Bike Katy Trail Day 2

 Ah sleep, it does a body good! Good thing because day 2 was a long day. I don't remember the church tower letting me know what time it was, ok, I remember 10, 12 and 6, then 8, so, if you ask me the bells don't ring on odd numbers.

Breakfast at the Bothwell...bagels, oatmeal, other cereals, toast, apples, bananas and the best coffee ever. Both Kristen & I noticed the amount of Styrofoam used to feed everyone, there has to be a better way.

The ride from Sedalia to Rocheport was a long one about 53 miles.

We made it to the trailhead and stopped for a bit, there was a bike shop & gift shop at the Sedalia Depot. After spending some $, we hit the street and wound through Sedalia following the Katy Trail signs that lead us to the continuation of the trail. We were fully loaded today. I had all 4 panniers and my camera bag, the hardest part for me was always getting started, once I was cruising, no issues.

 Along the trail you can see remnants of the old railroad line. Several times a day we would see old telegraph poles. I still need to google the use of the glass things aka insulators.

Some of the biggest remnants are the bridges. There were 3 types of bridges on the Katy Trail: Pony Truss bridge, Through Truss Bridge & other (just bridges, nothing exciting). We seemed to stop at most of the through truss bridges and several pony truss bridges. They provided good places to lean your bike & better places to take pics.

Below is a through truss bridge.

 

Lots of farming along the trail. Kristen road her bike down to the combine to take a picture of it. We knew she would be the first one to flat. The person who flatted today had to buy a round of drinks.

Another fun photo op! 

There were several geocaches along the trail, so far we were O fer DNF'd but we finally found one that lead to a cool old quarry and some of the first fall color.

At one point we started the grocery shopping game, it def passed the time:

Advil, baking soda, cardamon, dog food, egg plant, fubgo's, gourd, horse radish, icy hot, jello, Kepper line leaves, Lima beans, menudo, nectarines, oranges, pappiya, quinoa pasta, radishes, stout beer, tampons, underwear, Vicks vapor rub, watermelon, x rated movie, yogurt, zingers.

Time for lunch in Pilot Grove. We chose Becky's over the other place because no one was smoking inside of Becky's, additionally, they served pie--home grown apples, hand picked, cut & made into a scrumptious apple pie.

 Long day so far...and having a flat didn't help, neither did anyone else, the pavement was warm, so they took a catnap while I changed my tube. Ugh, guess I'm buying the first round of drinks tonight, at least it wasn't yesterday when dinner was on the line.

Looking at all the pics we took, we really saw a lot of interesting things all before lunch. After lunch we got 'lost' in Booneville (saw the sign for the Katy Trail w/ an arrow pointing in the opposite way we were going, but we chose to ignore it until the trail rail out). Crossed over the Missouri River in Booneville, then soon found Franklin and New Franklin.

There was remnants of a roundhouse in Franklin where they would turn the locamotives around, I guess today they just drive them backwards? must ask a train expert soon.

 More sights along the way, we really saw a lot on day 2. Wonder how to break that up for the next time?

This is a long blog....

 We made it to Rocheport, very cool tunnel just outside the town. Had fun making Victor ride back & forth through it for photos that didn't turn out so hot, and laughed when he slipped.

Rocheport looked like a really cool town to explore, but everything was closed, so we went to the B&B to unpack & find someplace to eat.

Our B & B for the night was a box car & I'll have to say that after sleeping in one, I think with a few adjustments I could live in one.

 

Once kinda settled, we started to look for a place to eat, no such luck, but the info notebook did say there were frozen pizzas for $5 in the kitchen...we were sold. Bee line for the kitchen only to find out (1) people we had talked to in Sedalia were staying there (2) and there weren't any pizzas! :-( So we started eating cereal and apples when another lady came down from the attic & just about lost it in laughter because the Texans were following her! After a few mins of laughter, she was on the phone to her son who was driving in from Colombia. He stopped at a gas station to see if he could find pizzas, no luck, but he did bring us beer! Problem solved. Yes, we went to bed kinda hungry. Where are those cans of beans & weenies when you need them?

********************************************************************************
Sedalia to Rocheport
Towns we passed by: Clifton City, Pilot Grove, Booneville, Franklin, New Franklin
Time in saddle: 4 hours 57 mins
Miles for today's ride:51.77
Total miles for the Katy Trail:91.69
Total miles for 2012: 2309.02
Miles to go:  -296.98  miles til 2012!!

Odometer
Cross:1091

my biking history

when riding home a week or so ago, I started thinking about when I first started liking bikes?

