Sept. 20, 2020 - Green Ridge to Pilot Grove, MO

It was about 9 am when Tobey and Phil were ready to leave Green Ridge and start their ride. It was a little cool – about 50 degrees, so they bundled up.There were several road crossings as they made their way east. They needed to watch for cars and told us today that they did have a small mishap where Tobey crashed into Phil at one of the stops! Those guys!!While powerlines run along side the trail, there are still some old telegraph line poles standing, too! We met them in Sedalia at the historic Katy Depot which was about 12 miles down the trail. Coming through Sedalia they had to detour through town part of the way and Tobey spotted this S&H Green Stamp sign! How many of you remember green stamps?!!We loaded their bikes and drove back to the the Katy Trailhead to fill the RVs with water since this stop didn’t have any spigots we could use, then came back here to look around a little more and have lunch.

The station is a beautiful building and now houses the Visitor’s Center and gift shop. Unfortunately, it isn’t open on Sundays! It had warmed up after lunch and the jackets and long pants came off before they were ready to head out. Next stop was Clifton City. They had some interesting scenery along this section of the trail. One section of the trail was carved through the rocks. That would make for an interesting train ride!The trestle bridge was really cool!There is still one of the original signal lights still standing.They went through of these tunnels. They weren’t big enough for the trains to really go through and they weren’t sure what they might have been for. Wildlife, maybe?While we waited for them to arrive at Clifton City, we took Penny for a good walk along the trail. Marcia spotted a huge spider on our way back!After a short break, they were off again to Pilot Grove.The guys had the pretty ride, once again, while we had horrible highways! This was one of the best sections of road we had; most were winding, hilly, and under construction. I think we averaged about 40mph today!We are staying tonight in Pilot Grove at the City Park. There was “supposed” to be an RV dump here, but there isn’t. Lucky for us, we can go a couple more days.

The ride today was 36.9 miles. After dinner and a game of dominos, we were all going to relax for a while before hitting the sack. Unfortunately, when Tobey was taking Penny out for her nightly walk, he stumbled on the steps and fell, and Penny fell, too! Her leash wasn’t attached and she took off and he couldn’t get up. Phil and Marcia grabbed their flashlights and we were all off searching for Penny in the pitch dark. Fortunately, Marcia spotted her about 30 minutes later and we were able to catch her. We found Tobey and then went to search for Phil. Over an hour later, we were all back to our RVs and safe. Tobey has an ice pack on his ankle and Penny is still panting and shaking. I have stopped crying and we are almost ready to call it a night. This was too much excitement for me for one day!