Day 9 - May 31, 2001 - Clinton to Sedalia
In the morning, we said Good-bye to Peter and Maren, before they continued west to Kansas and we returned to St. Charles. Again, we wished them a safe journey and made plans to see them in Washington state when they finish, if not sooner along the way.
As
we were preparing to leave at
the Clinton trailhead, we met Art Johnson, age 85, who bicycles10 miles everyday on
the Katy Trail. He looked great in his stylin' sunglasses, courtesy of the ophthalmologist, and his
pith helmet, decorated with trailside flowers. We told him he looked buff. We had passed many recreational cyclists, such
as farmers in overalls, who looked as if they had not had a previous interest
in bicycling until the Katy Trail provided the opportunity.
Then
we were off to make good time back to Sedalia. The headwind we had had all
trip was now a tailwind for our return, and we returned in half the time it
had taken us to go the other direction.
It was hot and humid when we arrived in Sedalia at the
nearest ice cream parlor. Once refreshed, we rented a Toyota
Corolla, bought big diet
Pepsi's and a jumbo bag of peanut M&Ms, cranked up the car stereo and AC, and
boogied down the highway back to Rocheport, to see the town and winery we had missed on
the way west due to time constraints.
Our mission was to say we had visited at least one winery. We chose Les Bourgeois with its classic view of the Trail from high above on the limestone bluffs. We bought a bottle of wine, took the picture, and checked out the tourist attractions in Rocheport.
View of the Katy from Les Bourgeois winery, Rocheport
When we finally made it back to our campground at the Sedalia Fairgrounds again, we discovered that the Carson and Barnes 5 Ring Circus was in progress on one side of us, and dirt track auto racing was in progress on the other. It looked like it would be a sleepless night. Just as we contemplated moving, the circus performances finished, powerful flood lights came on, and about 50 men and an elephant began taking down the Big Top. We watched in fascination for an hour at the coordinated teamwork, and the grace and skill of the elephant. We had not been this impressed since watching the Helms with their tent. By midnight, the circus was on the road again, the dirt track racing had stopped, and we were asleep in our tent.
Day 10 - June 1, 2001 - Sedalia to St. Charles
We packed up camp early and bicycled down to the Sedalia Amtrak station to catch the train. We intended to ride the train east back to the town of Washington, pick up the Katy Trail there, and bicycle the remainder of the way to St. Charles. I thought it was fitting that we experience train travel on a trip that was based on the history of the railroad.
2)
1) Downtown Sedalia.
2) It does not pay to look ill in downtown Sedalia
.
Today's rundown Amtrak station is in notable contrast to the grandeur of Sedalia's historic depot on the old Katy Trail. Travelers cannot even buy tickets at the unmanned station. We found it extremely inconvenient, being on bicycles, to find a travel agent who could sell us tickets. We also had to make advance reservations since we were told there were only 3 "bike racks" on each train. We were encouraged to try to stow our bicycles in the overhead baggage compartments! It is no mystery why people have moved to other modes of travel, considering the limitations of the service and the cost, more than twice that of the 24 hr car rental. However, once we were in our comfortable seats and the conductor had hollered, "All aboard!", we felt it would be a shame to see this resource become extinct. We enjoyed our relaxing view of the countryside from the train more then we did from the car, and arrived in Washington an hour behind schedule, par for the course for Amtrak.
3) 
4)
3) Waiting for Amtrak
4) Amtrak's "bike racks" - the back of the train. Now we know why they can't add more "racks".
We had to use a taxi to shuttle from Washington back to the north side of the Missouri River and the Katy Trail. We learned that residents of Washington were hoping to build a bicycle lane on the bridge to bring Katy Trail tourist dollars into town, but meanwhile, another unbikeable bridge separates the Trail from tourist resources along the Missouri River.
The remaining 36 miles into St. Charles flew by. We sailed down the trail, flying past weekend cyclists, and eating up the miles again in a fraction of the time we had taken to go the other direction. We had plenty of time upon arrival to relax and see more of the sights, pack our bicycles for shipment home the next day, and catch our plane back to Washington state. Another tour on our bicycles had come to an end.
Replica of Lewis and Clark's keelboat, St. Charles
