Augusta, MO to Linn, MO Day 17

We got up, and out back onto the Katy. After a couple miles we passed these guys biking the other way, who were biking from start to end of the Katy and said that the day before they had gone through flooding on the trail that was up to their waists! One of them said he ran over a catfish with his bike. What?! That's crazy. 

So we decided to hop off the trail..! We ate some pretty good food at a restaurant with less than decent service... And got on our way. I unfortunately to divert from the trail we REALLY had to divert, so we didn't get to reconnect with the Katy for the whole day. There was no shoulder other than super loose gravel and there was a good number of cars. A few would yell at us "GET BACK TO THE KATY!!!" angrily (and with slightly ruder phrasing..). We have mixed feelings about this because its great that they know what the Katy trail is, but being yelled at is no fun. And also, come on people, can't you see the river is like a million feet high?! Oh well. Later in the day the shoulder did get better and the road much less busier once we turned to a different highway. But BOY was it hilly. We decided that Pennsylvania has been following us.. :)

We were on a major highway though (hwy50) so it actually cut through some of those hills -- which actually reminded me a lot of 360 in Austin!

While back on the hills that were never ending without a gas station or anything for like A BILLION MILES (or 30..) we ran into this group of bikers (the kind with motors!) who, as we passed, asked if we had been on Hwy Z earlier. We turned around to stop, and we had been on Hwy Z and they were impressed with the progress we made woo! They were really nice and great, and we took our picture with them. Thanks for the good conversation and encouragement guys, and keep the dirty side down! 

And the landscape would tease us by flattening out for a bit, and we were always SURE the hills were all behind us, but they'd just sneak back up! Here's a little bit of that flat:

The countryside was seriously beautiful and so green with all the rain the area has been getting (phew have we felt that rain!)!

And we luckily only had to pretend to head to this tornado shelter! We're feeling very lucky and thankful that we haven't been stuck in one. 

All in all a great day. Had lots of pizza for dinner at a place in Linn, where the cook himself came out to wish us best of luck! People have been so nice. We decided to stay in a hotel for the night, and it had a hottub and a washer/dryer -- we struck gold! The hot tub felt great on our ever-increasing soreness, and slept well in a bed. 

Daily stats:

Mileage: 71.6

Average speed: 10.3

Elevation gain: 3590

Daily haiku:

Hills of missouri,

Keeping the dirty side down,

Hot tub AMAZING. 

This was a good sign at the place we ate breakfast!! We saw it right after that other cyclist told us he ran into a catfish with his bike. 

-AW