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Saturday, June 19, 2010
New Message
Goodbye NE hello WY!
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Friday, June 18, 2010
Day 13 &14
After the whole cell phone debacle I decided to spena night back @ the campsitefrom before. A rver said hi to me & askedabout mytrip. The next morning (thurs) iwas going to head to Ft. Robinson butthe wind was going 30 mph from the west & was supposed to stay that way all day.
The RVer from the night before came over and gave me some food for breakfast bc her motherly instincts made her she said. Then i told her i was sticking around for the day& we said bye. Not toomuch longer a big man knocked in my tent an askeds if I wanted to go w/him & his wife around the Chadron arrea and explore. His wife was the one who gave me bfest. So i decided to go with Sheila & Billy tothe fur trapping museum (the same one I anted to go to but it was closedwhen i passed it). Well the museum was quite interesting but glorified and made the fur traders dealings with the Native Americans sound like it was always mutually beneficial. Billy and Shelia are from Texas & Billy was in the Vietnam war. So naturally Billy liked the HUGE fur trading gun collection they had.
The RVer from the night before came over and gave me some food for breakfast bc her motherly instincts made her she said. Then i told her i was sticking around for the day& we said bye. Not toomuch longer a big man knocked in my tent an askeds if I wanted to go w/him & his wife around the Chadron arrea and explore. His wife was the one who gave me bfest. So i decided to go with Sheila & Billy tothe fur trapping museum (the same one I anted to go to but it was closedwhen i passed it). Well the museum was quite interesting but glorified and made the fur traders dealings with the Native Americans sound like it was always mutually beneficial. Billy and Shelia are from Texas & Billy was in the Vietnam war. So naturally Billy liked the HUGE fur trading gun collection they had.
Then we went to a small chaotic museum in Chadron that was just about the town & what not. In there, though, i found a book titled "The Philsophy of Marriage & Manhood Power" and this small pamphlet style book sold for 25 cent (i forgot in which year). There i also saw a fence maker and other interesting thins. We then went to McDonalds for lunch. After lunch we checked on their dog Tucker who has one eye, which has blurry problems, and the dog has allergies & other problems. Still, Sheila & Billy LOVE him and took great care of him. We thendrove to Ft. Francis and to Harrison. They mainly wanted to see the area by car and I was cool with that (i was happy to see it too and be out of the wind!!). After our excursions we went downtown and they bought me dinner! We ate ata local eateryand it was quite good! When we went back tour campsite Billy said he wanted to drive me to Crawford since I had basically been there via bicycle& it wouldnt be out of their way. He was pretty insistent but i was also pretty happy to say yes.
The next morning i packed up and they drove me to Crawford NE. If your thinking thats cheating than you are wrong because this isnt a competition or race but rather my fun vacation. Plus i did not hae the motivation to do the same 15 hilly miles a 3 rd time.
Today(Friday) i couldnt decide if uwanted to campin beautiful Ft. Robinson or make itto Harrison. I decided doing 3 miles forthe day would be a bit ridic and bicycled to Harrison NE. This town is the onlytown in Sioux county and is the county seat w/about 250 ppl. It was largest inthe 1980s w/a population of about 400. I averaged 5 mph today and ittookme almost5 hrs to do the whole 26 miles to make it here. it was extremely hilly and in about 23 miles I managed to go 1000 ft up in altitude.
It has now been two weeks since Istarted my journey and I have learned: it is frustrating not expressing my political or other beliefs bc it would mean less kindness out of others or worse yet ppl becoming hostile to me, wind can make or break my day, you should never leave your bike outside bc your seat post can rust in a permanent position and there are worse places to grow up than Tecumseh NE. Hope everyone who reads this doing well!!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Day 12
Today started out w/tons of wind! I atea Daylight donut, which was delicious'and then visited the local bike mechanic. Heand I both tried to get my seat post to move (the height is what is casusing my tendon pain) but to no avail. He confirmed that its probably rusted together and it would have to be cut in 1/2 and then drilled out. He didnt have the right seat post so hedidnt optto dothat. Afterward I wenttothe library to check on my Internet things. I left and started my journey to Ft.m Robinson. I gotto a signthat pointed to Whitney NE & i wanted to senda pic of itto my goodfriend Whitney. I couldn't find my phone & I realized that i left it (or it had fallen out of siomething on the side of the road) @ the library. So i had to bike back (about 13 miles or so) and luckily the librarians had it @ their desk. I then met a gal who in the 70s biked from Chicago to WY & inthe process met her now husband. She said Chadron is a cool town & not quite 'typical' for NE. I ate ata Chinese restaurant and it was about 5 pm. I decided the combination of headwinds and hills meantthe 30 or so miles to Ft Robinson was not doable. I went back tothe campgroundand repitched my tent. Ive since done laundry and showered, but in the process lost one of my bicycling gloves!:( hopefully it shows up somewhere tomorrow morning bc it isa very necessary item. i thought about diff. Ways to get backto Chadron(ie hitchhike, ride without my trailer, etc) But ultimately, I bicycled around 28 miles today and ended up back in Chadron! Oops.
