Boonville to Hartsburg

J:  The Casino was a very nice place to stay.  We hated to leave, but the road called us.  For the first time on the bike trip we saw and then passed over to the north side of the Missouri River.  We'd be heading east and catching some parts of the Lewis and Clark trail. 

This section of trail was the nicest so far.  We made good time in the morning and were in the quaint little town of McBaine pretty quickly.  I decided to see if I could get my brake to stopping rubbing by visiting the local bike mechanic.  It was rubbing at each turn of the wheel and I thought that I might try and true the tire up.  I borrowed the mechanics spoke wrench and went to it.  Unfortunately, the brake rub persisted.  I decided to let the mechanic have at it, but he quickly determined that the tire was already pretty true. 

Without getting into the technical details, I'll summarize the problem by stating that the manufacturers choice of brake levers on my Specialized Tricross did not match the type of brakes I have (J-brakes or direct pull cantilevers).  This forces me to tighten the pads to a point very close to the rim and the slightest variation in tire trueness will cause the brakes to rub against the wheel.  This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the trailer is also attached to the rear wheel hub and bumps will sometimes cause the tire to go out of alignment.  Anyway, no solutions were found by the mechanic and he recommended another bike mechanic in a town that is off the trail.  I guess I just continue watching it myself and hope my legs can keep it up.

We had read on the Katy Trail website that there was an excellent Tai food restaurant in a town called Easley.  We pushed on pretty hard to arrive in time for a latish lunch (1:15 or so).  I know - you're saying that 1:15 is not so late.  But, remember these are very small towns and they often close for lunch at 2PM.  The web page warned us that this particular restaurant owner seemed to come and go as he/she pleased and that the restaurant times were quite variable.  Anyway we arrived only to find it closed.  We were very disappointed.  We ate an ice cream bar and drank a coke before we were on our way again.  We continue to meet other touring cyclists along the road.  It is fun chatting with them about their experience.

We arrived at the Globe Hotel (an old Inn really, with shared bathrooms and all) at around 3:00PM and met the proprietor - Jeanette.  She greeted us with lemonade and we happily consumed a couple of glasses full.  We grabbed a very late lunch / early dinner at the Bar and Grill next door.  We'll take it easy tonight and do some reading and a bit of sight-seeing on foot.

All in all it was quite a nice day.  Cloudy and just a small touch of rain early on, but sunny and blue by 9AM.  The temperatures over the last couple of days have been in the high 70's to low 80's.  Today we had a small headwind, but nothing that held us up.  Overall the weather has been outstanding, but a bit humid. 

Today was our largest mileage day to date and Marie held up quite well.  I think she was more energetic than I was, at least towards the end of the day.  She's doing great!  My legs are a bit sore, but I am doing fine.  Tomorrow we have our largest mileage day to date at nearly 43 miles.  We'll see how it goes.