What an amazing morning it started out to be. Cool temperatures low winds and blue sky. We’ve on my way through downtown and through several construction zones I eventually crossed over the bridge which traversed the railroad tracks coming out from the large Union Pacific Rail yard. It was hard to get a picture due to the fence but it was amazing to see such a large active rail yard. Obviously for the last several weeks and for at least the next several days I will continue to see multiple trains every day with the Union Pacific emblem. This of course is part of the transcontinental railroad that we all heard about growing up in history class. Again the traffic was very light and the shoulder was very wide. The winds were favorably more to my back than in my face. The train again was mostly flat but as I continued W the hills began to rise from the fields. The small towns were just that and there were limited services for most of the day. Because of the cooler weather for today and the last several days I had no concerns. I stopped several times along the road to stretch take pictures and just enjoy the scenery. I know within the next week or so that scenery will greatly change and the uphills will begin.
As I was heading into town I was surprised and shocked to see a fellow cyclist coming from the opposite direction. We both motion to one another just to pause and chat. Caleb was on his 5th trip across the country. WOW. I have no intentions of doing this 4 more times. Caleb was a film producer who’s made a couple of films and written a book about his adventures. He calls himself calico cycles because of his calico cat that he takes with him on all of his adventures. He spends his time speaking to people as he journeys across the country. We exchanged stories about where he had been and where I had been. Neither one of us ever expected on this particular route following the Platte River to run into any other cyclist. I was able to find this link of a youtube channel for Caleb if you’re interested. (Youtube) Calico Cycles & Website
I was hoping there was a chance I could make it to the next town but with the heat rising rapidly I opted for my own safety to call it a day even though it was early. Early because I crossed into the mountain daylight time even though I’m not yet to Colorado.
the town of Ogallala is home to my cousin’s great grandfathers (George P. Kingsley) Kingsley Dam. It was his grandfather that petitioned to get the damn maid and I took quite some time before it was actually constructed . I learned about this back in Carney which again was another story I had never heard. This was too far out of town to go and look so here are some photos I found online.
