All the rain forecast for this trip happened yesterday, and it wasn't much. Most of the rain happened before dawn. There were a few drops while we were riding. It felt nice.
We are now in the center of Missouri. This area historically had a lot of cattle ranches. Nowadays, there is plenty of corn and soybeans like everywhere, but I saw some cattle farms and some horses.
I hear Anheuser-Busch has a Clydesdale farm somewhere near Boonville.
This is a very remote area. Lunch was at Pilot Grove, it's very small.
And the only place where you could get anything to eat at all between the start and finish of today's 37 mile ride was this Casey's in Pilot Grove.
So it was gas station pizza slices for lunch. Part of the scarcity of services is it's Monday, and a holiday, but still.
There are lots of other cyclists on the trail. Most of them eating food they brought with them. Most of them are doing a supported ride, so they are not carrying their stuff on their bikes. When we have arrived at our hotels the past couple days, there are piles of bags that have been dropped off by the charter service for the bikers still out on the trail.
We spent a lot of time chatting with the other cyclists, who were all complaining about how hilly this section of the KATY is. (It's still a rail trail, and it's still flat.) Jim has found kindred souls.
Boonville is small, only 9000 population, and there's not much here, although it's very historic. There is one expensive historic hotel and some expensive B&Bs, and the Isle of Capri Casino and Hotel, which is very cheap, and very, very ugly. We are staying at the Casino.
It's so gross. The lobby and restaurant reeks of stale cigarette smoke that has wafted in from the casino floor, where aged zombies stagger from one slot machine to another.
Here the whole building.
It's a "riverboat". Get it? Do you feel festive yet? It's right next to the Missouri River, which is a barge canal these days.
There is no carpet uglier than casino carpet.
There are acres of this. There could be stains from hundreds of spilled drinks and you would never know. It's so gross.
We got there at 3, checkin doesn't start until 4, so we spent an hour at the casino bar and restaurant replenishing our electrolytes. The restaurant/bar is cavernous and empty at 3. Almost every table and spot at the bar had dirty dishes still sitting there from lunch. It's so gross. The bartender said they didn't hire anyone to bus the tables, so she gets to do it, and she's going to get right on that any minute now. It's so gross. My Bloody Marys were good, however, with plenty of celery and a pickled okra!
When 4:00 finally came, we were got in line to be checked in by the one person working the registration desk, who was a very sweet old lady who was also very, very slow. The only people checking in were bike tourists. Our room is spacious and nice, and the cigarette smoke from the casino has not made it up here.
Dinner was at a tavern called Maggie's, which had the unique features of being open and serving beer. (No way we are going back to that place in the casino). It was great. Tasty burgers, and interesting people to talk to while we were watching the baseball playoffs.
The guy sitting next to Jim drinking beer says he's pulling for the Mariners, because he moved here from Seattle. Jim and I were aghast.
me: "You moved here to Boonville?"
guy: "Yes"
me: "Why did you do that?"
guy: "I'm still not sure."
Jim: "What do you do here?"
guy: "I'm the pastor at the Presbyterian church."
ROFL. We were both pulling for a "Somebody's got to win it" World Series between the Brewers and the Mariners (neither of which have ever won a world series), which realizing that this is very unlikely to happen. I'm all in on the Brewers winning it for Bob Uecker, who died this year.
Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/16130854893
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