Clinton to Sedalia

Day 1 of the actual ride. Yesterday was spent flying through Kansas at 75 mph. Today we averaged about 10. Last night was spent at the Bucksaw Resort on Lake Truman about 7 or 8 miles out of Clinton in a motel room actually floating on the lake. Tonight we are in the lap of luxury at the Hotel Bothwell in downtown Sedalia. The Bothwell is about 6 blocks from the Sedalia Depot on the KATY trail. It caters to cyclists with special room rates and a welcome gift in the room of bottled water and trail mix (gorp). Both hit the spot as it was pretty darn hot out on the trail today. Fortunately a tailwind was also going from Clinton to Sedalia and allowed us to hop a ride. We've ridden RAGBRAI and SAGBRAW over the years and you'd think we'd get used to the heat and humidity but that never seems to happen for us. By the end of the first mile we were dripping sweat. Of course getting a late start (9:30 a.m.) didn't help and tomorrow you can bet we'll be up and out at the crack of dawn. That is if we can pull ourselves away from what looks to be a fabulously comfortable queen bed at the Bothwell.

The KATY trail is supposed to be flat and today it certainly lived up to that reputation. There are sections where it stretches on interminably in a straight line disappearing finally in a haze of humidity. I've never cycled anywhere quite so flat for quite so long. My Garmin bike computer shows the grade and all day long it went from 0% to 1% to -1% grades with the occasional foray into much steeper inclinations of 2-3% for short sections before inevitably returning to more sane angles of ascent and descent. Still, 38 miles on a mountain bike loaded for touring in hot and humid weather is not all a piece of cake. One of the nice things on the KATY trail is that they have mile markers along the way. One of the not so nice things about the Katy trail is the same thing - you get to slowly watch them go by, one by one by one, all the way to your destination. Apparently you never have to guess where you are on the KATY trail which takes all the fun out of my wife continually asking how far it is to the next town, to lunch, to the next restroom, to our final destination. There's just not the same type of fun pointing at the mile markers slowly going by, and with their mathematical precision gone are my feeble attempts at "its just up ahead" or its "right around the next corner". I can't even use my Colorado favorite - "its at the top of this hill" because by mile ten or twenty today my lovely wife had caught on that there were no hills.

In one of the small towns that the KATY trail wanders through we came upon a trail traffic jam when we had to pass a mother and her two small kids. Other than that we saw a couple of lone cyclists heading toward Clinton (congratulations to them, I thought, as they went by as they were likely nearing the end of their east to west transit of the trail). Granted the smart cyclists don't do the KATY trail in June, July, and August but still we had anticipated seeing more people on the trail. Most of the way we were completely alone, left to ponder our solitary thoughts, wipe the continual stream of sweat from or brows, and tick off the mile markers.

There are certainly things to see especially in the small towns. Kids playing and splashing in small backyard pools, people mowing lawns, folks sitting on porches drinking cool drinks and waving to idiot cyclists lacking the brains to get out of the heat. If insanity is repeating the same action over and over again while expecting a different (cooler) outcome then count me as certifiable because tomorrow we'll be out there yet again this time heading for the town of Rocheport. Until then sweet dreams from the world's most luxurious hotel bed in beautiful downtown Sedalia.