Welcome to Wyoming

Crawford to Douglas

Yesterday was hard and so was today. The headwinds and crosswinds slow us down by a couple miles per hour. A couple miles out of Crawford we saw a sign "scenic overlook two miles." it was a steep hill but we've done worse. The rest of the day was hilly and windy. Even riding downhill was challenging. When we got to Harrison it was tempting to stop but the winds today weren't expected to be better so we kept going. We crossed the border and stopped in Van Tassell which has only a couple people and the first American legion post. We finally saw Lusk and it looked only a few miles away but as we got closer it seemed to get further away.
Today we left late thinking the 55 miles would be easier. The winds kept the ride from being easy but there were more towns and we sat around here and there. After a lot of breaks and only 53 miles we stopped.
Two hard days mostly due to wind. Maybe we'll make it to Casper tomorrow.

Crawford NE

In the 60 miles between here and Alliance there was one town--Hemingford. Hemingford was only 20 miles from Alliance so we didn't really need much there.
The rest of the trip went through national forests. We were forewarned about the long steep climbs there but all we had were rolling hills that gave us enough speed to get over the next. Then we came to a long six mile descent into Crawford. It was an easier sixty miles yesterday. The only challenge was the lack of resources.

Dog

Alliance NE

We woke up to rain this morning, and I thought for a moment we would be rained in again. It looked like there were blue skies way off in the distance, so we left. We were hungry again when we left the hotel, so we stopped at the gas station for more food. We met a pack of bikers going east. They were putting on their rain gear over their chaps, but it sounded like it was the last of a short tour for them. We went west toward Ashby which turned out to be another small town but this time nothing was open, and I didn't see a post office. We called a few people and rested, then moved on to Bingham which turned out to be another semi-vacant town. Then we thought, oh, Ellsworth ought to have something. As promised by the billboard, the general store was there, complete with a guard dog. As we crossed the railroad tracks (all of these towns are by the tracks) the dog came barking up to us. We yelled at him "No!" because this usually works. He stopped barking and just sat there. He watched us walk our bikes to the picnic table, and then he started moseying toward us. When he got to us, he just circled around for a moment, then plopped himself down. He was pretty friendly, but a picky eater. I offered him some of my peanut butter sandwich, and he didn't want any. Jim offered him a Frito, but no thank you. Jim started making himself a cheese sandwich, and "Dog" started sniffing and looking and foaming. So Jim gave him some cheese and started making his sandwich. Dog wanted more, so Jim told him it was his turn. Dog still wanted cheese, so Jim gave him another slice. He hung out with us for a while sitting in front of our bikes or just looking at us. We needed to get water, so we knocked on a door to the ranch house there. It turns out the ranch house is the house that built the town. In some long ago time, the Spade Ranch covered over 500,000 acres in Nebraska, and the owners built the railways and telephone lines between towns. The ranch was later reduced after one of the owners plead guilty to illegally claiming government lands. So Kelly who now lives in the ranch house that built Ellsworth let us in to get water from her kitchen.
Then we went onward to Lakeside, again fairly vacant. There was a working post office, but today is Sunday. Some motorbikers stopped there as well. They were from Alliance, and they told us about Carhenge. Apparently it looks just like it does in the post card. Since it is 12 miles out of the way, I don't think we are going. They told us that the guy who built it on the corner of his property fought with the city because the attraction caused such a traffic jam. The city made him build a driveway around it for people to look at it. The next town we went through was Antioch. On the googlemaps it looked like a fair-sized city with lots of roads, but when we got there it was again just a couple houses. I guess there was a "post office" there was a blue postal drop chained to a fence. I guess they must be in high demand to have such protection. I checked the weather report there to see if we had any thunderstorms coming because the biker couple from Lakeside said there were rain storms coming. It turns out Box Butte County, where Alliance is located, is part of a tornado watch until 9pm.
Today was pretty interesting. I sort of miss Dog.

Even if the ride is nice the clouds add an element of stress.