Day 11
Today was a great day & I did about 47 miles. I woke up and went to Gordons TrueValue. There I bought goop for my flat tire on my trailer &a new tire for my trailer which had goop inside it. After failing @ getting the goop inside my flat I decided to just put the new tire on. I left Gordon at 11 am and knew I wanted to get to Chadron. So the day was bright and sunny, which I knewwas a good indication. I passed thru a small town (started w/a C) and then the next town West of thatwhere I stoppedattheir grocerystore called Ideal (this isa chain located in these parts). Then I got to Hay Springs. What i noticed about allthese little towns is that they have a lot of alcohol stores for their population.in Hay Springs I got water from their park & stopped totalk to some RVers. This older couple was that sites hostand saidthey had been hostin for many years. i asked the man if he hada hammer, which hedid, and so we tried to loosen my seat post. He reckond that the seat post had rusted with the actual bike, but thought hissonswholived in twn could heat up the post which would shed the rust off. He didnt know if that would weaken the bike @ all & i didnt wantto chance it. I used some of his WD 40 for my chain & went on my way. I sawa bautiful red Harley Davidson for sale there, but noprice. Also Hay Springs wassurpisingly nice. I had19 miles left and 14 miles into it Ireached the most beautiful place in NE ive ever seen. It had evergreens, valleys, big hills, creekand all! I LOVED it. Plus for bicycling this regionwas all basically down hill. I did, though, get flipped off by some hotshot teenagers. I reached the fur /trapping museum & was going to go in it butthey closed @ 5 and i got there at 5.10. But, i still took a picture. Also, 2 weird things. I saw part of an old, clearly not used, train sitting ona bridge. Also i noticed the railroad's bridges have beautiful stone structures for their water passages and have now taken a couple pictures ofthem. I asked some localsatthe pharmacy where I could camp in town & there was only1 spot west of town(the cops later confirmed this). So i headed west and pulled into a rv park. A couple waved to me and said hi. Once i dropped my stuff of I went over andsaid hi. Their names were Chuck & Lorie, & they kindly offered me supper. I tookthem up on it and ate a DELICIOUS rasberry, walnut, & chicken salad with homemad dressing!!!! I thoroughly enjoyed it and got to know this couple pretty well. They live in Michigan and Lorie wasa teacher & Chuck did construction. Long story short we visited for quite a while & it was sad to see them leave the next day, butthey are off tothe glaciers in Montana! That sums up day 11. Concerns are still hillsandachilles tendons.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Lorie & Chuck
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Monday, June 14, 2010
Day 10
Today I knew I had to get out of Cody but alsoknew going to Gordenwould have to be my next stop. I saw my trailer's tire was flat again& so I tried to patch it again. I started biking and the hills are something else here & it makes me worriedabout the mountains. I got to Merriman NE and stopped @ a gas station & just ate a very quick meal (i got there @ 3 pm & stil had 30 miles to go). I met a fellow biker heading to PA on inbetween Gorden & Merriman but it appeared he was probably homeless & had been on the road since April stopping at diff places for extended periods. Again, there were many hills and the closer to Gorden I got more participation and hills came. I ate at Pizza Hut and have a couple of errandsto do tomorrow. My achilles tendons are really hurting which I think can be fixed by lowering my seat post, butthat is currently stuck in place. Tomorrow I hope to knock it loose w/a hammer or something. Biggest concern right now are my achilles tendons, but a close second is whether or not I can physically do the mountains. Regardless, im happy w/my progress and think Ill be able to finish NE without too many problems. Peace!
Day 8 & 9
Well today I biked 53 miles to Gorden NE. I spent 2days in Valentine NE bc the weatheer was not so good. I met, while there, a cool family from Boulder Co. The dad, Jo, was concerned aboutthe Niobraria being to rapid/intense forthem. His children seemed rathertired of his constant worrying & it became clearthat had beentravelling allday and got lost several times. We talkedabout issues ranging from marijuana to guns. The nextdaythey left to canoe(what bad weather they had) and i decided to stay thedaythere. I didnt domuch that day but wentto the library and bicycled around. That night it, per usual, rained. Sunday I didnt want to really leave but Ineeded to put some miles on bc the weather was goingto besimilarallday. I then made my goal to be Cody NE (Bout 38 miles from Val). It drizzled ALL day and one hour in my trailer got a flattire from a wire . I started to patch it on the hwy & then a nice younger lady pulled up and drove meto the nxt town.the town had nothing in it but it got me off ofthe hwy. She had topick up her bro in a diff town but said if i was still stuck she would take me to her house whereshe hada garage. I successfully patched my trailer and made it to Cody @ 430 pm MNT time. The only restaurant (a bar) closed @ 5. So i quiickly ate and thenwent to theur "nice park" to camp. they wanted 15 usd for me to sleep there but their accomodations were quite poor so I didnt pay. Then I had some hicks from somewhere in NE (not Cody) ask me about mytrip and theywere just being noosy for noosy sake. They left butthen I was worried thatthey might come back& hassle me later that night (luckily they didnt). I camped next to some outlets and charged everything.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Cherry County
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Friday, June 11, 2010
"Authentic" Indian Taco
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Its been one week! What have I learned?
Its kind of hard to believe but its been one week since I left Lincoln. Today I took it easy and started out earlier than usual (815 am) and stopped often. I am currently in Valentine andvisited w/several of the other campers. I have learned: sunscreen is a must even if it is just 10 miles, my head and arm gets tired aftera day of riding bc i have to wave or nod back to almost all the drivers, semis are the best @ going to the nxt lane and RVs are the worst (i think bc of their old age), ppl are kind even if they are weird, ppl out here really believe Socialism is coming thanks to Obama (though many want the gov to do more about the BP mess), I can get cows to run by me mooing and finally NE weather this week can be summed up by the word storms! Hope all is well with the 'real' world.
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