Another day with high heat projected and the wind starting at sunrise. Leaving my small little town I came through downtown and turned West. The Temperature and humidity were already rising quickly. As I left town it became very obvious that the engineers in this state didn’t really think much about curves. The road was straight. I’m pretty sure they put two pins down and snapped a chalk line to set their roads. Everything is laid out in a grid. Again playing dot to dot with water towers I knew exactly where my next little town would be. Today’s roads were flat. The wind started out as a direct crosswind and all throughout the day moved from my nine o’clock to my twelve o’clock. There were plenty of signs noting at historical marker but they never said exactly what it was. Just a sign and an arrow and nothing to be seen. I’m sure it was all about the settlers moving west in their wagon trains but I wasn’t about to head down these dirt roads to find a small plaque.
The shoulders were good until about 13 miles away from the end. Here I rode along a divided highway that place rumble strips along the edge. But what they also did was about every 12 yards they put a complete groove across the whole shoulder. At first I didn’t see the pattern I thought it was just bad pavement. Once I recognized that this was going to continue I started watching my rearview mirror for large gaps in traffic. The gaps were significant which allowed me to jump onto the road and ride that pavement until I saw a car or truck closing in. This little game kept me occupied for about 8 miles. The multi-lane divided highway gave cars plenty of options to even go around me several times without jumping back onto the shoulder. Several times I stopped in these small towns at a gas station to cool off get some refreshments and just rest. Here in Nebraska this is not a normal cross-country bike route. So each time I saw shock in their faces and in their voices. I scratched their head wondering why I was going this way, but I told him I was on my way to see my cousin who lived in Nebraska. This was always a hope of mine to see her on this trip. I’m looking forward to spending a few days with her and her husband and taking some additional rest before finishing up the plains and heading to Colorado. I am a tentative route with towns picked out but until I can really see the weather forecast it’s hard to say exactly how many days it will take me to get to Colorado. The forecast for tomorrow is calling for northeasterly wind so I’m expecting a pretty quick ride which will be nice especially getting it done before the hotter temperatures arrive.