Entering MT Time Zone

Hyannis NE

Yesterday we passed through 3 towns before arriving in Hyannis. The first town, Seneca, was hidden from the road under a downhill. When we got there nothing but the post office was open. In fact the town had a church, park, cafe, and postoffice. I went inside the P.O. to ask for water. The postmaster said she didn't have water and the plumber is supposed to comeon Monday. She told us the park had a well so we filled up there. The next town, Mullen, was larger and we ate lunch there. After eating tater tots and grilled cheese we left only to ride on a bumpy road due to lack of maintenance. On the right the bumps jolted the whole bike and on the road the bumpswere slightly less violent but the ridges cut in the road made me carsick. We rested a couple times on the way to Whitman. Whitman was supposed to be 25 miles from Mullen but nothing was there and the postoffice was closed. Finally we were only 14 miles from Hyannis. When we got here I found out the hotel bar and cafe was low on staff and they only accept cash. The room is nice and large and the spirits downstairs were pretty delicious. I'd definitely return to Hyannis.
We woke up to rain this morning but it looks like it's all clear now.

Phone Booth

The first photo didn't post.

Sandhills in Nebraska

Tee hee. Not really, but there are these man made sand hills in Nebraska. When someone told me about the hills I imagined that the road was built around some kind of sand dunes. Apart from a few patches of sand the hills seem indistinguishable from other hills.

Phone Booth

Thedford Nebraska

We left this morning and it wasnt raining. The forecast was for another 80 percent chance and the sky was dark even though it was mid morning. We were rained in a couple times to Anselmo and again about ten miles to Thedford. Before Halsey we realized my rear tire had a slow leak so I get to work on that tonight. We also came across a small turtle. I've seen a couple fresh roadkill turtles so I insisted we move him out of the way. I don't know if it is really good for the turtle but I hope he's okay now. So crappy skies but a fine day today.

Weather

So this rain just won't stop. What to do . . . It's cold, raining, and there are three towns between here and Thedford and their estimated population is less than a hundred. It's not just drizzle and wet roads but bursts of a half hour of pouring and mere moments of pause. We are either moving to a cheaper hotel or taking a chance today. This is frustrating. After many moments riding in rain we know how it is and apparently how non visible we must be or how little caution drivers have. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same and the next day and the next . . . Almost a week of rest days have been driven by weather already.

Broken Bow NE

In spite of the breezysidewinds we sort of cruised to Broken Bow. I wondered all day if we were going to be slowed down by rain. When we left the hotel we were told some storm chasers were checking in today. We also chatted with a Navy veteran who served in Crete during Vietnam. Then we were about to pull out and get on our way to do 80 miles in threatening skies when another guy came out to tell us two grim stories. One was about a happy old lady who was riding her scooter chair when she was hit by a big truck. He said he thought everyone who rides those scooters should have a flag like the one on thebob trailer. Good for us! The other story was about how he was working on a ranch when he suddenly found himself in a hail storm. He hid under his horse until he saw a tornado coming at him. He dove into a drainage pipe and found himself face to face with a skunk. He could feel the torndos wind pulling at his legs but he couldnt go closer to the skunk. Thanks for the pep talk.
We rode hard for a while. We met a talkative lady in Ravenna. Her twin sister is working the family farm where they grow soy beans and corn. She was really nice and had a lot to talk about. In Litchfeild we met another group of veterans. In fact in Litchfeild we told one person what we were doing and who we are and it seemed that everyone in town (282 people) knew before we could introduce ourselves. They were all kind and interesting. A little while later while resting in Ansley a guy stopes his truck and we all chatted fir a while. He told us about the historic hotel in Broken Bow and this and that.
After a long day we finally arrived in Broken Bow. It was fun to meet all these people today.

Urban heiroglyph

We're not Going Anywhere

The forecast was for rain and tstorms all day. In Blair it was the same and we planned a break but the weather was nice. Now the forecast was right so it looks like we are staying in Grand Island. The Doppler also shows storms along the way to Broken Bow. Another day lost.

Grand Island NE

We arrived here a couple minutes ago. Our hotel room has an outside and an inside door. Crazy. Nothing exciting happened today. We had a bit of a sidewind that turned into a tailwind later. The weather was nice. We rode past a vouple feed lots. I am surprised that cows eat sanitary food because the feed lot stench is enough to make me gag. On our way to Broken Bow tomorrow.

Blair to Columbus

We left this morning after the rain paused. As we rode 91 west we passed through a few dark grey clouds. I thought I heard a siren but I think it was a police car or the train. A couple squirrels tried to cross the road. One of them made it and the second one paused on the center before sprinting behind me and in front of Jim. Then we stopped in Nickerson. We met a couple who was in the army and now they both go to college.
The clouds were layers of gray and white. Most of the day we rode in and out of domes of grey and super dark grey. We stopped outside of Schuyler under an overpass to break and call people. Then we rode into Columbus. Just east of the welcome sign another cyclist crept up on us and started chatting. He invited us to camp in his backyard but the weather tonight is supposed to include possible hail. Tomorrow we hope to go to H
Grand Island NE.

