Katy trail ride: Day 2
Day 2 of our ride was the 4th of July, which meant nothing was open. I was sad to miss the gift shop and bike shop at the Sedalia station, but we did get some photos of the station and each other. Most of those are on another person's camera but here is one of the station and one of their cool bicycle racks, with my fully loaded bike parked in it. There was also one of those painted photo stations and I got to be the little kid with Elin as dad. They dubbed me Baby and Baby I stayed for the rest of the trip. Roger modified it to baby sister, telling any one who would listen that Elin was his big sis and me his baby sis.
We had a little hiccup leaving the station, which cost us a half an hour and about 5 miles of wandering through Sedalia, narrowly missing their 4th of July parade and getting Steve a bit put out, but spirits rose as our journey continued. The sky was blue and the weather was unusually pleasant (not humid or hot as one could expect). "Sky King" was dusting a field neighboring the trail, so we saw and heard his plane many times. The last time he came up out of nowhere right over the trail, flowing very low, and startled all of us. I saw many butterflies, including 7 monarchs, and my first indigo bunting.
We had snagged bagels and fruit and peanut butter from the breakfast at the hotel, which served as our lunch. It was a very good thing we'd done so, because everything was closed that day, not that we encountered too much, honestly. The trail is rather lonely, with most of its little towns abandoned after the railroad left and the floods came. It is, however, also quite beautiful, surrounded at times by corn and soybeans and other times by forest with glimpses of rocky bluffs and the Missouri River, which was running quite high and fast this July.
We stayed our second night of riding in Boonville, at the Comfort Inn which was not located near downtown. I would recommend trying to stay at the Hotel Frederick if only because it is on the river downtown, though I enjoyed the large variety of hot items at the Comfort Inn's complementary breakfast. For dinner we rode into Boonville and had pizza, beer, and gelato, all of which was utterly fantastic. We avoided the casino but did stop by the depot (which was closed) to check out the bike stand with pump and bike tools permanently located there. Elin needed to fill up her tire, which was a bit low. They had a green and yellow Katy caboose and, of course, I took a selfie. Have to have one, right?
I have decided I am not very good at taking selfies.
We had a little hiccup leaving the station, which cost us a half an hour and about 5 miles of wandering through Sedalia, narrowly missing their 4th of July parade and getting Steve a bit put out, but spirits rose as our journey continued. The sky was blue and the weather was unusually pleasant (not humid or hot as one could expect). "Sky King" was dusting a field neighboring the trail, so we saw and heard his plane many times. The last time he came up out of nowhere right over the trail, flowing very low, and startled all of us. I saw many butterflies, including 7 monarchs, and my first indigo bunting.
We had snagged bagels and fruit and peanut butter from the breakfast at the hotel, which served as our lunch. It was a very good thing we'd done so, because everything was closed that day, not that we encountered too much, honestly. The trail is rather lonely, with most of its little towns abandoned after the railroad left and the floods came. It is, however, also quite beautiful, surrounded at times by corn and soybeans and other times by forest with glimpses of rocky bluffs and the Missouri River, which was running quite high and fast this July.
We stayed our second night of riding in Boonville, at the Comfort Inn which was not located near downtown. I would recommend trying to stay at the Hotel Frederick if only because it is on the river downtown, though I enjoyed the large variety of hot items at the Comfort Inn's complementary breakfast. For dinner we rode into Boonville and had pizza, beer, and gelato, all of which was utterly fantastic. We avoided the casino but did stop by the depot (which was closed) to check out the bike stand with pump and bike tools permanently located there. Elin needed to fill up her tire, which was a bit low. They had a green and yellow Katy caboose and, of course, I took a selfie. Have to have one, right?
I have decided I am not very good at taking selfies.