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.