Today we began riding - 41 miles - Clinton to Sedalia. The jacket came off right away. The hotel was cold, but outside at 7am, it was 70 degrees and humid. Thunderstorms were predicted.
The Clinton trailhead. The Katy Trail is the longest rails-to-trails path in the USA. It used to be the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad.
The trail is not paved but rather hard-packed crushed limestone. Most of it is through a thick corridor of trees.
A couple of guys rode up beside me, the second one asked where I was from, etc. They were brothers from Hershey PA. One was a talker, the other was a Hershey bar. Of course I didn't understand what he meant. After the talker's brother retired, he wanted an easy job. He finally found the perfect job dressing up as a Hershey bar and traveling around representing the company at events. $15/hour and a truck. He frequently travels with 2 other guys: a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and a Hershey's Kiss.
It began to sprinkle as I got to Green Ridge. Other bicyclists arrived as the rain intensified. For a while, we were able to sit on the bench on the leeward side of a narrowly covered information "depot." Then it started to POUR and it was drier to stand on the bench. The 7 of us stood there for 2 hours until the storm moved on. We looked like chickens on a roost.
Before starting to ride the final 12 miles, we went for coffee at a convenience store (Dick, there are no Starbuck's out here) where Billie showed me how to make a pretty good cup of coffee: half coffee + half mocha from the cappuccino machine. What a discovery!
Sedalia humor. Tall post to receive airmail.
The second one is a high chair and a box of baby rattlers.
I should have camped tonight but chickened out
and got a tiny room at Hotel Bothwell.
This is not my bike, but does show what all our bikes looked like before cleaning and taking them into the hotel. There were at least 7 cyclists at the hotel tonight and we made quite a mess out on the sidewalk. Better there than in our rooms, I guess.
Dinner at Fitter's, the only place open in town on Memorial Day. At left, Harry and his friend Scott who will ride back to Clinton tomorrow and then drive back to Topeka.
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