Boonville to Hermann (catching up on past posts)

M:  I'm a bit behind in my blogging so I'm going to combine several days together.  As we left the casino on Tuesday morning, it looked like rain.  After pedalling a short way, the sky cleared & we had beautiful weather for biking.  I felt a little tired early on, but after 10 miles or so, my energy kicked in & I felt fine for the day.  We've been averaging just over 35 miles a day, which seems about the right amount of biking for me. 

I wanted to mention some of the wildlife we've seen on the trail.  The wildlife certainly isn't as exotic as the wildlife we saw on our trip to Yellowstone this past summer, but abundant none the less.  In addition to the vultures we saw on Day 1, we saw several box turtles slowing making their way across the trail.  They were relatively easy to avoid.  At one point I was following Jim & he quickly swerved.  I looked down & saw a very hefty snake coiled up on the edge of the trail. I estimate that he was roughly 4 feet in length.  Later in the day I did manage to run over or shall I say, was unable to avoid a much smaller snake.  We did see 2 deer crossing the trail.  I wasn't terribly excited to see deer, since they are regular visitors to the apple tree in our yard back home. The trail was loaded with beautiful butterflies & small moths.  The moths would congregate in groups on the trail & fly off in a flurry as we sped by.  We started noticing frogs sitting on the trail & jumping out of the way as we approached.  The frogs became more & more plentiful.  Jim was slimed by one & one landed on my bike shoe.  I began to think that this was what Pharaoh went through when Moses sent the plague of frogs on Egypt in an effort to free his people.   Lastly,  we met a cat named Frank (as in Frank Sinatra) at the Globe Hotel.  He was waiting for us on the porch when we arrived.  One look at his  blue eyes & you'll understand why his owner, Jeanette named him Frank.

Our next day on the trail, Wednesday, was our longest day so far, roughly 43 miles. I'm riding well & have no sore muscles, which is kind of unexpected.  Toward the end of our day, we knew a storm was following us.  I hoped to make it to our destination, the Rendelman Bed & Breakfast before the storm.  I really pushed the last couple of miles and we arrived ahead of the storm.  I was very happy not to have been caught in the heavy downpour.

Thursday's ride was very short & we arrived in the town of Hermann by 10:30.  We stopped at what I thought was an Italian bakery (you can  probably imagine my excitement).  The bakery's name was something like Ballicletti's, so I thought to myself "Italian pastries, here I come"!  When we walked in, there were all sorts of wonderful breads with German names.  We did manage to find something really delicious, but I was a little disappointed that there were no Italian cookies or pastries.  We also found a chocolate shop that our innkeeper recommended.  We picked up a couple of different turtles as our afternoon treat.  They were delicious.

We're staying in the Captain Wohlt Inn, a very nice & comfortable place.  The high point of a low mileage day like today - a long afternoon nap.