Larry's log:
As happened yesterday, today's forecast headwind started as a tailwind. No complaints here! In fact, everyone seemed to be motoring along at 20+ mph to the first rest stop at 32 miles. The "opening" of the rest stops is based upon 15 mph, so most everyone had to wait for a few minutes. The triple bike was also there early, and Henry, the three year old, was already playing in the park, where the rest stop was set up.
Today had virtually no climbing and the scenery was fairly constant. We went through a number of small towns including Roscoe, Sutherland and Maxwell. Many of these just had a Main Street that was a block or two of the essential commercial establishments and the grain silos. Farming is everywhere. We were alongside the railroad most of the day. This must be one of the busiest commercial railroad stretches in the country. It seemed as if a train passed by every ten or 15 minutes. We also passed an area where they were laying new track. This was interesting to watch. A train was already on the track with the supplies. There was a robot that would run along top of the supply cars,. pick up the required piece and deliver it to the ground. We did take a picture at the Olson Feedlot at Mile 43, our half-way point for the tour.
At about Mile 50, we passed through North Platte. Although only a city of 20,000+, it seemed to have a downtown of a couple of miles. This was also the site of our second rest stop, in a tree shaded city park. As it turned out, the local TV station was shooting footage to be shown on tonight's local news. We're stars! Actually, I'm not. They must have been there after Judith, Daniel and I passed through.
Lunch was at another park in the small town of Brady. Due to the tailwind, we arrived there about half an hour before feeding time. However, it was also a shady place, and the crew had laid out blankets on the grass where we could relax. We must have crossed into the Central time zone prior to lunch, because when the town's noon whistle blew, it was noon on my bike computer, which is set to Central time.
After lunch, the heat and humidity became more evident. We passed through Gothenburg, shares its name with a city in Sweden. In fact, there was something on the news last night about something going on between the two cities, but today I don't remember what is was about. At Mile 98, we passed through Cozad, which is along the 100th parallel. This was also the site of the last rest stop. However, with only about 17 miles to go, we decided to press on to the motel and be the first ones into the hot tub. The wind had been more of a cross wind since lunch. But, the tandem and I took turns sheltering each other from the wind on the way in.
Lexington is another city of only 8,000 or so, but physically larger than its population suggests. There was a large livestock auction building and pen pretty much in the center of town. Tuesday-Thursday it's hogs, and Wednesday-Friday it's cattle. So, I guess today had been cattle day. We also passed the studios of 880 AM, Farm Radio. And, I also saw a TV commercial for a private military academy that is located here in town. It was quite warm and humid by 2 pm, when we arrived. The temperature was close to 90, and the humidity was above 60%, but no chances of rain today. We're across the highway from the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles! At 7 pm, we're having our "half'-way across" ice cream social. And then maybe early to bed!
-- Larry Schwartz
Much better day today. The mileage was only 115 miles and 100 feet of climbing. Thankfully, the wind was out of the west and we flew to the first rest stop.
We left the rest stop around 8 am and we passed across a set of railroad tracks just prior to a train crossing. We were fortunate since the train decided to go across the road and park itself in the middle of it for quite a while. This was nice since we had very few vehicles drive by us for a little while. But many of the other cyclists were held up for a long time. One cyclists found a dirt road to get around the train.
Quick stop at rest stop 2 and then we flew to the lunch stop. We did have to wait for the lunch stop to open so we took the opportunity to rest. Lunch was grilled chicken, sandwiches and rice.
We left quickly after lunch and decided to ride fast to the motel, with one quick stop at the last rest stop. By the time we left lunch, the wind had shifted to the east and we had to fight it for about 40 miles. But we didn't complain since we had had a west wind for much of the day.
There was a slight change in motels and we followed the markers on the pavement from the Comfort Inn to the Super 8 motel. No complaints since they did have a hot tub. We were the first riders in for the day and the next riders were about 20 minutes after us.
Dinner was the "Biggie combination" at Wendy's...Garden Pita and Grill chicken combo. Dessert will be later with the half way party of ice cream.
Tomorrow we will have 134 miles of riding and 250 feet of climbing. And I am sure that we will see plenty more trains and corn fields.
Judith Jolly (and Daniel Schaaf)