Day 5 began again with breakfast at the hotel. You were supposed to be able to ride to the trail from the hotel... and I think you could, but we had to check out anyway so we drove to a parking area and rode from there. It was getting hot and the trail was pretty sunny, but it did follow the river at first so we enjoyed the views. Below is a huge statue of Lewis and Clark and their dog. We watched a movie about their trip up the Missouri, over the mountains and to the Pacific. Amazing!!!
The trail did veer away from the river and we rode a ways, but we were getting tired, it was sunny and there was no river view so we turned aroundafter about 7 miles. On the way back we found the boathouse/museum where we watched the movie and saw a life-size replica of the boat Lewis and Clark started out in. Then we found the statue. (The dog made the whole trip!!!)
That's about when Jan noticed a big knot on one of his tires. It scared us. WE hadn't had any bike trouble the whole trip and we didn't want any on this last day. We only had about 2 miles left....would we make it?
One more stop in the riverside park. It was a beautiful view of the river. There was also a re-built train station. The flowers were gorgeous! We also saw a momma robin trying to teach her baby to fly. She wasn't very happy with us being there!
These little stations were all along the trail, telling us exactly where we were and what we would find in that area. They gave a history, a map, a bulletin board for advertisers and just general information for bikers. Usually there were restrooms (often no plumbing but nice concrete structures) and water if it was available.
We pushed on towards our parking lot and made it, with a sigh of relief. No flat tires or work needed. We found a bench facing the river and had our last bananas and peanut butter sandwiches then we packed the bikes up and headed home. It was a good trip. Something we have never done before. And I think we would be willing to try something like it again! 133 miles in 5 days!
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