Day 27 - May 30 - Rocheport, MO to Marshall, MO - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

May 30, 2023

Day 27 - May 30 - Rocheport, MO to Marshall, MO

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley.”

Ed’s Story

Had a great sleep last night on the cot at the Missouri Life magazine headquarters building in Rocheport. My sleeping bag fits nicely on the cot and I only woke up once or twice. I think the cot must’ve been too hard for John because he talked about wanting to get his pad out but he never did. I’m proud of him.

I used my soy milk powder to make soy milk last night and kept it overnight in the refrigerator. I ate my oatmeal this morning with the soy milk I made. I think it’s much better when I heat up the water and cook it in a thermos.

We loaded up the bikes and got out by 6:40; the morning was cool, but we knew it would heat up by the end of the day.

Shortly after leaving Rocheport, we came to the only tunnel on the Katy Trail. It wasn’t long, but it was much warmer inside the tunnel than the outside. In contrast the tunnels we went through on the C&O trail were very cold on the inside.

Here is John making a grand appearance as he exits the tunnel.

We came across a lone train caboose when we got to Old Franklin, Missouri. We met some fellow travelers just traveling west to east on the Katy Trail.

I thought you might want to read what the sign says about the caboose.

Getting ready to ride the rails vice the tires.

At New Franklin, Missouri, which is only a mile from Old Franklin, we came upon this depiction of people crossing the Santa Fe Trail.

Fellow travelers on the road. Probably most of the time they walked.

If you can read this to learn about the travelers, your eyes are much better than mine are.

After New Franklin, we crossed the Missouri River (again) and found a coffee shop in Boonville, Missouri. Coffee and a cinnamon cake were on the menu for the day. I’ve decided as the days get warmer when we stop for coffee to get an iced coffee. Hot when hot doesn’t always cut it.

When we left Boonville, we got back into hill country. The hills were not very long and not very steep, but were relentless. Just as you climbed to the top of one you descended, and then climbed up another one. Still after four days of constant peddling on the dusty Katy Trail, even for me as a non-climber, this was a welcome relief.

As we approached Arrow Rock. Missouri, I hoped to find a gas station to replenish my snack supplies and get an orange juice. There’s no gas station in Arrow Rock. The closest gas station is 12 to 14 miles away. Depending on your gas mileage, you could use up to 2 gallons of gas just going to get gas. Inconceivable.

The next major town we are approaching was Marshall. Looking at Google maps, there were plenty of gas stations and convenience stores we could stop at. I was tasting the orange juice already.

I arrived at the intersection of Highways 41 and 240 ahead of John and was waiting for him there. As he arrived, he said “Hold on, I’ve got a another flat”.

We continued about a quarter-mile until we reached the Weber Seed farm and pulled in under a shade tree to fix the flat.

We ended up making a short day of it staying in Marshall so we called various campgrounds to see if we could tent camp.

The city parks department told us that they did not allow camping. This is disappointing because their website specifically addresses camping if you have their permission, including the type of hook ups for RVs.

The Marshall Happy Times campground said camping was available but they didn’t have any shower or bathroom facilities. I guess they expect the people in RVs to use their own.

We finally called the fairgrounds. The woman I talked to said yes, we could camp there. The cost would be $10 a tent or $20 and it would cost $125 to open the bathhouse for us. I wasn’t sure I understood her so I asked her to repeat herself, and yes $20 for camping and $125 to take a bath. I said no thank you and said goodbye.

We ended up checking in at the Comfort Inn. Nice hotel, nice queen beds, nice shower and the guest laundry facility right across the hall. Unfortunately no detergent so I walked to Casey’s convenience store and then went to Walmart to get the laundry detergent.

Went to the new China restaurant for dinner and had a nice tofu and vegetable meal.

Because we didn’t make it all the way to Higginsville, we will be modifying our stops for the next two days. We will be staying in Lexington at the Big River Ranch, and then continuing to Watkins Mill State Park the next day. I just need to remember to change the reservation.

Until you hear from me again, happy biking!

