September 26, 2022
But WAIT! There's MORE!
If you've made it this far, you deserve a medal for sticking through the ride/journal. I thought I would pen my thoughts together at the completion of this tour (which could be bore - not sure). I do like to give the "academy awards" of the tour following the ride. This is a carefully-selected collection of awards by an independent major cycling authoritative body (Kathleen and me) to indicate what the best experiences were on tour. So, if you decide on this course of action, you can use this as a bellwether (who came up with the term "bell weather" anyway? And does it actually have to do with bells? As I wrote this I looked it up, and here's the definition). The list continues, followed by some "favorites" pictures.
Best lodging
Kath and I were split on this. I like the River Sirens Hotel in Washington, but she preferred the huge suite of an airbnb in Boonville (Windy Nest airbnb). Both were super clean - I just like the Euro-compactness of the River Sirens and she liked the classic multi-room apartment at Windy Nest
Best Lunch
It was split based on qualifiers. For the experience, the Meriweather bike shop and café in Rocheport, but for food? OMG, the Hermann Wurst Haus - such good smoked meats in a sandwich. We also had German potato salad and baked beans - all Soooo good.
Best dinner
We had several experiences here so it was process of elimination. Best food, by far, were the patatas bravas at the Bello Vino tapas bar in St Charles - just really, really good. I really like the masaman curry from the Sawaddee Thai in Jefferson City - we bought take out and carried it back to the Courtyard and ate in the lobby bistro where we could get wine. And we did indeed eat our way through the tour, including the leather-burger in Paducah, KY; the swill of a wine in Washington; and the St-Louis style pizza (maybe it was an off-night) in Kirkwood).
Best stretch of the tour
There were two days which we found very enjoyable and had good scenery. Considering 100F days, sun, and then the last day of rain, we experienced it all in 6 days. I think we both liked the 35-mile stretch from Washington to Hermann. It got us on the trail rolling through the agricultural rural bottomlands. For us who live in the Atlanta suburbs, there was something very basic and very peaceful to the ride.
Best unexpected happening
I didn't expect a 5+ block art festival in St Charles, but even better was the assembling of the car show in Sedalia on our departure day back to Kirkwood. Seeing all of the car enthusiasts proudly bringing in their cars to put on display for the day made me happy middle America is still alive and well. and seeing someone convert a 70's era Chevy van to the "Mystery Machine" made my week Scooby-dooby-doo!
Best wine
What would be a cycleblaze journey without mention of wine. I won't go into a @GregGarceau wine review, but had to be the 1/2 bottle I had at the wine bar in St Charles.
Toughest stretch
Would have to be the 20 miles solo going from Tebbets to Jefferson City in the nearly 100F heat and 100% sun, or the Friday morning 35 mile ride in the rain from Boonville to Sedalia.
Final thoughts and pics
I find that I get into the circadian rhythm of a tour about day 3. It takes me time to stop thinking about planning out an entire company's IT workload . About 3 days in fact. Then, I'm just into the cycle (no pun intended) of ride, eat, sleep, repeat. And, to be fair, journal as well. There's a lot to go on and I find myself shooting video and still pictures all at the same time. But I enjoy doing that. I like to look back on the trip several months/years later and remember what it was all about. It's a snapshot in time of my life, my adventure, and what I did when/where. And the video only adds to that as a "home movie" archive of the event.
If there's any specific question about the ride/route/places we visited, post a comment and I'll respond.
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