9:00 AM (Day 10)

Ok, I think I’m better now.

I’m sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Fredrick in Boonville, MO. Based on everything in this hotel, I should be dressed like an extra on The Gilded Age. I love everything about these hotels – the original light fixtures, tile floors, Victorian furniture, radiators, the whole thing. I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t really want to live in that world. Although, right now, I might prefer one of those dresses to bike clothes. 

The ride yesterday wasn’t really flat – about +3 to -3. But this surface adds a lot of resistance, and there’s a lot of debris on the road, so no riding double because you need room to zig and zag. Dana kept yelling TREE as a warning. I kept yelling GATE.

So it should have been an easy 36 miles, but you can’t coast on this surface, even downhill. But we saw pastures, farms, prairie, creeks, cows, wildlife, and amber waves of grain. All at whopping 11.4 mph. Dana started humming “See the USA in your Chevrolet”. Unfortunately, we don’t know the rest of the words, because even I can’t remember a jingle from before I was born. So we sat on a bench at a trailhead and watched Dinah Shore sing it in 1954. It’s a long jingle, and I’m probably too old to memorize it now.

We had lunch in Deon’s Bar and Grill in Pilot Grove. Every appetizer name started with Fried. We tried 3 of them, they were all delicious. They have something here called Corn Nuggets, which are basically deep fried creamed corn. We had dinner at the hotel. Dana had a chimichurri steak called the Disco Fred. It was amazing, although I doubt it was served here during the gilded age.

We’re going to explore Booneville, and learn about Daniel Boone before we head to Rocheport where we have reserved a boxcar for the night. Daniel Boone moved here when he was 65 years old, but if you are cool enough, they’ll name it after you anyway. Besides, he lived here another 20 years. It was called Boone’s Lick. No place in Brooklyn, or even Westford, is called Lick.

Here’s the sign in front of the museum.

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1:30 PM (Day 11)

We got to our boxcar in Rocheport, after 15 miles of rain. Everything was caked in sandmud, including our hair. Everything is now clean, if very wet. We’ve showered, and patched up Dana’s knee, and now we are going to walk up the road to someplace that’s supposedly open for lunch, or dinner, or wine, or whatever. And if we don’t find anything, that’s ok.

It’s open!  We may just sit here until the wine place down the road opens at 5:00. Dana ordered second breakfast, I had jam toast.

Sally just mentioned a tornado warning back home. Here we are in serious tornado country – like Margaret Hamilton on a bicycle country – and we don’t have a tornado warning. But there are instructions in the boxcar in case there is one. P.S I hope it never gets past a warning at home.

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4:00 PM

We’ve been arguing for years about the balance between the words “bike” and “touring”. And, as many of you may know, Dana has been posting this trip on Strava. So we’re speaking somewhat independently, from those different perspectives, about the same trip. 

But this morning, Dana didn’t want to do the touristy thing because he was afraid of rain. FYI, we would have gotten equally wet whether we went to the museum or not (we did go to the museum). Turns out, if we’d touristed for 2 more hours, we would have been perfectly dry. 

About the boxcar … It’s like a camper trailer, but way cooler. It’s part of the Katy Trail Bed and Bikefest. There are a few different rental units, 2 of which are named Lewis and Clark it’s just nice, in the least fancy way possible.

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7:00 PM

We had wine and apps at the winery, then walked across town (5 min) for dinner at a the General Store. Rocheport is a lovely, friendly town. As we drank our wine, we watched chickens graze. We’re not sure what kind of chickens they are, and since I learned everything I know about chickens from The Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour, I will not try to figure it out

The General Store used to be Richard Saunders pharmacy. Everything here is old, or handmade, or both. And we’re loving it. 

And guess who just walking in! Kelly and Luke! This is so much fun.