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Well, we should have been in a position to have an easier day on the trail, but  when all was said and done, it was still a struggle.  We expected another hot day, but it ended up exceeding our expectations.  We didn’t check the temperature as we pulled into Sedalia after 50 miles, but when we went to dinner at 6:30, it was 104, so we think it was around there a little earlier.

But, our day started a little grumpy.  When we went to pull the bikes out of the bike shed, Pam’s mirror was missing from her helmet.  What the heck!  Our bikes were the last ones out, so we initially thought it probably just got knocked off.  After a careful search of the shed, we finally decided it had been stolen.  Good grief!

About a mile down the trail, Pam noticed she had something clicking, and upon closer inspection, we found this:

Can you see it?  That’s her mirror hanging between the fork and the wheel!  I guess our faith in fellow travelers was restored!

As I said, we should have had an easier day.  We got out of Rocheport around 8:30, and temperatures were pretty comfortable.  Unfortunately, they were too comfortable.  We ended up playing around a lot!  We couldn’t pass up the photo opportunity at the old clay elevator, could we?

  Then, we crossed the Missouri River at Booneville:

  Then, we went off in search of Gatorade.  And took a nice break in the shade and cool breeze!  And stopped for a few pictures along the way!

By the time we finally got out of town, it was nearly 11:00.  We looked at the maps and decided that Pilot Grove, roughly 11 miles down the road would be a good lunch stop.  It would also be about the half-way point for the day, so we headed there with confidence.

Unfortunately, the riding got a little harder as we left Booneville.  The wind was picking up, and the trail tended to be mostly uphill, so our pace dropped a little bit.  We also had to be a little more careful along this stretch.  The trail has a tendency to crack and split in this hot weather, and we were constantly trying to avoid the wheel-eating cracks.  As you can see from the picture below, some of them were pretty bad!

We did stop for lunch in Pilot Grove, but by the time we left town, we realized it was getting really hot again!  Really hot!

Pam was constantly in touch with her sister and mother by text all day long.  They were vicariously riding with us via the pictures she was sending.  It was kind of fun, but the process continued to slow us down.

By mid-afternoon, we knew we were still a ways from Sedalia and the heat was starting to wear on Pam again.  We continued plodding our way along, stopping to take pictures as opportunities arose, but I was concerned about whether she would last.

  We finally pulled into Sedalia between 4:30 and 5:00, completely out of water and thirsty as all get out.  We headed straight to our hotel and hit the shower.

At dinner, I rewarded myself for the afternoon of suffering!

We’re going to try something different tomorrow to see if we can beat the heat and get back to Rocheport before things get too miserable again.  Wish us luck!

God bless…

TW

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This entry was posted on July 25, 2012 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Cycling, KATY Trail. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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