Lincoln to Omaha 9/10/09!

581 miles later... Omaha was reached!

9 am I finally was able to drag my reluctant ass out of bed to go have some breakfast: eggs, biscuits, sweet roll, and two coffees to be safe. Packed my ish and said goodbye to Amy.

The Cornhusker Expressway was grippy.. there was no shoulder until I got out of town and a fair amount of trucks that needed to be somewhere. There was indeed more of the red rock on the shoulder until out of Lincoln and surrounding county. The road was fabulous afterwards. I crossed the Platte for the final time and it was really wide this time. The landscape was much more varied and there were more hills.

I reached the town of Gretna, just outside of Omaha around noon and snagged a blue Powerade, a green tea and a cold smart water. I guy with a fauxhawk told me that he couldn't drink the water out of the tap in AZ the way he could here in NE. I wasn't a very enthusiastic audience and I thought I'd fail even more as a listener if I chimed in that he should try Colorado water, as clearly it's the best.

Took highway 370 from Gretna to 25th st. More hills here, nicely paved and slower traffic. There was light roadwork which made things tense between me and the truckers, but NO HONKS whatsoever!!!!

Omaha was has a really nice outdoor trail system. At 25th st and Hwy 370 I was able to catch the Keystone trail which took me all the way into town. It's a smooth, wide, practically vacant trail that follows a little tributary and is lined by willows and cattails, vines and more corn. Once in town I got off the trail and headed through Elmwood park where I got a cat call, nice! The park was really comfortable and shady. It's surrounded by an affluent area which quickly converts into urban sprawl and then down a luxuriously sloping hill is downtown which is stunning, and vacant, and where I'm staying right now.

I got a little emotional twice today reveling in the fact that the journey has come to an end, and then now I must return to familiar faces, speak at much greater lengths (as I've gone days without speaking more than 10 words). I'm going to miss the road and the challenge and all the fresh air and outside time. I've got a renewed sense of excitement about this country. There are so many simply profound experiences for a person to have traveling through random country towns, whether by one's self or with company and I believe they are truly important to be had. It was a good summer. I've got to get some rest. Thanks for all of your support! Sleep well!

York to Lincoln 9/8/09

Not a bad little hump. I saddled up after a bowl of Life cereal a sticky bun and two cups of coffee. I packed 3/4s of water in my Camelpac and filled the two water bottles. I had left over skittles and some beef jerky. I put on my dance tights anticipating a cooler day. I was right about the coolness until I reached the other side of York, but then it became hotter than an oven.

I didn't see a soul the whole day, except for the people in their cars, vans, trucks and what have you (they decidedly don't have souls). A new kind of flower popped into view, this time periwinkle colored. I was blessed with largely clean and comfy paved shoulders.

When I reached the very very western outskirts of Lincoln, NE I was suddenly confronted with very steep hills! Way to break up the monotony at the end. My quads screamed with excitement or maybe it was with determination - anyhoo, they were hills and along with them came a wildlife preserve, and enormous hawk circling, a variety of trees, breezes, painted barns, and little creeks. I went up shifting down to 1 and down shifting up to 8. I stopped at the top of one hill reasoning that I would be able to see both people coming and going with out a problem (I had to pee... real bad). Turns out, everybody wanted to drive up and down that hill right then, so I fain eating skittles hoping that folks would stop driving around. None of this worked so I kept right on.

When I reached Lincoln, the shoulder was suddenly paved with a sandstone colored rock - I can only assume the color was chosen for the Corn Huskers. Cute, but created a lot of drag on my tires y'all. Well, getting into town wasn't tough and most residential side streets don't have stop signs. Lincoln seemed like a nice place to live, although people were noticeably more rushed. Amy checked me in at the Holiday Inn Express. She was very pleasant and was able to work me out a good deal.

I ended up staying in Lincoln a second day due to the rain. I took advantage and went to see the Sheldon Museum of Art. I was impressed by the beautiful University Campus and even more so by the small, almost replica of Lincoln Center that is the Sheldon Museum. They have a really nice collection of all kinds of pieces and were displaying the work of a contemporary Japanese artist. There was not enough room to show much at the museum, and I they didn't go out of their way on the plaques for the artwork; name date and title, nothing else.

Later that evening I returned to the hotel to watch the season finally of Dog the Bounty Hunter "Baby Lisa's Wedding." Too bad Leland was sick in this episode.

Grand Island to York, NE 9/7/09

Today I was shot. I woke up at six, got some breakfast and washed my clothes. I decided it would be prudent to soak my legs in hot water for a while before I left. I did that for a while then got my stuff packed... I serious: sometimes I think to myself "I just can't put this crap back in the box right now!" Said my goodbyes and took off down to Highway 34.