John’s Story

We rousted out of bed at 5:30 AM. It wasn’t until later that I heard the roosters crow. We beat them to the dawn. Another cool start to a warm day.

Ed caught me coming out. I caught him going in.

It was because we met Danita and Greg last year on the BigBAM ride across Missouri that we ended up spending the night in the offices of Missouri Life. Danita told us that since last year they sold the ride to someone else. Had they done that a year earlier we wouldn't have had such a great experience in Rocheport. Timing is everything.

This is your big chance! You still have time to sign up and ride across Missouri this summer

When we were in Hermann several days ago I was speaking with a couple next to me at the bar at the brewery. I told him what we were doing. They asked if we were going to ride the MKT. What’s the MKT I asked. It’s the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Trail, they said. I envisioned a trail running from Missouri through Kansas and somehow skipping Oklahoma getting down to Texas. I said no, we are riding on the Katy Trail. It wasn’t until a couple days later that I found out that Katy is the KT in MKT. They didn’t know the difference, and neither did I. Live and learn.

From this map I discovered that from Boonville to Westport we will be following the Santa Fe Trail.

This was borne out by signs we saw along the road. We follow the Santa Fe Trail for a whole 10 miles.

We met a couple from Houston at the Katy caboose. Sophie and Michael told us a completely different story about the Katy Trail West of Boonville compared to what we had heard yesterday, when an eastbound biker said it was just a flat tunnel of trees. They described it as hilly with big road cuts. I will probably never be an eyewitness to find out for myself. Sophie is from Montreal and spoke with a strong French accent.

Not long after leaving Sophie and Michael we crossed the Missouri river into Boonville. As Ed said above, we were taken back into the hill country.

It was while we were in the coffee shop in Boonville that I got a message from Charlie with a link to the article on the front page of todays Jefferson City News Tribune about our bike tour. It was Andy Warhol who said that in the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. Well, maybe this is our shot. If this doesn’t work, it may be that we will be written up in an issue of Missouri Life magazine.

This picture of a Boonville café is for my wife. Anyone who knows her knows why.

At Boonville we left the Katy Trail and moved out onto the highways again. I was overjoyed to be riding on pavement again!

The highways in this part of Missouri have something lacking on the Katy Trail. Can you guess what it is?

We are still on the Lewis and Clark trail, and will be until Atchison, Kansas, when we continue westward while the Missouri River strikes north. Dead ahead is the fateful intersection where I had my flat tire today.

As I rolled toward the intersection I could feel my rear tire getting soggy. I hollered to Ed that I had another #@#&=+/$ flat tire. The day was warming up, and I didn’t want to change the tire in the sun so I kept rolling for another several hundred yards past the intersection until I came to the driveway of Weber Seed, Inc., where there were beautiful big shade trees.

I pulled the rear wheel off and took the tube out of the tire. I pumped it up and both Ed and I swore there was a leak near the stem where we could feel air coming out. It even looked like there was a problem with the tube in that spot. I tossed that tube aside, pulled a new tube out of my handlebar bag and installed it. I tried to pump it up and immediately it went flat. I pulled that tube out and found a “snake bite“ on the tube. A snake bite is caused when you hit a bump with an underinflated tire and the tube is squeezed between the tire and the rim causing it to split in two places, making it look like a snake bite. But the snake bite was on the wrong part of the tire. Curious. I was not a happy camper at this point, and my mood was not going to get any better in the next couple minutes.

After pulling the tire off the wheel and reinstalling it twice, I noticed something odd about the rim of the rear wheel. Some of the spokes were pulling out of the rim, causing the rim to fracture.

This is probably the most egregious example of a spoke pulling out of the rim. Upon closer inspection I found nine other spokes beginning to fracture the rim. I wasn’t going anywhere farther with a wheel in this condition.

So, here we were sitting under a tree 4 or 5 miles outside of Marshall, Missouri with my unrideable bicycle. Probably 45 miles to the nearest bike shop in Sedalia. What to do, oh, what to do?

