What was supposed to be a great day took a turn for the worse. I rode 54 miles from Augusta, MO to Portland, MO. Jeesh, I feel like I'm back in Maine.
Last night was crazy. I woke up to wind gusts around 3am so I put my rain fly on. Jason woke up around the same time and staked his in too. We could see the huge cloud bank rollig in. It was good timing, because not 2 minutes after I got back into my tent, it started raining. I checked my weather reports every 5 minutes for the next half hour to make sure there were no tornado warnings, but we were fine. I eventually fell asleep, but awoke again around 5 to loud thunder. It was just incredible. We got up around 7, and the rain was just stopping.
We got ready to go, and Jason miraculously found the tent bag that he had lost out in the corn field. Awesome.
The day was great until lunchtime. Jason had gotten a phone call about a week and a half ago saying that his uncle who had been fighting cancer wasn't doing very well. A few days later, they said he was doing much better. However, today he four out that he has about 3 days. So, Jason is flying home to see his uncle one last time, and make sure he gets to the funeral. Send your thoughts and best wishes to Jason and his family.
So the plan is: Jason is riding straight through 190 miles to Kansas City to fly home. I'm going to spend a few low mileage days on the Katy Trail, and a few in Kansas City. Jason will then fly back out to Kansas City, and we'll continue the trip. Hopefully we won't lose more than a couple days. It's like halftime for our trip, since KC is more or less the halfway point.
So I'm camping in Portland, MO tonight. I'm writing this from the most cliche Midwestern bar, eating chicken strips and fries. We'll be back on track in no time.
Tomorrow: Still on the Katy Trail.
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