The Bull from Yesterday

Welcome to Nebraska

Harlan Iowa to Blair Nebraska

We left Harlan about on time but I forgot my phone. Someone at the hotel drove it out to us. Thank goodness. Iowa is indeed hilly but they aren't monsters. Only big enough to make you keep going forward not backward.
We stopped in Logan to rest and figure out the route. The thirty is really crowded so we didn't want to continue on it. We found some paved county roads, rare in Iowa, and we stopped again in Modale. At our rest in Logan we were given a free loaf if wonderbread because it was expired. In Modale a wonderbread truck driver gave us a hearty wheat whole grain loaf. Pretty nice. We chatted for a while. He was a scout leader during the tornado in Omaha last year. We talked about that a moment. He's had a couple close calls in the wonderbread truck.
When we got to our hotel in Blair we saw the Vortex project on the weather channel. They were tracking the storms in Goshen county Wyoming. I guess we're in the danger zone now until we get to Casper, so we'll be watching the storms closely now. Feel free to send us text message updates about the weather. We hope to get through Nebraska in a week but we'll stop as necessary.
Overall we are fine but tired and tired.

Harlan Iowa

We made it to Harlan today. After 12 miles this morning we found out our road was maybe closed. It was but we went anyway. They were digging out a portion of the road. The operator stopped for us. After that we finally reached Iowa 44 and we wanted some more coffee but every town was too small. In one town there were a handful of local cafes but everything even other businesses were unepectedly closed. Who knows why. We got to Harlan and we didn't see many amenities in the town ahead so we stopped. We were passed by a couple oversized loads today. We saw more baby cows. We stopped and watched a bull push around a bunch of cows and the calves ran around and played. It's fun to see the cows. They are very friendly and don't mind when we try to talk to them.

No Bicycles on Sidewalk

These are all over Illinois.

Test from phone

Does this work

Davenport, IA to Stuart, IA

Leaving Davenport after a couple days was a relief. I was getting tired of seeing the inside of our room, and the neighborhood didn't have much to do. We wanted to go to Williamsburg, IA, but I wasn't feeling well when we got to Wilton. The headwinds were strong, and during the first day back after a good rest, it was challenging to keep the faith. We rested at a town park in Wilton, and we kept going. When we got to another gravel road, I felt ready to throw in the towel. We went another 15 to Iowa City. Google maps kept giving us bad directions that day. We ran into gravel roads a lot, and when we looked up an address Google maps sent us in the opposite direction. It was frustrating, and I cite it as another reason to use an actual, tangible, paper map.
The next day we went from Iowa City to Grinnell, Iowa. Grinnell is a small town with a college and a few hotels near interstate 80. It was all right, and we were really happy to be there as well. Nothing interesting has really happened in these last two days.
From Grinnell, we headed toward Des Moines, but knowing the rain was coming we looked for a place east of Des Moines to wait out the rain and have a good time. We found the Prairie Meadows horsetrack and casino in Altoona and a cheap hotel for two days. On our ride to Altoona, we stopped in Newton, IA, to get some coffee and take a mid-ride break. A woman from the newspaper, Betty, asked us to wait and be interviewed for the local paper. She gave us directions to the building, and we met the editor, publisher, and a reporter from the Newton Daily News. The story can be found at this link: http://www.newtondailynews.com/articles/2009/06/01/r_f7h3tvousgoau66ewgcsba/index.xml

Today we left Altoona hoping to get to Anita, Iowa. A couple miles outside of Altoona, Jim's rear tire went flat. We changed that, but his brakes continued failing to release quickly. When I saw a bike shop on the west side of Des Moines, BikeWorld of Urbandale, we stopped in to get some extra assistance. We stocked up on some Cliff shot drink powder. It's as close to Gu20 we'll come for now. We still like to drink it while riding. Jim needed a new tire. The old one had a huge gash in it we didn't catch when we repaired the flat. After all this, we ran out of time. We only made it as far as Stuart, IA before deciding to quit. The next rest area is 20 more miles down the road, and we only had another hour or so before sunset.

The last couple days have been fairly uneventful. The horse races were interesting, but they only last a minute or two, and the next post isn't for a while. Today I saw a cow stop eating to watch us. It had grass hanging from its mouth. We sent home a box today with some "shrunken" jerseys and old maps.