Riding the White Line

My first stop on my last day of traveling the Katy Trail was a laundromat about a half mile south of my hotel. I seem unable to get out of a laundromat without becoming involved in a one-sided conversation about some bizarre conspiracy. A guy who seemed otherwise normal started talking about the One World plot and how the United States would soon start crumbling under the yoke of this international movement because we had strayed from our heritage, etc., etc.

I was never so glad for a drier to be done and my clothes packed into panniers and my feet to be into the pedals' clips.

The ride from Sedalia to Clinton was relatively uneventful.

I did pass the high point of the trip: the high elevation point of 955 feet above sea level somewhere near the Bryson community.

Today's ride was much more lonesome than previous days.

Leaving Franklin, I crossed the Missouri River and rolled around a little of Boonville. Very pretty town. Then I headed out on the trail, for the first time climbing some hills, albeit at a very slow grade.

At some point, I crossed the geologic divide between the Ozark border and the Osage Plain. I could see no difference whatsoever, no change in soils on the surface, no difference in vegetation. I'll have to look it up when I get back home. I stopped for lunch in Pilot Grove. A restaurant called Becky's Burgers & Cones was highly touted by guides as the place to get pie. How could I pass up pie? I had a piece of blackberry cobbler with ice cream. How could I pass up ice cream?

By the end of the day, I had seen 19 bicyclists, all of them either in Boonville or in Sedalia, none out on the trail. I still continue to ride under brilliant blue skies.

When I got into Sedalia, I went by the State Fairgrounds to see what its campground looked like. No 110 electric. Heavy unmown grass. And I wasn't sure whether there were any shower facilities. So I got a hotel room for the night at the Truman Hotel.

Riding past Moniteau Bluffs

Really beautiful section of the trail between Easley and Rocheport. My favorite spot was Torbett's Spring and the Moniteau Bluffs and the pictographs high up on the bluff, all overlooking the Missouri River and its constant sweep.

I stopped briefly in Rocheport, hoping to find some ice cream, but all the stores appeared to be closed, not that any of them advertised ice cream.

I got to New Franklin about 4 p.m. after making a jog off the main Katy Trail to take the spur into Columbia. I went by the Columbia Cemetery, hoping I might find the graves of ancestors, primarily the Bedfords. I did find a couple groupings of Bedfords but not the ones whom I sought.

I briefly went by the entrance to the University of Missouri and thought I might get lunch there but was too grubby from two days without a shower that I didn't feel like invading even a fast-food restaurant. So I went back down the spur, found a picnic table and fixed myself a huge sandwich.

The campground here at the Katy Roundhouse is the nicest one I've been at so far. Flat, grassy. The RVs are in a separate area. There's a bathhouse. Even an electrical outlet nearby for charging the phone.

Along with being on the Katy Trail and one of the spots that Lewis and Clark passed, Franklin was also the starting point for the Santa Fe Trail.

Wish all the campgrounds were this way. It's a Monday night, so I have the tent campground to myself. Starry, starry night.