Interesting fact about Plainview, NE: there’s a clown museum. I didn’t go… but I hear I didn’t miss much except a bunch of creepy clown stuff and a strange lady working there.
The day started off like no other day of my life up until this point, and I’m pretty positive no other day of my life will ever start off this way ever again. We had a nice 5am wakeup and by 6am were at the local bar for breakfast and bowling. Yes, this bar not only is open for breakfast every morning, but also has a bowling alley and tanning bed inside of it. We ordered our food and some people bowled while waiting for it to be ready. I ate a huge delicious breakfast, and sat around waiting for other people to finish since our food was coming out one plate at a time. I was not looking forward to getting on my bike and all, and stalled as much as possible hoping the time would not come where my butt would have to touch the seat, but eventually I was one of only a handful of people left and so set off on the 83 mile journey to Stuart.
Around mile 30 I was feeling pretty good, and wondering if it was possible that I had been hating my bike as much as I did this morning. There was s fossil museum we heard about from some
locals where we had stayed the night before, and a few adventurous people decided to take the 7 mile (3.5 one way and 3.5 back) detour to check it out. It ended up being a great decision and probably the coolest thing I will see in Nebraska. About 12 million years ago ash from volcano eruptions in South Dakota traveled to Nebraska via winds, killing all the animals and also fossilizing their skeletons. They have been excavating the areas since the 1970s and have found fossils of all kinds of animal fossils like elephants, zebras, and hippos. It was so cool! They were even digging outside while we were there, and one of the geologist guys found a snake fossil, which he told us is like super rare. They thought it even might be a new species of snake that they found… so so cool. I can’t even tell you how awesome it was to see these fossils; definitely the best part of NE so far and the way things are going, I don’t see it getting much better.
After lunch the ride ended up getting tougher with winds and heat both increasing and civilization decreasing. We ended up getting into Stuart with a total mileage of 90. The people at the church were so nice, and one guy even chased down myself and another girl who were walking in the complete wrong direction to the local auditorium where showers were. He pulled up in his car and told us we were going the wrong way, then drove us to the showers; now that’s service (and it was so nice!). I talked to the nicest couple after dinner who were huge UN fans and we chatted about college sports and all kinds of fun stuff. Sleep came easy that night, and I woke up feeling positive about the ride to Valentine.
Valentine’s ride ended up being my hardest by far. It was an 87 mile ride that took so long. There were so many parts of the day that we were literally biking 10mph while going down hill. The headwinds were so brutal all day long and never quit. By the time we finally reached
Valentine with its hearts on EVERY sign and place possible in the town we all just felt like flipping out slightly. People get loopy when tired on the bike, which is always quite entertaining though lol. My butt and body were hurting at the end of yesterday, and I wasn’t even sure how I made it into town, but some how we all just kept pedaling until we reached the church. They didn’t provide us with dinner, but one of the girls who rode in the van that day due to butt related injuries was nice enough to have dinner made for us when we all arrived. We had a salad bar and a taco bar and both were awesome. I was so exhausted I went to bed immediately after our group meeting around 9. Group meeting for the week or what we call our “Town Hall” meetings was interesting last night with a lot of talk about butt problems and saddle sores. We think it apparently may be spreading through the laundry and discussed experimenting with color safe bleach to try to better kill the bacteria that may be causing this epidemic… will keep you updated.
This morning I was not into the thought of riding my bicycle, again, for 93 miles. We were heading for Gordon, NE. Another long day… Brooke and I figured it out and after tomorrow’s ride and then our day off after that (finally) we will have average 86 miles a day over six days. The day actually turned out to be a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The sunrise and clouds this morning were gorgeous! The wind was bad, but not as bad as yesterday, and although it was still a long tough ride the company I had made it not so bad. The day actually started out really slowly since I stopped with a few other people to help a girl change her tire only to have it deflate immediately due to a bad valve on the new tube. We changed it again a second time and were finally off. By this point we were far behind everyone el
se, and that’s the way it stayed for the remainder of the ride. Unfortunaltey, a lot of riders ended up riding in the van today due to exhaustion and/or butt problems. I think the total number in the van today for either the entire day or part of the day was around 7 or 8. The van at one point had to actually go the church to drop people and their bikes off to make room to go pick up more people. My butt was crying a lot of the day, but it made it another ride and hopefully should last me until our day off after tomorrow’s ride.
I am sweeping again tomorrow (always interesting). Thankfully it is a short day of only 47 miles so hopefully it won’t be too long or bad a day. At this point we are all looking forward to our day off more than anything and that will provide plenty of motivation to get to the host ASAP. Overall, we have come to a consensus that we all HATE Nebraska (except the two riders from here). The scenery for the most part sucks (don’t be fooled by the few good pictures I have posted), the wind is AWFUL, and it is driving us all to the point of insanity and delirium on our bicycles. One guy was even having a conversation with the state of NE today… alone. Telling it how much he hates is and how he will not let it get the best of him… Marita pulled up in the van and witnessed some of it. We are all looking forward to being out of this awful state, and would suggest no one ever ride their bikes from east to west across this miserable state.
