Sedalia to Boonville

J:  Sorry for the lack of postings the on Sunday - the hotel's network was down.

We arose a bit earlier and were on the road by 8AM.  It was our plan to cover most of the days planned mileage (35) by lunch.  We stopped at the Sedalia Train Depot they had a gift shop and some other cyclists had stopped there as well.  One cyclist - Richard M was going to complete the Katy Trail through St. Louis and head south to New Orleans.  Richard was being encouraged to continue his cycling as he was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's.  Doctor's believe that cycling has a therapeutic affect on Parkinson's.  Richard decided to join up with Marie and I for cycling in the morning and we headed out towards Boonville.

Here's a picture of Marie and Richard at the Sedalia Train Depot-

As we rode along Richard and I discovered that we had a lot in common.  He inherited his family farm that he is considering to begin planting with organic produce.  He also is very interested in building his own energy efficient home and perhaps even dropping off the grid.  He owned his own ISP, benefiting from the technology boom, and sold it.  He's now retired and of course he loves cycling.  We have much in common.  He was a very interesting guy to talk with.  We joined him for lunch and then he went on his own way.  He was covering more mileage than we had planned for the day and he had to move on.  We'll follow along with him on his blog and we wish him luck in his travels!

Picture of one of the few remaining train signals on the Katy Trail -

Just after saying goodbye to Richard I discovered that I had a flat tire.  Two days in a row - frustrating!  Upon further inspection I learned that the patch installed yesterday was leaking a bit.  I fixed the patch and set out on the road an hour later.  So much for getting to the hotel in the early afternoon. 

I have had to really crank down on the rear wheel skewer because the trailer attaches to it.  If I hit a bump it can cause the trailer to pull on the skewer, the tire to shift in the frame and the brakes to rub.  After riding for about 20 minutes in what seemed like a very difficult section of trail I discovered that the tire was rubbing against the brakes.  When I spun the tire by hand I could hardly turn it.  I was working hard because of the trailer, but even harder with the brakes rubbing.  But that wasn't the end of it. 

We only had to travel 10 more miles to our hotel, but eventually the tire blew out entirely.  Despite the fact that these tires have less than a couple of hundred miles on them they had a defect.  This defect was casing the flats and the final blow out.  (I'm not happy with Specialized, but that is a whole other story).  It was hard to even find the defect, but I saw it just on the outside of the tire - a few fibers from the tire's belt were sticking through.  Good thing we had a spare tire (or two).  Another 1/2 hour+ and we were on our way again.  We probably lost over 2 hours due to mechanical issues.  Oh well, at least I'm in good physical shape and can handle the added workout!

We arrived at the Isle of Capri Hotel and Casino at 5PM.  It is a nice place.  We received complimentary dinner vouchers and $10 in free gambling money, which I pocketed.  That makes this hotel cheaper than the Super 8 we stayed in last night and it is a much nicer place.

Except for a slight accident M did great again today.  She was understanding and even helpful during my mechanical problems.  She's doing great!  Enough rambling for today.  See you next time...