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8:30 AM

I’m sitting in the bike cafe where we had lunch yesterday, waiting for Dana to maybe put yesterday’s wet stuff in the dryer in the Lewis (and maybe Clark) building next to the boxcar. Last night was the first night in forever that Dana was hot and I was cold. You just never know. 

Today we will ride 40 miles to Jefferson City. It is the capital of Missouri. I believe I learned that in 8th grade, then  promptly forgot it after a quiz. Now I will remember it. Maybe. 

7:30 PM

We are in a Mexican restaurant in Jefferson City. We had to walk through some questionable intersections to get here. We’re watching a Spanish soap opera. Since I didn’t have to bike here, I am happy. 

Drumroll please ..

The BLEEPING button broke!

BLEEEEEEP!

It must have been the rain. If we’d only spent more time touristing yesterday. 😡

So we’re going to see if it dries out, but I think it’s dead, at least for now. So I put on my big girl panties and rode 40 miles today on chat (that’s the actual name for gravelsand). At a whopping 9.1 mph. And Dana didn’t accuse me of meandering once. ❤️

Once I got over the BLEEPING button and we both accepted my slug pace – slow enough for every biting insect in Missouri to find us – we had a nice ride. We saw Boat Henge, and met a dog. The cyclist sitting at the trailhead with the dog said, “he’s not mine, and whatever you do, don’t throw him that stick”.

So you know I threw him the stick, right? And I threw that stick a whole lot of times (thanks to my bionic shoulder), and eventually the stick disintegrated, and I got him another stick. Then Dana brought him to the dog fountain at the trailhead, but he much preferred the stick to hydration. So finally we had to leave, and we felt terrible, but just then a car pulled up on the bike trail (probably a no-no, but whatever), and it’s the dog’s owner. She said whenever he gets out, she knows where to find him, because he loves playing with cyclists. The dog’s name is Gus.

We made it to Jefferson City, but to get on the bridge with a bike, you have to climb a BLEEPING structure. And it’s like 12 levels of 3% grade with sharp turns and … just no. Not for me. So I walked up the thing. On the plus side, the button wouldn’t have helped, because I am a wimp. 

So we got to the hotel through some questionable intersections, and we did the laundry. And I seem to have lost a bike outfit, and it may be in the bike room at the boxcar, but if it isn’t, oh well 

Tomorrow we are taking a day off to check Jefferson City off our bucket lists, and then we’ll have two 40-mile days, and one 24-mile day, to St. Charles. I still have 3 outfits left. 👍

And what with the dead button and the oozing knee and the lost outfit and the broken shifter, we are having a WONDERFUL time. And thanks to our generous cat sitters, Sally and SuzAnne being 2 of them, we aren’t rushing through this. And as strong as Dana is, he’s tired too. I could tell because he was stopping at every historic marker today, suddenly fascinated with Lewis and Clark and the Missouri River.