Day 10

September 17, 2019

I did manage to get an early start today. I spent the night at the Hotel Bothwell. Lots of Katy Trail Bikers were there overnight. The motel tags each bike with the room number of the owner, and they are taken to the basement in the freight elevator. Except mine. Too long to fit in the freight elevator. So, it got moved to one room in the diningroom/bar that has a suite on the ground floor. I expect there were a lot of lookee-loos over a period of time. Even the fellow who works the front desk overnite told me he had taken a photo. When I came downstairs for breakfast, there were about 14 bikes in the lobby area, including mine. You could walk around the sitting room area of the lobby, but not thru.

There was one place where there were quite a few wild morning glory flowers all over the sides of the trail.

The humidity was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

I saw this interesting e-assisted homemade trike in Pilot Grove.

Looked to me like the Missouri River was still way up.

Seems like the humidity was about 100% this morning. The temperature was comfortable, whatever it was. Several times this morning, I saw what I thought were green walnuts on the trail. I had hit a couple, and it was like hitting a large rock. At one point, I stopped and took a closer look, and it turns out they were galls that had fallen off some tree. Saw quite a few interesting things during the first third of the trip. After that, it was more tree canopied trail. Made riding towards noon very nice. There were several old, rivited girder bridges left from the days of the railroad. There was also the one remaining MKT track signal, that has been beat up over the years. In quite a few places, the roadbed had been built up to keep the grade close to level. The banks of these "fills" or built up areas were overgrown with trees of various sizes that were part of the canopy over the trail. I got to looking in a couple of places, and if the trees had not been there, I would have thought I was cycling along the top of the Great Wall of China. The roadbed was maybe 8 to 10 feet wide, and then it was a very steep drop on BOTH sides for 40 or 50 feet! I was glad all those trees were there. It would have been spooky to ride across had they not been there. The place I had planned to spend the night was on the south side of town, but after crossing over Interstate 70, I never did come across any place to exit, so, I kept on.

Finally came to the old MKT station in downtown Boonville, where the chamber of commerce has its office. I asked the nice lady there if she could tell me about any lodging I might visit to find out about a room. She gave me the name and location of three places, and I came to the Boonslick Guesthouse and inquired. Yes, a room was available, with WIFI and guest laundry facilities as well! So, I am doing laundry for the first time in five days. Last time was in Newton.

After hearing bits and pieces from westbound bikers about flood damage, I finally got the scoop from the locals. There are two bridges on the trail that were washed out just west of Rocheport. Between Easley and Hartsburg there is a stretch of about 9 miles where the flood waters left quite a bit of silt, between 6 inches and two feet, depending, and not along the entire stretch, but enough to make the transit difficult. I have arranged for a shuttle to come by and pick me up in the morning at 8:00 am and run me over to Hartsburg past the worst of the damage.

Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 523 miles (842 km)

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