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Missouri Tour Day 13 – Rest Day in Jefferson City

04 Saturday Jul 2026

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The problem with taking a rest day on a bike tour is that you are still on a BLEEPING bicycle.

Ok, only 5 miles today. Breakfast at First Watch, them a trip to CVS. I got bug repellent and Benadryl gel, Dana bought new sexy nerd reading glasses.

We rode here on a local bikway, and what did we see (and hear) but pickleball! We watched for a few minutes, that was enough. As for breakfast, Dana had candied bacon, and a pancake bigger than his head. I’m not trying to kill him, but First Watch seems to be. (If I kill him, it will have to be after this trip, because, alone, I could get lost on a bike trail.)

We went to the Missouri State Penitentiary, which is now a tourist attraction. We got a tour of the surviving buildings, with a warning to NOT close any of the cell doors because sometimes they will NOT open. I know they make these rules for people like me, so I was very careful. We saw Pretty Boy Floyd’s cell, and James Earl Ray’s. Dana thought I was nuts wanting to go there, but I think he enjoyed it, too. 

After lunch at Prison Brews – their restrooms are called Gas Chambers, we went to the Penitentiary Museum, also fascinating. But after a while, Dana found a chair in the AC more fascinating. So we Ubered back to our hotel (1.7m). We Ubered this morning too, because it’s hot, and why sweat on our day off. Now we are sitting in our air conditioned hotel room, doing absolutely nothing, and loving it 

So we both just looked at our phones and said “yeah, 7:15 is bedtime”. We are worn out. Dana had left over Prison Brews pizza for dinner. I’m not hungry. I’m looking forward to a lot of Gatorade tomorrow, even if it’s heavy and bad for me. 

So right now the only thing I’m really unhappy about is all of my BLEEPING bug bites. And when I showed them to Dana, he said “yeah, I have those”, and then we competed over it for a few seconds. Tomorrow we will use the bug repellent, and keep the Benadryl handy.

And it’s going to rain tomorrow! 😂 But at least I’m not worried about it killing my button. 

Missouri Tour Day 12 – Rocheport to Jefferson City

03 Friday Jul 2026

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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. 

Missouri Tour Day 11 – Booneville to Rocheport

03 Friday Jul 2026

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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.

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.

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.

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.