The day started off like no other day of my life up until this point, and I’m pretty positive no other day of my life will ever start off this way ever again. We had a nice 5am wakeup and by 6am were at the local bar for breakfast and bowling. Yes, this bar not only is open for breakfast every morning, but also has a bowling alley and tanning bed inside of it. We ordered our food and some people bowled while waiting for it to be ready. I ate a huge delicious breakfast, and sat around waiting for other people to finish since our food was coming out one plate at a time. I was not looking forward to getting on my bike and all, and stalled as much as possible hoping the time would not come where my butt would have to touch the seat, but eventually I was one of only a handful of people left and so set off on the 83 mile journey to Stuart.Around mile 30 I was feeling pretty good, and wondering if it was possible that I had been hating my bike as much as I did this morning. There was s fossil museum we heard about from some
locals where we had stayed the night before, and a few adventurous people decided to take the 7 mile (3.5 one way and 3.5 back) detour to check it out. It ended up being a great decision and probably the coolest thing I will see in Nebraska. About 12 million years ago ash from volcano eruptions in South Dakota traveled to Nebraska via winds, killing all the animals and also fossilizing their skeletons. They have been excavating the areas since the 1970s and have found fossils of all kinds of animal fossils like elephants, zebras, and hippos. It was so cool! They were even digging outside while we were there, and one of the geologist guys found a snake fossil, which he told us is like super rare. They thought it even might be a new species of snake that they found… so so cool. I can’t even tell you how awesome it was to see these fossils; definitely the best part of NE so far and the way things are going, I don’t see it getting much better.
After lunch the ride ended up getting tougher with winds and heat both increasing and civilization decreasing. We ended up getting into Stuart with a total mileage of 90. The people at the church were so nice, and one guy even chased down myself and another girl who were walking in the complete wrong direction to the local auditorium where showers were. He pulled up in his car and told us we were going the wrong way, then drove us to the showers; now that’s service (and it was so nice!). I talked to the nicest couple after dinner who were huge UN fans and we chatted about college sports and all kinds of fun stuff. Sleep came easy that night, and I woke up feeling positive about the ride to Valentine.Valentine’s ride ended up being my hardest by far. It was an 87 mile ride that took so long. There were so many parts of the day that we were literally biking 10mph while going down hill. The headwinds were so brutal all day long and never quit. By the time we finally reached
Valentine with its hearts on EVERY sign and place possible in the town we all just felt like flipping out slightly. People get loopy when tired on the bike, which is always quite entertaining though lol. My butt and body were hurting at the end of yesterday, and I wasn’t even sure how I made it into town, but some how we all just kept pedaling until we reached the church. They didn’t provide us with dinner, but one of the girls who rode in the van that day due to butt related injuries was nice enough to have dinner made for us when we all arrived. We had a salad bar and a taco bar and both were awesome. I was so exhausted I went to bed immediately after our group meeting around 9. Group meeting for the week or what we call our “Town Hall” meetings was interesting last night with a lot of talk about butt problems and saddle sores. We think it apparently may be spreading through the laundry and discussed experimenting with color safe bleach to try to better kill the bacteria that may be causing this epidemic… will keep you updated.
This morning I was not into the thought of riding my bicycle, again, for 93 miles. We were heading for Gordon, NE. Another long day… Brooke and I figured it out and after tomorrow’s ride and then our day off after that (finally) we will have average 86 miles a day over six days. The day actually turned out to be a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The sunrise and clouds this morning were gorgeous! The wind was bad, but not as bad as yesterday, and although it was still a long tough ride the company I had made it not so bad. The day actually started out really slowly since I stopped with a few other people to help a girl change her tire only to have it deflate immediately due to a bad valve on the new tube. We changed it again a second time and were finally off. By this point we were far behind everyone el
se, and that’s the way it stayed for the remainder of the ride. Unfortunaltey, a lot of riders ended up riding in the van today due to exhaustion and/or butt problems. I think the total number in the van today for either the entire day or part of the day was around 7 or 8. The van at one point had to actually go the church to drop people and their bikes off to make room to go pick up more people. My butt was crying a lot of the day, but it made it another ride and hopefully should last me until our day off after tomorrow’s ride.I am sweeping again tomorrow (always interesting). Thankfully it is a short day of only 47 miles so hopefully it won’t be too long or bad a day. At this point we are all looking forward to our day off more than anything and that will provide plenty of motivation to get to the host ASAP. Overall, we have come to a consensus that we all HATE Nebraska (except the two riders from here). The scenery for the most part sucks (don’t be fooled by the few good pictures I have posted), the wind is AWFUL, and it is driving us all to the point of insanity and delirium on our bicycles. One guy was even having a conversation with the state of NE today… alone. Telling it how much he hates is and how he will not let it get the best of him… Marita pulled up in the van and witnessed some of it. We are all looking forward to being out of this awful state, and would suggest no one ever ride their bikes from east to west across this miserable state.
1 comment:
Hi Jess - send Rafael at Everglades bike club an email when you get a chance - he is wondering how your ride is going. His email address is:
prepur@bellsouth.net
Hope you are having fun & the butt isn't too sore.
Richard Halluk
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