy Trail Day 5 St. Charles

After a good nights sleep we had a delicious breakfast at our B&B adjacent Rowdy Rooster before we headed to St. Charles to finish our  Eastward leg of the Katy. 

We had about a 39 mile ride to our hotel in St. Charles and Bill Amos offered to meet us half way from his home town. He met us in Matson and road back to St. Charles with us after a quick stop for beer, food and darts in Defiance. 

2pm and we arrive at the St. Charles TH and get our pictures in front of the Lewis and Clark (and Seamen the dog) tribute to their exploration of the West via the Missouri River which began in St. Charles.  

After showers and a little rest we met up with the GE clan for dinner at Schlaflys.  L-R Connie Klenke, Sharie, Me, Marvin, Dan Klenke, Bill Amos, John & Sue Garrett, Steve Richards, and Angela. It was an enjoyable dinner and a great way to end the Eastern traverse of the Katy.  We’ll rest a day in St. Charles and retrace our route back West with different towns to stay in. 

Katy Trail Day 4 Marthasville

Today was a long, hard day. We left Jeff City at 5:45 and road 70 mi to Marthasville arriving about 3.  The Dixons, who have never bike toured proved to be strong and hard as nails and led most of the day. We met up with the St. Louis crew at Tibbetts 16 miles into our ride, saw them off and on through out the day and met them later in Marthasville. 

We had planned to meet everyone in Rhineland about 40 mi into the day at a usual little restaurant that had been around for a while.  We had been riding hard and were soooo looking forward to AC and a nice rest and food.   When we finally got there we find out the restaurant burned down in May!  Luckily there was a working machine with really cold sodas for $.75 cents and we and our crushed souls were reborn again. 

We found a small patch of shade from the heat  and relished our good fortunes. 

We met many, many animals along the Katy today.  Besides this goat heading back to his friends we saw 3 dead armadillos, 2 squirrels we hit with our bikes and 100’s others we didn’t, 3 turtles (one Angela relocated to the side of the path) 2 snakes, and one frog. 

Besides the heat and the animals that tried to impede our progress we had many fallen limbs to bypass but even this big one blocking the trail did not deter us from our destination!

We finally found our AC/refreshment in Treloar around 2pm, after 60 miles!  

After showers we have a nice dinner at Philly’s Pizza, wander over to the KT Caboose for ice cream and then catch the last inning of a baseball game before returning to our rooms for a well earned sleep. 

Katy Trail Day 3-Jefferson City

At 8am we’re leaving the Katy Trail B& B on our way to the capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City.  We have 40 miles ahead of us and a nice morning to start off in. 

This little guy decided to hitch a few miles on my handle bar bag today. It was a pretty steady consistent riding today with dispersed short stops to rest and dehydrate our bodies after drinking water the last 10 miles.  We had a nice lunch in the A/C cooled The Burg in Hartsburg.  It was starting to heat up and our typical canopy of  trees was wearing thin. 

We finished up our ride a little after 2pm, checked into the DoubleTree and rested until we met up with John Garrett and Steve Richards who have been “having fun “ riding the Butterfield Stage gravel route.  They’ll ride the same route as us on the Katy to St. Charles.  A nice dinner with lots of stories of Type Two fun.  

Katy Trail Day 2

We start our 51 mile day from Sedalia to Rocheport at 6:45. Angela and Sharie lead the way through the morning dew.  

The Dixons stop by one of the few if not only remaining train signals left from the original railway. 

We meet Glenda Sue in Pilot Grove where she operates an organic store across from the Caseys’s. She was one of the original founders of the MO Organic Farm organization and still serves as an auditor for farms around the country.  She also makes a wicked peach pie jams and sandwiches. 

This was the $4 slice of pie we bought.  It was almost half of the pie!

The ladies continue to lead the way during the afternoon as we make our way towards Booneville. 

Our first sighting of the mighty Missouri River from the old Katy Bridge in Booneville . 

We been passing Justin off and on today without ever speaking but after crossing the Missouri River at Booneville we found him in distress over a blister on his little toe.  Ang gave him some moleskin and I some Vaseline to reduce the friction on then toe.  I expect we’ll see Justin from Warsaw MO later. 

The Dixons ride into the tunnel just before we get to our stop for the night, Rocheport, right as a thunderstorm was breaking out. We stayed dry though by having some food and drink at the Merriweather Bike Cafe. 

After cleaning up from the hot day at a little and slightly weird Katy Trail B&B we enjoy a nice sunset and dinner of steak, pork Wellington, and beef stroganoff at the Bistro Le Bourgeois. Tasty. 

We take in the dusk over the Missouri River as we walk back along the Katy to get some rest for the next day.