Beautiful

We finally left Sedalia this morning after borrowing a hacksaw from the hotel and cutting a section off of Mike’s seat post. He felt like he had been riding with the seat too high and because the tube was too long, couldn’t get it lower into his frame. We think it helped but eventually the wear and tear of yesterday carried over and brokem him down today. I can’t blame him. I only gave him about a day to get ready for the ride and he still hadn’t even finished the bike that he was building to go on the ride.

Admittedly, there was a fair amount of climbing today which didn’t help his knee.. In fact, the train changed considerably as we moved out of Sedalia towards Boonville. It looked more and more like what I would describe as similar to the Ozarks. We had some beautiful creeks that we followed. The forest around us was magnificent. We even started seeing some Cardinals, which are one of my favorite birds not just because of their lovely red color but they also remind me of our years in North Carolina.

However, the most beautiful part of the ride was a tattooed, mullet cut, bearded, 50ish-year-old man riding the opposite direction. He pulled up to me as Mike was working on his shoes. Thankfully I worked on goal 2 and had an in-depth conversation. He was riding a Gary Fisher bike out of the 1980s that was likely taken from Goodwill. On the back rack he had a milk crate filled with likely all his belongings and then two old day packs draped either side like makeshift panniers. He was headed from Columbus to Kansas City a distance of almost 200 miles. There was a job waiting for him there as a peer specialist. His past was evident in our conversation and everything about him. But his future and what he was trying to do was what was beautiful. Here’s a man that had nothing. He was riding his bike 200 miles to get to a new job and I pray a new life. It was the highlight of my trip to talk with him and be able to see his magnificence. My only regret was that I was too stupid to think of getting a motel room for him in the next town.

Not too long after that wonderful interaction, my brother’s knee just got too bad to keep pedaling. We were in the thriving metropolis of Pilot Grove population probably double the next town (100+?) which was Prairie Lick. It was already 1:00 and we had another 60 miles to go on a 90 plus mile day. If Mike had life insurance with me as the beneficiary, one option would have been to collect on it, But since he didn’t, I decided to ride ahead to our destination at Jefferson City while he limped along 10 miles to the next town of Boonville in hopes of finding a shuttle.

Boonville was lovely with a beautiful Visitor Center built around the old train depot. There was a Spur trail that took you out onto a bridge overlooking the Missouri River. And then I backtracked and had to taks the highway, fortunately with a good sidewalk, to the south side of the Missouri river.

Once I was on the south side of the Missouri River, I still had about 40 miles to ride. It was flat and lovely as I kept the river on my right and vine and tree cupboard cliffs to my left. So many miles of similar terrain can get tiring, but it doesn’t get old. I’m grateful to be in a beautiful place, meeting people, riding my bike.

The final climb into Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, was quite interesting as they had built a multi-tier trail leading up to the bridge that ran North, again taking me over the Missouri River to my hotel on the other side. Thankfully Mike was there, having been able to arrange a shuttle from Boonville earlier in the afternoon. We enjoyed a nice dinner and continue to have a great time talking and laughing.