Day 8

September 15, 2019

This morning was very pleasant when I left Butler at 7:30 am. It was nice enough my vest and Froggtoggs jacket stayed packed away. Rode thru lots of corn fields today. There were rollers, as I expected, but they were not as long and steep as what I went thru between Osawatomie and Butler. Today's rollers were long and gentle, with a few shorts and steeps thrown in for good measure.

The Koehn Bakery in Butler, MO. Was owned by Mennonites until last year.

As to the tablet problem, a person I met and got to talking to while taking a rest break knew of someone who might be able to help me with my tablet. His son. They came over to the motel last evening and in short order, my tablet was back up and running. Thanks Doug!

Looking west on Hwy 18, Ballard, MO is in the distance.

Once I reached Clinton, I called "Geeks are Us" and canceled the appointment I had on hold. I then called the motel here in Windsor, asked if they would have a room available for one night (yes) and I told them I would be rolling in about two hours from then. I did not know where the Trail Head for the Katy Trail was, in Clinton, other than off some busy highway. I knew the general area, and basically sailed around until I bumped into it.

Somewhere in Clinton, I ran over something and got a wire thru my rear tire. It caused a slow leak, but, being within 18 miles of my destination, I figured I could stop several times and pump air into the tire. Having a slow leak in the rear tire made pumping air into it a snap. I did not even have to remove the pump from the rear rack. All I had to do was roll the bike until the valve was within reach of the hose on the pump, hook everything up and pump air in right there.

Looking east from the Clinton Trailhead.

How to pump up the rear tire without removing the pump from the rack.

The Katy Trail is really very nice. There was only one stretch of about two or three miles where there was direct sunlight on the trail. After that, it was mostly shade. Only saw four people in the 16 mile stretch between Clinton and Windsor. With all the trees making shade, there were dead leaves and small twigs and such all along. I had to pull some of the leaves and twigs out of my underseat rack after I got to the motel. After unloading the bike and getting everything moved into the room, my next task was to fix the slow leak in the rear tire. I pulled the rear tire, patched the tube, pulled the wire, re-mounted the wheel assembly on the bike and was back in business. See the next entry for images of how I can do that, single handed, with a 104 pound bike.

I went back to the local Casey's to get more chocolate milk and a sandwich. While there, I watched an Amish single horse drawn, four place wagon drive by. The hardware store across the street from Casey's was open, so I went over there to look around. When I came back out, there was an Amish two seat wagon out in the parking lot. The man had stopped to water his horse at the trough in the parking lot of the hardware store. I walked over and asked if I could look at his rig while he was watering his horse. Leaf spring suspension for the passenger compartment and fiberglass wheels with hard rubber tires. I did not even think about asking to take a picture. Amish folks don't like anyone taking a picture of them. After that, I rode out to look at the Amish bulk food store (closed on Sunday) out north of town a couple of miles. I pulled the bike off the road in front of the store, and while looking around, I heard a horse coming up the hill. It was the same rig I had seen from Casey's. Not wanting to spook the horse with my bike, I stayed put until they had driven around and started up the drive to the house next to the store.

When I got back to the motel, I spoke with a couple who are touring the Katy Trail driving their car to one area, getting a motel room for a couple days and exploring the trail from that particular location, except they started in St. Charles. They told me there were several areas on the eastern end of the trail, particularly around Augusta, where there were detours onto local roads and highways to get around flood damage from last June. Seems the flooding was worse than in 1993.

Today's ride: 64 miles (103 km)
Total: 460 miles (740 km)

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