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Day 3, Sedalia to Boonville - 45 Miles

    We had arranged for breakfast at 8:30 and found Kim busy at work cooking breakfast when we came down the stairs. We asked her about Sedalia House while she made our omelets. The property was originally a dairy with 400 acres. Three hundred fifty acres have since been sold off and Kim and Mark use the remaining acreage for horse boarding, some small farming and the B&B. The main house was built in 1910 and had small portions added on since. While eating our omelets, muffins and fruit bowls we spent way too much time talking about old houses and didn't get on the tandem until 9:45.

    Kim had recommended that we backtrack and take a look at the Sedalia Depot and the museum inside since it wasn't a great deal out of the way. She also showed us a road to take that would bypass the ride on Hwy 65, something Jeanette appreciated.

    We followed Kim's directions. The route took us on country roads and ended three blocks from the Sedalia Depot. The depot itself is an impressive structure and in excellent repair. Brett Dufur's book mentions that Sedalia was the trail's end for the Texas cattle drives and that was reinforced by one of the displays in the museum that featured pictures of Rowdy Yates (a young Clint Eastwood) and the crew from the TV series, "Rawhide." The real star of the show in the museum was the MKT railroad and most of the displays were about the coming and passing of the system. The museum has a well stocked gift shop but not a lot of Katy Trail items. I looked but just couldn't find something I wanted to remember the ride by. Jeanette did though. She found a small locomotive cutout to be hung on a Christmas tree that she planned to write the dates of our ride on. In addition, we bought a pile of post cards to send to our family and friends, something we do a lot of while touring.

    We had been waiting for the young couple going self contained with the trailer that we saw at Clinton to pass us but they never did. We found out later that they broke down in Sedalia, repaired the problem and then were going to cover 70 miles the next day. They must have ridden by while we were off the trail. We found Rodney and Rose Ann, the couple that was sagging for their son, Doug, waiting at almost every trail head we rode through. He would usually arrive just about the time we were ready to take off. We also found ourselves passing or being passed by another couple as we rode from station to station. A brother and sister in their mid-50s were riding in the same direction we were. They didn't have any gear and we presumed they were on a day ride. 

    The weather was perfect for the ride as it had been the day before with temperatures in the low 60's at the start of the ride, warming to about 80 in the early afternoon. The ride took us through fields and areas that are being restored to the Ozark plains of pre settlement. Sometimes the path would be open and other times it would be canopied with trees. Unfortunately the trees were for the most part still green and only a few showed signs of change. People along the trail said that the state had suffered a drought most of the summer followed by heavy rains and they were doubtful if much color change would take place before the trees lost their leaves.

    It seemed as if the entire ride was slightly up hill. Not noticeable to the eye but just enough to knock 2-3 miles off the top speed of the bike and to cause us to work up a good sweat for most of the way. We stopped at Pilot Grove for lunch since a grocery store faced the Pilot Grove Depot and they featured a sandwich counter where one could order a variety of sandwiches at reasonable prices. We weren't the only ones eating there. A collection of cyclists were parked in front of the store, at the depot and two bicycles could be seen outside the beer bar next to the store as well. One of the riders going east to west was equipped for self contained and was riding a Bruce Gordon. It was the fifth time he had ridden the trail. While we were eating our lunch we were entertained with a parade/rally of about 60 K-8 kids from one of the local schools who were marching down the street in front of the store with banners getting ready for a basketball game.

    I must have been right about the gradual incline of the trail because once we left Pilot Grove we found some good gradual downhill riding, a welcome relief after 30 miles of pedaling without coasting. What goes down must come up and the final ride into Boonville took us back up a small series of grades before arriving at the Boonville Depot, complete with a Tourist Information Center. We had decided on eating dinner again before going on to our B&B since it was across the Missouri River from town. We asked the lady at the TI where she would eat. She gave a pretty glum look and said, "Well, it's Monday, most places aren't open." She gave us a list of three on Main Street and directions on how to get there. We rode on passing the casino, her last chance alternative if all of the other places were closed.

