What's Fred Up To Now?: Day 8 - Sunday May 27; New Franklin, MO to Sedalia, MO (40 miles)

Even though it was warm and humid last night, I slept pretty well. I was up and out of the Katy Roundhouse campground by just after 6:00 AM. I'd heard they were serving an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast for the bike jamboree participants returning from Boonville. As I headed out, they were setting up but said it would probably be around 7:00 AM before they would be ready to serve. I took off down the trail towards Boonville which was as only about 4 miles. Boonville is larger than most towns on the Katy and I found a restaurant immediately after crossing the bridge over the Missouri River. After breakfast the trail went southwest while the Missouri River headed northwest so that was my last view of the Missouri River. The trail from Boonville to Sedalia was not as flat as it has been up to this point but still mostly tree covered. I came across a man named Chris who was loaded like I was and we chatted for a few minutes. Chris is from Minneapolis, started in Clinton yesterday and is riding the Katy to St. Charles.

I arrived at the Sedalia train depot around 11:30 AM and called Susi to let here know I'd arrived. She was only about 25 miles away and met me at the depot around noon. While I was waiting for Susi to arrive I met a fair-sized group of cyclist associated with a church in Lees Summit who started in Clinton this morning and is riding the Katy this week. One of the participants is Randy Buffington who was raised near Tebbetts where I'd spent the night at the Turner Katy Trail Shelter. I believe his father or grandfather was the song director and this is where Randy went to church as a youth. When Susi arrived, we walked around the depot which is easily the best one between Marthasville and here.

We then loaded the bike and gear in the van and drove around historic downtown Sedalia which has much interesting architecture. The Comfort Inn let us check in around 1:00 PM. I cleaned up and we took a driving tour of the Missouri State Fairgrounds which is very nice. We decided that, though it has all the same facilities as the Iowa State Fairgrounds, things are more spread out. After the fairgrounds driving tour, we drove north a few miles on US65 to the Boswell Lodge State Historical Site and were able to get in the final tour group of the day. This is a very interesting tour if you are ever in the area. We ate an early dinner at a cajun seafood restaurant then returned to the motel to do my laundry and sort through my gear, some of which I've decided to leave with Susi to take back home. Tomorrow Susi will drop me off at the Sedalia train depot and I'll complete the final leg of the Katy Trail to Clinton, MO. This will only be about a 35 mile day so we'll enjoy sleeping in a bit. I'm hoping that someone in Clinton can verify that the roads I'm considering to get 120 miles to the TransAmerica route is a good one - or suggest a different one. A few photos from the day follow.