Was it when I got my first purple bike at age 4? or when my parents bought my neighbors blue banana seat Schwinn for me! (I thought the bike was blue, but in the pic above it's white, I bet my dad and I painted it blue..I like blue bikes) I remember w/ that bs Schwinn, we needed to get new tires, so my dad and I picked out racing slicks, I figured they'd make me go faster and help beat Mark McDaniel (I'm cracking up cuz I just connected w/ Mark on FB after writing this!) to school...and this was 1st or 2nd grade, at a time when kids got to ride their bikes to school! Such independence!

I had a speedometer and odometer on it (it was huge--tennis ball size!)...I was always trying to go 20 mph and wanted to break 1000 miles, not sure where I was mileage wise when the cable finally deteriorated, but I know I didn't hit 1000, now w/ my road bike, I can't wait to hit 10,000!

Anyhow, I know I endo'd on that blue bike on Potomac (street in the hood), got a bloody nose, but it didn't keep me from getting back on the saddle.

'Motocross' bikes came out, I soon figured out how to change my handle bars and seat..no more cool banana seat bike, I now had a motocross bicycle w/ my slick wheels. Never could use it to jump, but it was fun and looked cool!

In 5th grade I so wanted a 10 speed, the Schwinn Varsity, it was $120 at the Schwinn bike store that my 2nd grade teacher and her family owned (Plano Cycling --it still exists and I saw Mrs. Gurney at Hotter than Hell 4 years ago!), There was an American Heart Association bike-a-thon that November, and the winner would get a new Schwinn 10 speed, so I walked door to door in the hood collecting pledges. I rode 25 miles on my mom's sears 3 speed bike that did not fit, I'm thinking Sheryl Martin, Joni Nelson and someone else rode it w/ me. After the ride I walked door to door collecting the pledges. I raised $120. Turned out the person who won the bike raised $130! ugh! had I donated $15 of my own money, I would have won the bike. Maybe that's why I always make a donation to the fund rides I do now..oh wait it's cuz it's tax deductible.

So, my parents were going to buy me the 10 speed for Christmas, but they decided I needed to learn another lesson about money. They took me to the credit union and co-signed on a $120 loan for the bike. I had to make twelve $12 payments to pay it off, had my own payment coupon book (do they still do those?) I earned money by babysitting 3 kids for $1 an hour (fool) and making ans selling macrame plant hangers while babysitting. Chances are I paid off the loan early.

The next summer, I did a diabetes bike -a thon, but it was only 10 miles and I rode my new 10 speed! There were many prizes you could win based on the level of fundraising, since I raised over $100, I qualified for a whopper a week at burger king. I didn't like bk then and I still don't. My dad enjoyed eating his 50 whoppers!

Next year did the same fund ride, but they only gave a whopper a month away!

As I grew older I was always using my bike to go visit friends, shop and get to and from Wilson (middle school). Stupid things I remember about these rides: If you bring a hermit crab home in a cardboard box, don't assume the crab is going to be all nice and playful when you take him out of the box and put him in your hand. He's going to try and still hang on! If you wear striped panties, they will show through your shorts when you bend over to reach the handlebars, esp if wearing yellow shorts! It's not easy to carry a violin on the back of your bike and sometimes it falls off. Stacey swore she was never going to be able to have kids after riding home on the back of the bike on the 'book' rack, she later proved her comment wrong.

In 1989, I bought a mountain bike (Schwinn) and sold the old green Varsity for $40. The mtn bike is about to become yard art. while I loved mtn biking, it was a hassle--driving to the trails, finding someone to ride with you, keeping the bike clean...

1998 did my first Danskin triathlon using my husband's touring bike (like a road bike but wider wheels) Started to fall in love w/ road biking, summer 1999 stumbled across a road bike a friend was selling, a Vitus. Bought it from her and I've been biking tons since then. I put over 5,000 miles on that bike

2002 Diane signed up for the MS150 from Houston to Austin, she asked me if I wanted to do it. At first I balked, then she said, "you're going to be doing the training rides w/ me, so you might as well do it!" As usual, Diane was right. I will have to say, all that riding was quite the therapy for dealing w/ the divorce!

In 2004 I decided it was time for my 40th birthday present which I purchased a year early! Hope it lasts until I'm 50!

I've completed 4 MS150's (which were actually 170 miles), 1 ride for the Roses (50 miles), 3 Livestrong challenges (74, 42, 70) 2 hotter than /hell (100 miles, 100k), 1 tour de Cure (78) now for Le Tour (ok, at least a very small part of it!