It was yet another brisk morning and it felt nice. The road curved a little and made a nice little crossing over the Platte again. I took it easy today and down shifted quite a bit today for fear of blowing out my knees (something that sounds incredibly painful to me). I stopped and got some water and Powerade in Aurora where my bike was blown over by the intense wind. Fortunately nothing broke.

The rest of the road was gravelly which created extreme drag and forced me to go even slower for fear of a flat. at about 2:30 I rolled into York (well the Northern part) I stopped in at a motel right off the highway, lured be it's advantageous locale, oh but fate was not so kind as to grant me a room. Blast! So 6 miles south I finally happened upon the America's Best Value Inn, where a home cooked continental breakfast is served starting at 6am, there's wifi, running water, people with teeth, laundry machines, and it's only 62 bucks a night... pretty damned good. I got right into my room and crashed for two hours then gorged out on a large cheese pizza, yes Jackie, I finished it myself. Then spoke to my sis for a bit and my momma and then went out to snap some early evening photos of the sky over the soy fields to the west. Tomorrow it's to Lincoln! Night.

Lexington to Grand Island 9/6/09

Woke up bright and early in Lexington and had a quick continental breakfast... in my busted state a man muttered to me that the eggs were "greezey" I quickly inferred that he was meaning to be funny in some sort of way, but all I could mutter was "oh really? haha"

Got my butt out that door and onto the road with my sweatshirt on. Headed back north over the bridge and onto Hwy 30 again. On my way I met another man (could it have been the same man?? we will never know, but he mentioned to me that they sure didn't give us much clearance room for my bike and his pedestrian smoking self. I nodded in agreement and actually began to think, "yeah! maybe somebody should write a letter to the senator about this!" but the thought quickly passed as I realized that I was in for more wind and a surprisingly large number of cars for a Sunday. By the way, if at any point in my day I had to risk riding in the road or hold up traffic, etc. my planned response to any hecklers would have been, "I can't believe you! And on a Sunday!" Thankfully, I never had to utter a peep.

I rolled into the town of Kearney at about noon where I stopped at the Thrifty something-or-other. I ran to pee real quick and then loaded up on more Muscle Milk (even though it's gross) Powerade, and water and Ranch flavored Pringles as this combo had worked on my other hump day. The fine gentleman with the fro was very smiley and pleasant and asked me about my camelpack. I went outside and made a spot for myself next to my bike on the concrete sidewalk and drank and snacked until full. I've been experiencing some discomfort in the posterior part of one of my left ribs so I gave that some attention. I got myself together and was off for 50 more miles.

I marveled at the amount of wind that the trains, though fifteen feet or so away, would push at me and create even more resistance. I gingerly biked over the evenly spaced cracks in the shoulder as I didn't want to spring a spoke again and very much less, pop a tire. I went by emerald green fields of something and soy and I started seeing a pink flower mixed in with the now sparse Blackeyed Susans. I finished my cherry sours and my recharge of jellybellies. I noticed less wavers as my head was down and the peddles were to the metal.

Grand Island started coming into view at around 5pm Central Time. I stopped in the nice clean smooth and welcoming parking lot of a new strip mall to call to get directions to yet another Holiday Inn. The young woman on the other end was new or had had a bad day or something: my asking her directions to her hotel seemed to perturb her. Anyhow, I took the scenic route through town and discovered that there are some very nice homes in Grand Island, a beautiful old downtown area, and quite a large Mexican population (this will be important in a moment).

Upon reaching the Inn of Holidays, I quickly unpacked and washed all the gunk right off my dirty self. When I came in to the hotel, I had noticed a restaurant across the street (S Locust st. to be exact) called El Tapatio, so I said to myself, "Hunter baby, you can't leave Nebraska with a bad taste in your mouth about the Mexican food here!" I crossed the street and asked for a place at the bar, and I'm glad I did! Great salsa, ok guac, spectacular bistec picada with fajitas de cebolla y morrones in a red salsa with some heat! The waitress was very kind too. I came home and I crashed!!!

Thus Far...

Denver to Keenesburg 43.8 miles

Keenesburg to Fort Morgan 53.4 miles

Fort Morgan to Sterling 44.8 miles

Rest day in Sterling

Sterling to Ogallala 90.5 miles

Ogallala to North Platte 52.7 miles

Rest Day cause my replacement cell was arriving Friday

After 20ish miles back to North Platte for yet another rest day cause I broke a spoke like a joke.

North Platte to Lexington 60.5 miles

Lexington to Grand Island 76.3 miles

Grand Island to York 44.9 miles

466.9 miles so far (not including the 20ish miles).

Will write more soon! Gotta eat some pizza right quick.

Everyone knows it's Windy!

Who's trippin' down the streets of the city and who's blowing directly in my face and who's making it so hard to go forward? Everyone knows it's Windy! And Windy has stormy eyes that flash at the sound of lies....

