2014 Sedalia continued...
...continued
Yummy Lunch...
We had our first stop in Hartford and then onto Easly for lunch at Cooper's Landing. This was a great little find right on the trail. It was a campground with restaurant. They had a Thai Food truck on site and a camp store where you could order chicken, chicken or chicken. But what great chicken. It was fast and easy helping us to make up yet more time. By our next break we were hours ahead of schedule. And then it happened the end that was within our grasp with an early finish and more hot tub time -- eluded us. What should have been our last 3 miles turned into more like 7. The hotel was much further past the trail head then I calculated. Not to mention after a detour through town and then jumping back on the trail we all had our concerns we might not be even going the right way. It was getting late well past 5:30 by now. The trail was uphill and we were all beat. I think I called Mark 3 times on that last mile begging him to come get me. I was sure I would never see the hotel. But at last all the endurance paid off and we made it. My muscles were screaming and I was practically delirious, but so happy to be off the bike. So the day of 52 miles ended up being more like 59 miles and we felt every bit of those extra 7 miles.
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Security to the Rescue...11 Flat Tires over 2 days. There was no beer drinking, nap time or sitting around this year for our Chick Security. They worked as hard as we did. My flat was the first of many. You may think I am telling a tall tale, but seriously, we had 11 flat tires over the two days ride. Security could barely keep up with us between driving out to find stranded riders with replacement bikes or working on fixing flats. No one could believe it. What is even more amazing is it was 4 riders that had all 11 flats.
A night of fun - well deserved...
Everyone took a little soak time in the pool and then we met in the lobby at 8pm to take a shuttle over to the casino for dinner. We managed to squeeze 18 people in a 15 passenger van. We had 5 special visitors who drove down to Boonville to celebrate Mike's 50th birthday. They joined us for a night on the town in Boonville. I was impressed how everyone was able to get a second wind after such an intense day of riding.
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A different night for different people...
Everyone enjoyed Saturday night differently. Some stayed in and order pizza, others made it out for dinner but were smart to turn in early knowing what laid ahead the next day. We ended up at a local bar Maggie's many in our group. Time to celebrate our friend's 50th and had a blast!
Our ride home...
This was a first. The taxi that shows up to bring us back to the hotel looked like something out of a Cheech and Chong movie. The driver encouraged autographs on the ceiling of his van. It was pretty crazy.
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DAY 2 Ride...Ride...Ride...UP,UP,UP !!!! OK day two, we are all pretty pumped because it's 10 degrees cooler today and we ONLY have 33 miles in front of us. Piece of cake, compared to what we just went through yesterday. Started out pretty steep. I have never actually seen the Katy Trail show an incline but I did today. This section of trail from Boonville to Pilot Grove has a 250 ft incline over 11 miles and we felt every bit of it. It took all we had in us to finish this ride. Jeanie and Mike continued to come into every stop after changing yet another tire. I am sure Mike can do this in his sleep now.