Days #47 & #48 – Bike Across America

Day #47 was a rest day. It was relaxing and I gave my legs a good break.

I did a lot of reading. Finished the book “Braiding Sweetgrass”, and started my next book, “Notes from a Small Island” by Bill Bryson.

I walked around town and had lunch at a great local restaurant. While I was out, I tried to get a haircut, but all the haircut stores were closed. I haven’t had a haircut since I started my adventure, and I’m starting to get that heavy metal hair look. 😀

I also enjoyed talking with a number of people during the day. And, I got in some exercise.

I plan to get up early and get an early start to beat the heat. High temperature tomorrow is forecast to be 90, and I want to be in air conditioning as early in the day as possible.

Day #48

I woke early and had breakfast in the hotel. I was biking by 6:15. I wanted to get an early start to avoid the heat – the high temperature was forecast to be 91 degrees today. Also, the winds were to increase during the day, and they were not going to be helping me.

It was a quiet and peaceful bike ride in the morning. The temperature when I started biking was 60 degrees, and there was no wind. I felt very blessed to be on this adventure and to see all of the amazing scenery. My legs felt very good after the rest day. Here are some pictures from the early morning.

Two days ago, the day I rode into O’Neill, there were very bad rain storms for several hours at night. Even flash flood watches. That was two days ago, and I could see the damage to the trail from these storms. This was one of the worst washouts on the trail. I had to walk through.

There was lots of standing water in the neighboring fields.

All the streams were either running high or over their banks. At one location, the water was flowing over the trail. This isn’t standing water, it’s flowing across the trail and slowly washing away the gravel. Fortunately, I was able to bike through it.

And there was one downed tree that was easy to get around.

It was still a great day for biking and the trail was mostly in excellent shape. Everything is so green from all the rain. There were lots of animals out. Mostly deer and rabbits. Here is a picture of three baby rabbits on the trail.

I couldn’t find a good option for church this morning. I was more focused on getting my bike ride completed as early as possible to avoid the heat. So, I streamed the 9:00 service from Trinity Church in South Bend, IN. This is the church I went to with Gordy and Pat when I stayed with them. It was great to listen to the service while biking in such beautiful scenery. Trinity Church is doing a sermon series on the book of Daniel, which is about where I am in my daily Bible reading. Plus, I think their minister is excellent.

About 9:30, the wind started to pick up, and by 11:00 it was blowing in the 10 to 15 mph range. Unfortunately, the wind wasn’t helping me, and I had to downshift to an easier gear. The last half of the day was much slower because of the wind. There aren’t as many trees around to shelter me from the wind.

The landscape has gotten flatter. And instead of corn fields, the land in this area is mostly grazing land for cattle. Here are some pictures from late morning.

The temperature continued to rise. Fortunately, I had plenty of water and snacks with me for the whole day, because there wasn’t anything open in the small towns I biked through on this Sunday morning.

The last town I biked through was Long Pine. The trail goes over a long old railroad bridge just outside of town. The bridge spans a deep valley with a river flowing through it.

At 1:20 in the afternoon, I was excited to see the water tower for Ainsworth in the distance. However, the land is so flat here that it took over 20 minutes to arrive at the town. That was a long 20 minutes for me, as the temperature was in the mid 80’s already.

I hadn’t had anything but snacks to eat since breakfast, so I was very hungry. But, most of the restaurants closed at 2:00. So, I ended up eating at Pizza Hut. I easily put away a pizza, three glasses of lemonade (free refills 😀), and a couple of glasses of water. They made a mistake when making my pizza and gave me the mistake pizza to take with me. So, I’m set for dinner tonight.

Again today, I didn’t see another cyclist on the trail. Only a handful of walkers in the small towns. Still seems weird to me. I thought there would be more cyclists.

So, I finished the day in Ainsworth, Nebraska. I biked 69 miles today and climbed 611 feet. Even though it is a flat rail trail, it is still a slight uphill grade as I approach the Rocky Mountains.

I really appreciate all the calls, texts, and comments from everyone on the rest day and every day!!