Afternoon headwinds slowed us, and the more frequent, and longer, rest stops ate into our plans. In Mokane we realized that 80 miles was a more reasonable goal, and we crossed the river into Jefferson City, the state capitol, at dusk. The manager of the Capitol Plaza, a big downtown hotel but the first we came to, gave us his last suite at half price, a nice gesture. A hotel guest, Steve, insisted that we join him for dinner, which he drove us to after our showers. A wonderful family man in town on business, Steve shared more of his life story with us over dinner than most folks do in a weekend.
Today there is plenty of reason to be proud of our family.
We rode hard on an unpaved surface for 12 hours, in hot and muggy weather, without a complaint. The kids were willing to push on to 100 miles in the dark. They still had energy for a swim at the hotel. Mom and Dad had considerably less energy left, but we had high spirits and happy smiles. After our century attempt, an early start was not part of our plan today.