Leaving Nebraska City this morning, I rode on old Highway 2 for a while. The old highway had a kind of pinkish hue to it. I have come across this on past road trips, particularly in the red dirt country in Oklahoma. There, the red dirt was mixed into the concrete of highways built in the early 20th century. It gave the highways a distinctive pink color. Here, the highway was asphalt, not concrete. The pink hue comes from gravel mixed into the asphalt. I am not sure where the pink gravel comes from.

I have had a few dogs chase after me on my travels. The ones that bark usually stay in their yards and don’t follow too far. I have had a couple of them run along beside me for a short distance, however. One, for example, appeared out of nowhere among the cornfields of Indiana and ran with me for about half a mile. Today, a bull dog ran out from the yard of a farmhouse and just about ran into my front wheel in its excitement. He ran with me for about a quarter mile, keeping pace and moving from side to side. Each time he switched sides, I thought he would run into a wheel or my pedals and cause me to crash. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. After a quarter mile, he tired out and headed back to his yard.

After 20 miles or so, the old highway ends and I was back on the four lane, divided highway. I didn’t mind it too much because it had a large shoulder. The only negative thing about four lane highways like this is that the traffic can be very loud. The noise can wear you down after a while. Other than that, it was a beautiful day for riding.

Sometimes my mind can wander to some strange places. For about an hour today, I mind replayed several scenes from an anime about a high school bicycle racing club. That helped the time pass.

When I reached Lincoln, I hopped onto a multi-use trail that runs from the southeast corner to the northwest corner of the city. It let me get almost all the way through the city without dealing with much traffic and with only a few stop signs and traffic lights. Riding a trail like this one is a different way to see a city. You go behind houses and businesses rather than in front of them. This trail also went through several parks in Lincoln. Lincoln has some really nice parks for a city its size. Maybe that is one benefit of being a state capital.