Reply to West to East

My friend and I set out from Boston to walk/bike the Katy in April. We are women in our late sixties and walk a long walk every year. We choose the Katy because we could walk from town to town where we could get lodging each night. But, the trail is flat and services for walkers are very sparse in some parts. Access to water is very limited in long stretches of the trail. It is definitely more of a biking trail. We opted to rent bikes on the long stretches without service.
We stayed in some great B&B’s and met some great people. We rented bikes in Sedalia, Rocheport and Hermann. It was no problem hiring a shuttle to pick up the bikes and bring them back to the rental shop. We also had the shuttle service drop off our packs when they picked up the bikes.
We started out with 10–12 lb packs. By the time we got to Jefferson City we decided to ship all but the very essential items to St. Charles.
We visited Columbia, Jefferson and St. Louis. Great cities, worth spending time in. St. Charles was a big disappointment. The shops carried the same stuff and had the overwhelming smell of potpourri.
St Louis was worth the time. The City Museum was especially worth while. Great fun!
Augusta was a great place to visit, brewery and wineries. One of the best meals during the entire trip was at Café Bella run by a mother and daughter. Don’t miss this place.
One of the best times we had at a B&B was Rendleman Home in Bluffton. Doug, the innkeeper made dinner and breakfast. The B&B is not on the Missouri list of B&B’s and the place was not decorated beautifully and was not especially clean but the meal was great and he was a real kick. He gets our star for the place to stay on the Katy. Most of the other B&B’s we stayed in were all beautifully decorated and the innkeepers very accommodating. We did start to get a little “over B&B’d” by the end of the trip and looked forward to the autonomy a hotel provides.