Day 6- Boonville, MO to Marshall, MO (40/262 miles)

Managed to get in 40 miles this afternoon after the rain finally stopped (for a while, at least). It was really nice to turn off the muddy Katy Trail and onto the paved roads of the Santa Fe Trail.

The Santa Fe Trail is a commercial trail dating back to 1821, that was used to facilitate trade between the United States and Mexico. It ran from near Boonville to a city now known as Santa Fe, New Mexico. (As you probably know, what is now Santa Fe was then part of Mexico.  That continued to be the case until President Poke, er, I mean Polk, provoked a war in 1846 designed to steal much of what is now the Southwest from Mexico.)

I am now fairly close to Kansas City in western Missouri and the terrain is gradully starting to change from deep forest to rolling prairie.  This transformation was not lost on the Corps of the Expedition Discovery, who found the prairie to be beautiful.

I enjoyed an excellent meal today at The J. HustonTavern in Arrow Rock, which was constructed in 1834.  The meal was served family style, and I think I alone consumed more food than did some of the families sitting nearby.

The couple sitting at the table next to mine introduced themselves. Coincidentally, the gentleman, Dan Sturdevant, was a past president of a national organization known as the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.  He and his wife,  Marilee, are tremendously knowledgeable authorities on the expedition and the lives of Lewis and Clark. We had a fabulous conversation.  

During the meal, Dan had a phone conversation with a gentleman from New York who is the developer of a video game known as Meriwether.  He demonstrated the game on his laptop.  I'm not sure how the game is played, but what he showed me depicted a conversation between Lewis and President Jefferson.

The AccuWeather forecast, which has proven very accurate so far, is indicating that the rain should stop by 9 AM tomorrow morning.  But it looks like I am going to be heading into 17 mph headwinds gusting as high as 25 mph. I better get some sleep!