The home stretch ... we started out early from Tebbetts in very nice, cooler-than-normal weather for the final ride into St. Charles. Today we decided to alternate between the trail and the road, to give ourselves a bit of a break from the vibrations of the trail surface. Good conditions, nice terrain and scenery, light wind (although there was a fairly stiff headwind sometimes when we were out on the road).
Along this stretch the Katy Trail winds through areas settled by German immigrants, including Rhineland, where we saw this lovely church:
The bluffs and hills along the Missouri River here are also the center of Missouri's wine country (including towns like Hermann), where the descendants of German immigrants make German-style wines, including those from white grapes like vidal blanc and seyval blanc.
Here's some of Team Corps of Discovery in action on this gorgeous day:
We stopped for the typical lunch of cycling champions (peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, mixed nuts and dried fruit, and apples and oranges) in Treloar, where another cyclist kindly took a picture of the entire Team Corps of Discovery:
I only rode 32 miles on the last day, because of my sore wrists and trapezius. But the reason I stopped there was so I could remember enjoying the 32 miles I did ride, instead of grumbling through the whole ride.
That meant that I was driving the sag wagon into St. Charles. Not only was the trailhead in St. Charles right near the park where the 4th of July festivities were taking place ... our hotel was literally feet from the trailhead! So I got us all checked in, showered, made a dinner reservation at the brewpub at the trailhead, and reflected on a very fun tour!
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