Day 4 continued--Rocheport to Sedalia (hills)

After my first triumphant (well, semi-triumphant) hill experience of the day, it seemed all uphill from there. None of the climbs were steep, but they seemed to go on forever. In addition, my sore butt and chafed body woke up and started complaining. By the end of the day, the only parts below my waist still on speaking terms with me were my hamstrings.

And with all that complaining noted, it was a glorious day. The weather was fantastic. I was actually COOL starting out! The section of trail moves away from the Missouri River and passes through farmland and wooded areas. The climbs wore me down, but I made them...and I have the triceps to prove it!

Signal from the MKT days

Otherwise, we woke up to a much cooler day in Rocheport after Wednesday evening's storm. We had to pack up wet tents and then head down the road to breakfast at the Rocheport trailhead--French toast, sausage links, scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit.

Pancake Man making French toast
Yum!!

Breakfast line Thursday

FUN group of guys!

Due to flooding on the trail, we were given the choice between a shuttle around the closed section or riding a road route. We opted for the road route, which actually did have some bigger hills, but at least they were rolling. I'm still a chicken on downhills, so I didn't get as much of a lift as the rest of the crew, but it was still ok.

None of my friends had any major traumas today, but we caused some. At the first SAG, my aunt Misty was shaking out a water bottle behind her as she walked and clobbered the man behind her. Hopefully he was finished having kids, anyway. Lol. On the first big hill, another rider was talking to me and asked me which side I wanted as we split. I said, "I'll go left," meaning RIGHT, and proceeded to go right. He, expecting me to actually GO left, stayed right and we almost collided. I heard about it for the rest of the day, too. :)

I got mine, though, later. We were nearing Sedalia, and a man was pushing his bike down the middle of the trail. As I came up to him, I called, "I'm on your left!" and went left, as did he, almost crashing into me. "Left! Left! Left," I called, and then he moved the right. Whew.

We rode 52 miles in total. The small towns along the way are very good to us. At the beginning of the road portion of the Katy through Sedalia, there was a huge trash barrel full of ice and Vitamin Water compliments of the Sedalia Salvation Army. Very nice!

Sedalia Depot

We stayed in Liberty Park.

Camping in Liberty Park
Clotheslines after Wed. rain
Lovely shade

Sedalia Community Center
Our dinner and breakfast venue. There was also a concert that night by the Sedalia Symphony.

We were given free admission to the swimming pool... Oh my gosh, it felt good!!

We also got half price admission to the Sedalia Bombers baseball game, too. It's a collegiate league team that plays right next to where we were camping. I think the bike people probably were half of the "crowd" (less than 70 people total). The announcer was great. He made several mentions of our group. A couple quotes:

(after a pop fly went out of the stadium) *sound effect of smashing window* "was that your tent? Better call ________!" (don't remember the auto glass specialist name)

"and alllll these bicyclists along the third base line have won free camping in Liberty Park! (Bring your own tent!)"

One more cool thing...we even got to see the space station fly over. It looked like a really bright star and moved quickly across the sky. Pretty neat.