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Day 4, Boonville to Rocheport - 20 miles

    After waking and showering I went down early to get a cup of coffee and talk to our hosts. I had learned the day before that Bill, the husband of our hostess Merijo, was a state senator. I found Bill puttering in the kitchen, helping Merijo with the breakfast. Bill and I talked a short time about politics. He seemed a little reluctant to talk about issues but did tell me that he had served in the state legislature's lower house for twenty years and had retired only to be called up by the Republican Party to campaign in a special election for a state senate vacancy in his district. He commented on the current high cost of campaigns saying that in his campaigns for a seat in the house, he never spent over $100,000 but that the campaign for the state senate had costs into the millions.

    We were joined by six others for breakfast, two couples traveling by auto and, surprisingly, the brother and sister team we had seen on the trail. Merijo served a breakfast of quiche, sticky buns, and fruit along with coffee, tea and juice. After, she showed us a film of how the Rivercene fared in the flood of 1993. The video, starring John Forsythe of "Dynasty" fame, showed the house being slowly overwhelmed by the flood waters while the previous owners moved and raised furniture to minimize damage. The water rose to 43 inches up the walls of the first floor before finally receding. Repairing the damage took lots of love, care and money. In the end, after a few years, the owners at the time of the flood sold the house to it's current owners, the Alters.

    Merijo took us on a tour of the house, showing us areas we had not seen the night before.  The house is decorated with lots of memorabilia throughout, some of it museum quality. While there, you are always aware that you are in the midst of Missouri history. During the tour, a cab pulled up front. The brother of the brother-sister team met the cab and loaded their luggage, having the cab act as sag wagon. We had no clue how far they had planned on riding that day. In touring the house it became apparent just how much it would cost in time and money to bring the place to 100% of it's former splendor. Much of the exterior wood trim is badly split and many of the surfaces both exterior and interior, while not crumbling, need refinishing to prevent further damage. It is not a project that I would like to take on. 

    We were wearing the last of our clean clothes. We had planned to ride back into Boonville to a laundry at the far end of Main Street. Merijo told us that there was a very nice laundry in New Franklin, on our route that would allow us not to back track. We already had a quick look at Boonville the day before and decided that we hadn't seen anything that would cause us to have a burning desire to return. It was 10:30am and another perfect weather day by the time we climbed on the tandem.

    The bygone town of Franklin was only a few minutes away. It had been located on the banks of the Missouri but had washed away in the 1820's. Only a few markers were at the spot where the center of town stood, one of them announcing the trailhead for the Santa Fe Trail. In addition we came upon our first, "Lewis and Clark camped here" sign, a series of markers we would see many times for the rest of our trip. Each marked the date and location that Lewis and Clark camped along the Missouri either going or returning on their cross continent adventure. We continued on to the few remaining structures where the Franklin Post Office and some homes still stood, bought some stamps. Franklin was also the location of the KMT engine roundhouse where the locomotives were turned on a turntable so they could face east or west as needed on the tracks. We passed by what was left of the machinery, the covering long gone. The turntable area shares the trail with a  large trailside campsite along with a sometimes open store. 

    Two miles later we reached New Franklin, turned off the trail and strained our way up the hill to the town's main street. Main street had only a few shops, a closed diner, a senior center, a gas station and convenience store, a very large meat market, the police station, some offices and the laundry. We parked the bike outside the laundry and loaded the washers. Jeanette ran across the street to the convenience store and I walked around main street, taking pictures. Another customer showed up at the laundry. He and I soon got to talking about house prices and the cost of living in Missouri vs. California. The differences were shocking. He estimated the price of a two story brick house on a nearby corner as $80,000. The same house would be priced at about $500,000 in Lodi, our home town. The discussion continued until our laundry was finished and our panniers repacked and we were on our way again.

