Day 22 Week 4, Sunday 11 May 2025

We went from Alton Illinois to Augusta Missouri.  A total of 63 miles and 511 ft of elevation gain.  A momentous day as we crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri right away.  I really feel like we are going West at this point.  It was a beautiful day, starting off in the high 50s and getting into the 70s at the end of the day.  Sunny skies and light tailwind breezes.  We got onto the Katy Trail about 13 miles after crossing the river. It’s a rail bed from a previous railroad, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) railroad which was nicknamed the K.T. Or Katy by railroad employees.  It is real smooth packed gravel with little incline as it is following the Missouri River for a large part.  We will be on this trail practically all the way through Missouri, so no hill climbing for awhile, which is a relief to everyone.   We stopped at St Charles for a coffee break about 25 miles in- a really quaint little town along the Missouri River with a beautiful river side park area.  Then stopped at the Good News Brewery just 5 miles from Augusta for a well deserved cold brew and a hot pretzel.  It was packed with people for Mother’s Day, it being the first nice weekend in awhile.  Apparently there has been a lot of rain in these parts.  We meet this nice local guy with his wife who turned out to be a professional photographer and he took our picture outside the front of the Brewery.  I’ll post the photo when he sends it to us.   It was mine and Tom’s turn to cook this evening so we went into town to the Walmart to shop.  Stir frie with pecan pie and ice cream for dessert.  It was a hit!