A 10 mph head wind really makes a difference y'all! I was pushing hard all day. Being a tall bloke I am basically a human sail on my bike even when I crouch down and pretend that I'm Lance Armstrong.

I got ten miles out of town with the same head wind yesterday only to hear a "ping!" I ducked down, knowing full well that I hadn't run over anything as I'm super careful about that sort of thing, and I saw one of my spokes dangling on my wheel. Mother trucker! So it was back to town to see my acquaintances at "Alive Outside." I checked in to the Blue Spruce Motel for one more night and replaced the spoke and trued the wheel. Later, I went to the convenience store and purchased some important things like: Cinnamon Starbucks, Vitamin Water, Combos, Chocolate Milke and Cherry Sours. After yet one more night it my favorite Nebraska town, North Platte, I headed to Lexington today; Lexington, NE that is.

Once again, it was an overcast and breezy day with quite a few grasshoppers crunchity crunch crunching beneath my tires. I got tooted at again by a nice train conductor and waved at by enthusiastic Nebraskans - which really keeps a person going! I wore out my Brazilian musica and moved on to my Rock Ballads.. Kyrie Elaison!

The air was pungent with wafting aromas from the flora AND dead fauna. I saw and smelled (and got a mouth full of the same smell) three road killed dear, one bloated raccoon and some partridges or sparrows or something with a yellow chests. A slue of random wings and all kinds of corn waste that had blown off the top of the big trucks that haul the mainstay of the area. I spotted some picture perfect horses and black and white cows grazing in the meadows. I heard more strange gun shots not far from the road (target practice???) A strange Buick station wagon with purple flags and what looked to be a gun mounted upright where the antenna should have been honked in recognition going East and later in the afternoon the very same jovial group honked again and waved coming back!

The people in Gothenburg were shy. On the way into Lexington, I stopped to read a plaque on the side of the road, put there by Bonneville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1940. It reads:

"Here on August 7, 1867, A band of Southern Cheyennes, led by Cheif Turkey Leg, wrecked a West-bound Union Pacific freight train and hand car which preceded it. The engineer and fireman were killed and the box-cars looted and burned. One of the hand- car crew was killed, another wounded, and one scalped alive. At dawn the indians rode away with bolts of bight colored calico tied to their ponies' tails."

The Kentucky fried chicken strips in Lexington were anything but tender, in fact they were so tough they probably could have beaten up any corn husking football team they wanted to. The Holiday Inn Express lady was embarrassed that the rate was so high, but they've got a pool and I need to lavar mi ropa. If you haven't already emailed me your cell phone number please feel free to give me a ring at the same number as before so I can put you into my new phone. Sounds like there's a cute baby the next room over. Peace out dawg.

Nice corn cobs!

Yesterday, woke up, got some breakfast at the over priced Holiday Inn Express in Ogallala, then lay down for a hot minute, half deciding not to go, but then at 10:30am I finally welcomed reality: I'm defying stars on this trip - even if they are my own, Holiday Inn takes itself way too seriously, and I always feel good once I get going. I hurried to get my ish together and at 11:00am on the dot, the front desk called to inform me that housekeeping needed to get into my room. So I hurried even faster and forgot my water bottles so I had to go back and get them, ugh! Then I quickly composed myself, appologized for my typical tardiness and left.

The ride out of town was just fine; as I had hoped, the shoulder on highway 30 widened on the East end of town. The sun was intense, but it felt great. Ali Smith, I was wearing my short shorts in your honor! I pumped up the tunes and was making great time. I flew through Paxton, saying my little "Lord let there be no dogs off their leashes or out of their yards" prayer. Then I waved at a train who was happy to toot his whistle at me which startled me a bit so I veered (this is were I think my cellphone jumped out of my front pack to hide in the corn). I rolled up to Sutherland shortly thereafter where proportedly a gay bikerbar exists, but I got shy and hungry so I keept going to the convenience store and got some gatorade and juice and snacked on some left over jerky I had.

Then when I stopped later on the side of the road for a quick drink and some chapstick (my lips were r-a-w, raw!) I realized that my cell was gone. I panicked for a second, then I said "fu*& it" and I kept going smiling. I passed Midwestern Renewable Energy plant where I assume they were fermenting ethenol from corn oil... it smelled deliscious! Then I gunned it all the way to North Platte where I found a Motel 6 for 45 bucks a night and a pool. Sweet! Aftering making a couple of phone calls a grabbing a quick bite to eat, I turned on my favorite show, Dog the Bounty Hunter, watched a few episodes and crashed. Now here I am in this town where people seem to have a bad attitude, unless you're a librarian. The Platte River is gorgeous, and the Mexican food tastes Italian, huh, I don't get it. Until later my friends!