After a very nice and restful week visiting family, I was ready to get on the road again. It was a bit gloomy, with a thick cloud cover, but cool. When I started out, the bicycle felt light. I left a few things behind, but not so much that I should have noticed the weight. I guess the week of rest did me some good. I had hoped to get some good miles in.
I really wasn’t sure how far I would get today. The miles since my last break were really wearing on me. On the other hand, it was just about a perfect day for riding. The temperature stayed low and was almost chilly in the morning. There was a slight wind coming from the east that would give me a little boost. I divided the day into three parts, 22 miles from Lincoln to Seward, 26 miles from Seward to York and 22 miles from York to Aurora. I figured, even though I was tired, I could at least get to York. If I could get to Aurora, which would be 70 miles, that would leave me with a very short day on Sunday.
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.
The next few days are going to be all about putting in the miles to get to my parent’s place in Central City, NE. I am trying to get there by the end of the month on Sunday. I headed west on Highway 2 hoping to make it into Nebraska today. It is beginning to look a little more like I expected from Iowa. The hills are spreading out and the farmland is switching from pastures and hay fields to more corn.
I slept great last night. There was a short period of trying to figure out what animals were around me. Something galloping through the field to the west, probably a dear; something splashing in the pond to the north, sounds like fish; some coyotes howling and yipping to the south, sounds far enough away not to cause any problems. The next thing I remember is waking up with the sun already above the horizon.
A raccoon kept me up most of the night trying to get into my stuff. At one point he even tried to drag away my bear canister. He successfully made off with the lid to my pot. I don’t know what he wants with that. I think I finally fell asleep about 4:00 a.m. A Facebook friend recently posted a picture of three raccoons peeking from behind a tree thinking it was cute. Raccoons are not cute. They are the spawn of the devil. Every time I see a dead raccoon on the side of the road, I smile.
Needless to say, I overslept and was sleepy all day. I didn’t leave the campground until noon. I rode a little ways to Lamoni, IA and thought I would just have a short day, do some chores and get a good rest in a motel room.
Today was not quite as pleasant as yesterday, but not bad. The hills have become steeper and more frequent. It reminds me a bit of western Connecticut. The countryside was nice, as were the small towns. One difference between this area and western Connecticut is that here you can see the next hill from a fair distance because there are fewer trees. It can be a little disheartening to watch the hill you know you will have to climb for a few miles before you get to it.
When I woke up yesterday, I was still pretty tired, so decided to stick to my original plan and take the day off. The extra rest seemed to do me some good. Today was a very pleasant day of riding through the hills of north central Missouri. There were some rain showers to the north of me. I could see them, but they never came far enough south to affect me. They did, however, keep the temperatures down until mid-afternoon. By then, I was at my goal for the day.
Today was a wasted day. When I woke up this morning, it was raining. That was actually a good thing because the rain kept the temperatures down. After the rain stopped, I headed north from La Plata and had a nice tail wind. I made it to Kirksville, about 15 miles away, in about an hour and stopped to get something for breakfast. As I was eating, I began to feel really tired. The next place to stop was about 40 miles away and I really didn’t feel like I wanted to ride 40 more miles, so I decided to stop in Kirksville.
I don’t know why I can’t seem to get motivated to have a good ride today. Maybe the heat from the past few days has taken more energy out of me than I realize. I had planned to take tomorrow off because it is supposed to be the hottest day of the heatwave. Maybe I will use today as a day off and see how I feel in the morning.
The past couple of days, I have had to stop every few miles to wipe the rivers of sweat from getting into my eyes. I decided I needed something to keep the sweat from my eyes and bought a bandana. The further west I go, the more I look like an old hippy. By the the time I reach San Francisco, I should fit right in in the Haight.
Pedaling America 