    The trail is much more canopied in this section and had a few changes in grade. Creature viewing was slim though and limited to a dozen or so squirrels. After two hours riding with many stops, we  were at the entrance tunnel just to the west of Rocheport. The light was too poor for pictures so we rode through and found the town of Rocheport in front of us. We rode past the depot to the Trailside Cafe and Bike Rental at the east end of town. We were hungry and stopped for lunch. I ordered a cheeseburger and Jeanette had a peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The burger was just OK but Jeanette said her dessert style lunch was great. After lunch we ran into Rodney and Rose Ann, the couple sagging for their son Doug. They told us of a great place to eat dinner, a winery just east of town on the highway. That was good since the other choice, The Crab Shack, right on the trail at the east side of town, was closed.

    We had passed our lodging for the night,  the Katy Trail B&B, a cute yellow two story, a few hundred yards back. When we rode up, a fellow, in his mid 20's was up a ladder painting the side of the house. We introduced ourselves and he said to go on in and make ourselves at home. The interior was nicely decorated, neat and well maintained and our bedroom was light, airy and very homey. We dropped our panniers off and got back on the bike to cruise the neighborhood. We headed back to the tunnel entrance and as we approached a young guy about 30 with a camera came running from the side to take our picture. He didn't make it in time and asked if we'd ride through the tunnel and back so he could photograph us. We asked why and he said he was taking pictures for Frommer's travel magazine. Rocheport was going to be featured in their spring issue as one of the five most affordable get-aways and he was doing the photography. We did the obligatory ride and were captured digitally both going and coming. He told us to look for ourselves in the spring edition but there'd be no guarantee that we'd make the cut since the photos were the editor's choice. He left and we stopped at Diana's walk, a path to the south of the tunnel into a nature area. Jeanette climbed a hill to a lookout point but it was too steep for me so I settled down by the bike until she returned. 

    We rode around town, looking at the houses and checking out the other B&B's. The Amber House was a beautiful new structure. The School House B&B looked comfortable as well. We found the brother and sister team that we had shared breakfast with at the Rivercene walking around town. They said they were staying at the School House B&B and had also heard about the winery for dinner. We found the bookstore open and were surprised to find our house painter sitting behind the desk inside the door. As we looked around the store Jeanette asked about the winery. It was endorsed by the painter and a girl in the store. They did caution that we'd have to ride up the hill east of town to reach the place but said the hill wasn't that bad. 

    The afternoon had almost passed. We headed back to the B&B, lazed around and finally cleaned up for dinner. I really liked the Katy Trail B&B. It was simple but elegant, the kind of place that I would have loved as a luxury cabin in the mountains. We were the only guests for the night so we had the whole place to ourselves. The sun was setting as we rode and then walked our bike up the hill on the road east out of town. Once at the top of the hill we pedaled on for another mile and found the Les Bourgeois Winery and Vineyards on a bluff overlooking the river. We cabled the tandem to a light post and went down the walk for dinner. I had a pork prime rib and Jeanette had a rib eye steak. We both drained a bottle of Jeunette Rouge, a Missouri, "medium-bodied wine, with fruity character and a soft finish," according to their wine menu. The food was delicious and the wine, while not the cabernet or old vine zinfandel that we're used to, was great with the dinner. This was truly the first decent food beside our B&B breakfasts that we had eaten along the trip and had a price tag to match at about $70 for everything.

   It was dark when we walked back up the path to the tandem. I snapped the two 2.4 watt battery powered Bell headlights on the handlebar and turned on the large LED taillight. We pedaled to the edge of the parking lot and then started coasting. That was the last time we turned the crank all the way home, right to the door of the B&B. We hit 40 mph on the steepest part of the downhill. I parked the bike in the carriage house and we watched TV until our eyes closed.

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Recommended:

The Katy Trail B&B
Tawnee Dufur, hostess
101 Lewis Street
Rocheport, MO 65279
(573) 698-BIKE
Email: tawneedufur@hotmail.com

Cost: $70

Ambience *****
Bathroom**** (Including access to laundry. Downstairs guests have access to shower, toilet and sink in laundry room off kitchen. Upstairs guests have claw foot tub, toilet and sink.)
Breakfast ****

Les Bourgeois Winery and Vineyards
I 70 & Highway BB Rocheport,
Missouri 65279
Phone : 573 698-2133

Dinners $15-30, wines from $12-20 per bottle at dinner