While we were visiting Charlie and Chris in Jefferson City, Charlie said that if we had any problems within 100 miles of there they would come to our rescue. I called the Red Wheel Bike Shop in Jefferson City to see if they had a wheel that would fit my bike. The fellow I talked to said yes he did, but he didn’t feel that it was a strong enough wheel for a loaded touring bike. He referred me to another bike shop in Jefferson City called Hartsburg Cycle Depot.

I called the other shop and a pleasant Australian voice answered the phone. I talked to Mark, who apparently is known for his wheel-building. After rifling around among the stuff in his shop he found a wheel that he was comfortable selling me for my purpose. I told him that someone would pick it up. When I asked him if I could borrow a chain whip, he said yes, and you’ll also need a cassette lock ring tool.

Mark at Hartsburg Cycle Depot is granted a Road Angel Award for allowing total strangers to borrow his tools and drive off with them for the rescue mission.

Then I called Charlie and Chris and cashed in my get out of jail free card in the 100 mile rescue zone. Charlie and Chris went to the bike shop, picked up the wheel and the loaner tools and drove 88 miles to Marshall to bring them to me.

In the meantime we were still sitting under a tree nowhere near town. A fellow from Weber Seed wandered over to see what we were doing and fell into conversation with Ed while I struggled with the beast. He offered to give us a ride into Marshall if we needed it. He had a pickup truck and we did just that.

Rocky of Weber Seed is granted a Road Angel Award for volunteering to drive us to town.

The hapless beast lying belly up in our room at the Comfort Inn in Marshall waiting to be resuscitated.

Soon the Rescue Aid Society arrived with the wheel and tools. Ed performed the surgery. First he amputated the cassette from the donor.

Next he transplanted the cassette to the new wheel. Finally he closed to the thunderous applause of those in the operating theater.

Smiles all around, but I think my happiness was greatest. For valor above and beyond, Charlie and Chris are granted the newly created Road Archangel Award.

We celebrated with a round of beers at Applebees before Charlie and Chris headed home.

If this had happened a day or two later we would have been up the proverbial creek. It might have meant a delay of several days trying to find a wheel and a way to get it to wherever we were. Sort of an eerie thing, when I went to patch the hole in the first flat of the afternoon, I could not find the hole in the tube that both Ed and I had witnessed out under that tree. I think maybe my guardian angel was watching out for me by flattening my tire (twice) and forcing me to look at my wheel to discover the problem.

Interestingly enough, yesterday when Ed realized we were going to have to ride 79 miles today because we had stayed in Rocheport last night instead of someplace farther along the trail, he did a bit of whinging. I looked at some alternatives to such a long day and came up with a proposal to stay in Marshall tonight and turn 3 days of riding into 4. We rejected that and planned to do the long day today. Yet look what happened. I keep telling Ed that the universe is on our side, but after today I am suspicious that the universe may be a little more on Ed’s side than mine.

Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 2,720 miles (4,377 km)

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Debbie ChimahuskyVery exciting day! Your guardian angels worked overtime. Fabulous work, surgeon Ed!
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10 months ago

Torsten LifA snake bite flat in the wrong part of the tube when installing a new tube? Can it be you're using your tire levers to install the tire? That's a recipe for trouble, that is!
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10 months ago

John ChimahuskyI installed the tube as I always do, and that’s never happened before. Perhaps there was a snake in my tire? 😄
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10 months ago

Dorothy ShinstockLots of Road Angel's the past few days. And great friends, to boot.
Keep on truckin'!
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10 months ago

Kelly IniguezA happy ending is a good way to finish the day. Hurray for road angels.
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10 months ago

Torsten LifTo John ChimahuskyIt's really best if you can get the tire back on the rim using only your fingers. Otherwise there's always the risk of pinching the tube with the levers.

Of course, some tires are just too tight so you have no choice. In that case I've found that inflating the tube just a tiny bit first helps getting it out of the way so that it doesn't get pinched.
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10 months ago

John ChimahuskyTo Torsten LifI do the same thing.
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10 months ago