Leaving Booneville after a nice visit we leave under a mottled sky of clouds but great temperatures. Rain ahead?
A mid-morning break at Pilot Grove.
We take a lunch break in Sedalia at Fitters on the patio. It’s been a good morning ride so we decided to challenge ourselves by eating a big lunch. Good thing we’re riding bikes as opposed to swimming or we’d all be in danger of cramps!
A few more short breaks in the PM and we finish our 15 miles at Kim’s Cabins around 3pm. Kim is a very big advocate of the Katy Trail and the pending development of the Rock island trail which currently starts near KC to Windsor and has just be approved by the MO legislature to extend to the east where it will connect with the Katy trail near Hermann. Will we love long enough to ride the loop? We will see.
We settled in at Kim’s with showers and fresh clothes. Then we walked to El Jalisco for an excellent dinner with abundant and inexpensive margaritas. We left full and well hydrated.
We had a little drizzle of rain in the evening which turned into an all night steady rain. I woke up around 3am to this radar picture and began thinking about how to finish our last 17 miles to our cars in Clinton. Even if the much needed rain stopped my morning the Katy would be a swampy mess until mid-day or later. Ultimately I texted Kim around 7am to see if she knew of any local shuttle services and sh offered to take Tom and I to Clinton in her car at 8. Tom and I drove back to Windsor and loaded up our cars, hugged good bye, and headed on our separated ways. Is to Poplar Bluff to see my Dad and Bernie and the Dixons back to Junction City where they cut grass and loaded up walnut logs for Mike to take to the mill, then they drove to Western KS for a very long day.
We had such a great time with the Dixons the last 2 weeks, lots of laughs, some great meals and places to stay. The ride like pros on their first cross country bike trip and we can’t imagine having better trail companions than Tom and Sharie!!