    The trail took us right to the foot of Main Street and the access to the bridge across the Missouri. As we reached street level we saw a mural on the side of the Riverside Cafe and towards the bottom we saw a sign indicating the high water mark of the flood of 1993. We would find many more flood markers along our ride the next six days. We walked the bike along the street, looked at the soldier's memorial and another memorial, a series of bronze statues honoring various town pioneers and then checked out the various suggestions for dinner. All were closed. That left us with only the Isle of Capri Casino and it's $12.95 smorgasbord as a choice. We backtracked ourselves and cabled the tandem to the bike rack next to where the motorcycles park and walked into the casino. The smorgasbord was to the left and the slots to the right. We turned left. 

    A friendly waiter seated us and brought me a large diet coke. We filled our plates, the first with salads, the second with entrees, the third with dessert. During the meal our waiter checked our glasses and ended up bringing me three more large diet cokes. The long uphill ride must have really dehydrated me. I was thirsty. During his trips back and forth he told us that the casino was one of a chain and that they were pretty good to work for. The casino is built on a large barge that floats in a special basin dug out for it next to the Missouri River. Since the river was extremely low I suspect that the barge was really sitting on the bottom. 

    The dinner was filling but not up to the casino standards I expected. One of the entrees I selected were about seven breaded "prawns." I ate one and thought, funny, I didn't find any meat. I dissected the next and found that the "prawn" was about the size of a cocktail shrimp and must have been rolled in dough until about an inch of pasty flour stuck to it. I think the chef needs to take a trip to Reno and sample some of the lavish spreads the casinos there put out, it seems, without competition, that only OK is good enough.

    We were booked into the Rivercene Mansion. The lady at the TI had given us directions on how to find it. We retraced our route to the foot of Main Street and instead turned north for our ride across the Missouri River on the dedicated bike/foot access. We rode halfway across the river and stopped in the middle. The Missouri was way below its banks with lots of mud islands showing but still beautiful in the sunset. We took pictures of the sun setting behind the old railroad bridge to the west of our location and then rode on to the Rivercene, crossing the highway east as soon as we reached the end of the bridge. The ride was a short one and we reached the mansion right at dusk. I parked the tandem in a carport of an outbuilding and Merijo, the mansion's owner and host invited us in and showed us our room.

    The Rivercene, built by Riverboat Captain Joseph Kinney in 1864 has a long and varied history and portions of that history are scattered throughout the house for the guest to see. It's had some famous and infamous guests including Jesse James (who, "was a lad who killed many a man. He robbed the Danville train.") and although he was supposed to have robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, I'd bet that most of the poor were his relatives. Besides, who would want to rob from the poor, they don't have anything worth stealing. The story goes that Jesse was staying at the Rivercene trying to figure how to bust his brother Frank out of the Boonville jail when the sheriff's posse came looking for him. He escaped to the river, then much closer to the house, and left in a rowboat getting clean away. For those not familiar with western history, Jesse finally got his comeuppance in his own home. He supposedly was hanging a picture on the wall when one of his gang, Robert Ford, shot him in the back of the head for the reward of $10,000, a princely sum for the time, offered by the St Louis Midland Railroad. Ford was later charged with murder for the shooting.

    Our room was on the second floor and was very large. The architect had designed the room with a large closet which had been converted into a shower and toilet. The pedestal wash basin was just outside the bathroom door. The furnishings were an eclectic collection including the large king size bed. There was no TV but we didn't mind since we both had books to read. The bed was comfortable but I did notice that the floor sloped and I could feel it when lying down, just enough to make me feel not quite level. A small refrigerator was outside the room. Unbelievably, even after the four large glasses of diet Coke at the casino, I was still thirsty. I downed two more cans of diet Coke before going to sleep.

Critter count for the day:
Turkey vultures -2
Wild Turkeys - 2
Snakes - 2 (a 3 foot black rat snake and a smaller yellow and black garter)
Hawks - 2
Squirrels - dozens

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Recommended:

Rivercene Bed & Breakfast
Hosts: Merijo & Bill Alter
127 County Road 463    
New Franklin MO 65274
(800) 531-0862, or (660) 848-2497
hosts@rivercene.com

Ambience: ****
Bathroom: ***

Breakfast: ****
Cost: $101.05

Day 4 - Boonville to Rocheport - 20 miles