Biking trip: day one

Sebastien's car may be filthy, but it holds both of our bikes (which are big) without taking off the front wheels. We drove to our capital city and cycled twenty miles west.

We took plenty of breaks to pose for photos and explore.

After cycling west, we turned around and cycled back ten miles. We then stopped for lunch in Hartsburg. If you go there, bring your own water; that town has the worst tasting water ever. Whether you get it by the trail or in the restaurant, it's bad, bad, bad.

Here we are by the Missouri River. Sebastien climbed down to it. I was afraid that my legs might cramp up on me, so I stayed up by the trail. We saw a lot of bikers on the first day, all kinds. The most interesting one was a man with a dog carrier (and not a small one) behind his bike. Behind that was a carrier thing for a child. He had gear in it. He weaved back and forth on the path. He also had all kinds of gear hanging off his bike and carriers. For all my single friends: I am sure that he's available. He's headed east and probably hasn't made it far from Jefferson City.

After four hours of biking and a lunch break, we drove to our hotel and freshened up. When we stepped out of the hotel to walk to dinner, we came upon a parade. It's been a long while since I've been to a parade.

We walked through a street party/carnival to an Irish pub. Sebastien had dark beer and bangers and mash. I had a disappointing salad, good horseradish/garlic mashed potatoes and great breaded and deep fried portobello mushrooms. The pub wasn't what we had hoped for. I'm the Irish one, and when I was a young lass (Scottish too) we used to go to an Irish pub. Our Irish pub had good food and was based at an airport. My Irish aviator dad must have been in heaven. Ours had Irish music also, sometimes live.

When we walked back to our hotel, we caught a bit of the Aaron Tippin concert. Not our thing, but at least we heard some live music.