Mike road food – fritos and and pickle wrap (Tami didn’t want one, imagine that)

Friday was another hard day. Not because of the distance, but because we left the river and had to do some hill climbing. Sure they were railroad grade hills, but they still put a bit more strain on already tired legs. We got a bit later start than we intended as Tami discovered she had a flat tire when we went to our bikes. That may explain why she found the last two miles into town the day before especially hard.

Wildlife sightings included two deer crossing the path in front of us, and buzzards circling over our rest stop. We were not sure if they knew something about us, or were just attracted by the smell.

Along with the walnuts, we also started seeing some larger green balls on the trail, maybe the size of a softball. We later learned those are called hedge apples and also Osage oranges. Apparently the are the fruit of the Osage tree. The are not edible, but local lore says keeping them in your house keeps spiders away. Tami thought about bringing one home for the fall spider season, but decided it was a bit too large.

Osage orange

We ended the day in Sedalia at another classic old (and reputably haunted) hotel, the Bothwell. We had a really exceptional lunch there after we pulled in. Tami had an amazingly good lasagna, full of meat and with a great sauce. It was also larger than she could finish. Mike chose the daily special, an equally wonderful chicken and waffle sandwich with grilled peaches. The combination of the chicken and peaches really made it. The only issue was he had to go wash his hands when he was done, as a napkin was not even going to make a start on the residual peach syrup stickiness!

Coming into town we stopped at the old train station and bought some Katy Trail jerseys

Downtown Sedalia

Cool building in Sedalia

Old ad art in alley

Our crew – L to R – Huffy, Beaver, Arrow Man, Snowflake, Drew, and Bubba

Leaving town Saturday morning, we came across a large group of JROTC’s having a run event. They were leaving in groups on a timed out and back run. We guessed that each group represented a different school. For several miles we were passing groups frequently, both heading out and coming back. Some were going strong and some looked ready to drop. The one group that seemed to be having fun were walking it.

For two days we had been looking for the high point on the trail (Mike thought it was on day 5, but it wasn’t, much to Tami’s irritation). When we finally hit it on day 6, it was cause for celebration as it meant more down than up to the finish.

Mike at the high point (can’t quite call that a summit)

Old train signal along the trail

We pressed it a little harder as we started to smell the finish line. Our legs paid us back later for the extra effort. We pulled into the finish to a greeting of Subway sandwiches, cold drinks, and glorious showers at the local community center. We had been warned to bring our hotel soaps, and we were given the special “Bubba disposable towels”.

Done!

Modeling our new jerseys at the finish line (aren’t those guts supposed to be gone by now?) – oh yeah, Bubba fed us well, what cha gonna do

Just liked this building

About 2 we boarded the bus back to St. Charles, though not all of us found a seat. Despite Bubba having ordered a 40 seat bus, and confirmed a 40 seat bus, we got a 30 seat bus. Fortunately there were extra seats in the vehicles pulling the bike trailers, so we all made it. Halfway back we stopped at a DQ, and the run on ice cream was something to behold. We made a very brief foray into Ozarkland, but decided the DQ was a much better choice.

View from the bus

Passing back over the Katy

Ozarkland

By the way, we found out why the trail is called the Katy. The railroad company was called the MKT, for Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. MKT somehow got shortened to KT in popular parlance, and thus became known as the Katy.

Back in town we headed down to the OctoberFest in St. Charles, but it was too loud and chaotic, so we opted instead for a nice winery restaurant. Mike’s order of ribs was so large, however, that half is coming home in his suitcase. He MIGHT have to share with Keenan.