This past week I rode the full length of the Katy Trail State Park with a lifelong friend, Kent. He had first suggested we do this ride about a year ago and this spring we decided to move ahead with the plan.

He had been riding regularly for years but I didn't own a bike nor had I ridden more than a few times since my youth. I got a bike in April and began to do a little riding in May. When I moved into my new place in Columbia I finally got reasonably serious about training. I felt I was in reasonable shape but the muscles used in biking are a bit different than those in other activities so I wasn't sure what to think.

In any event, Kent's wife took us to Clinton, Missouri, on Sunday, September 28^th, and we spent the night there in a hotel. Around sunrise the next morning we found the western trailhead

and headed east.

We rode 61 miles the first day and after getting lunch along the trail in Sedalia

we spent the evening at a Bed & Breakfast

in Pilot Grove.

We were concerned about the weather the first day — storms were evident around us — but we only saw a slight sprinkle of rain and that only after we had stopped for the day.

The weather turned out to be spectacular, better than we could have ever hoped, and it was a great trip all around.

The next three days were 49, 48 and 38 miles, respectively, and we stayed in Hartsburg,

Rhineland


and Augusta. The B&B in Augusta (The Red Brick Inn) was particularly nice

with the building, the proprietors and the breakfast all being just outstanding.

On Friday we had a very light day and arrived in St. Charles in the early afternoon. We spent the afternoon riding around the old downtown there (where the original Missouri State Capitol still stands),

enjoying what the old city has to offer and looking for a place to have dinner with Kent's family who joined us that evening.