53 miles. The forecast for today was for strong afternoon thunderstorms, including the possibility of large hail, lightening and possible
tornados. There was thunder in the distance as we prepared to leave Pilot Grove, so we humped it to try to arrive at our destination for today before 2 pm. We made it, but as it turned out there were no such storms and we could have taken it easy. Oh well. Despite the increased pace it was still a very good day. At
Boonville, the first town after we left Pilot Grove, we crossed the Missouri River. From there the trail more or less parallels the river as it meanders south and east toward St. Louis. We rode most of the day with the river on our right side and high limestone cliffs on our left side. We saw quite a bit of wildlife, including white tail deer, another turtle, half a dozen snakes and tons of birds - including cardinals, bluebirds and hummingbirds. Once again we pretty much had the trail to ourselves - only a handful of people were using the trail today and none of them were doing what we are doing.
Hartsburg is another one of the incredibly small towns that we have visited. And it is still alive and well after being nearly wiped out in 1993 when the Missouri flooded. People have rebuilt their homes and there is some new construction as well. Best of all, the townspeople decided to "pay forward" the kind of help they received then from other parts of the country,* so they put together a Hartsburg Disaster Relief group that travels to other areas hit by floods, tornados, etc. to help the people there start putting their lives back together. It's a real-life feel good story.
*For example, a dozen New Jersey plumbers showed up after the '93 flood unannounced to spend a week here doing free repair work.
.JPG)