Bicycling across Nebraska
Ray Poore, 111 Andanada, Los Alamos, NM 87544
Map of Nebraska. Most of the route is on US highway 20.
Map of Nebraska. Most of the route is on US highway 20.
Connie and I plan to stay in Crawford, NE (pop. 1100) the night of Saturday, June 5, 1999 and begin crossing Nebraska from west to east the next morning. There are two motels in Crawford, the Townline Motel and the Hilltop Motel. We will stay in the one that looks the nicest.
The only motel we can find between Chadron and Valentine is the Jefco Motel in Gordon (pop. 1800). This makes the ride from Gordon to Valentine a bit longer than I would like, but it will be OK if I don't have a headwind.
I will begin posting to this web page the evening of June 5. Each night after that I will put up the photos taken during the day with a description of the day's ride. We can be reached by email during the trip at rpoore@mdbdesign.com.
Proposed Itinerary:
Day 1: Saturday, June 5: Wyoming State Line to Crawford: 37 miles
Day 2: Sunday, June 6: Crawford to Gordon: 73 miles
Day 3: Monday, June 7: Gordon to Valentine: 94 miles.
Day 4: Tuesday, June 8: Layover in Valentine. Tandem ride out SR 12 to Sparks (30 miles).
Day 5: Wednesday, June 9: Valentine to Ainsworth: 45 miles.
Day 6: Thursday, June 10: Ainsworth to O'Neill: 66 miles.
Day 7: Friday, June 11: O'Neill to Norfolk: 74 miles.
Day 8: Saturday, June 12: Layover in Norfolk. Take tandem ride.
Day 9: Sunday, June 13: Norfolk to Onawa, Iowa: 65 miles.
Day 10: Monday, June 14: Start driving home.
All photographs on this page were taken with an Epson PhotoPC 600 digital camera. It has a maximum resolution of 768 x 1024 at 72 dpi. I use it in "Fine" mode with a 32MB CompactFlash memory attachment which holds 157 pictures. The Epson PhotoPC 600 is no longer sold by Epson. It's now obsolete after a year. The model 700PC is quite similar.
One reason I bought the PhotoPC 600 was because I can turn off the flash and it stays off after turning the camera off and on again. Most of the other digital cameras turn the flash back on each time you turn the power on. The other reason is that it has 768 x 1024 resolution at 72 dpi, which when converted to 240 dpi, makes a publishable (although small) picture.
Updates to the web page were made with an Apple Macintosh G3 PowerBook using the phone line in the motel room. My internet provider (Mindspring) has an 800 number which was used to access the web page area. Each day's log was put into a FileMaker Pro database along with the photo captions. After the day's narrative was entered, a database script was executed which caused the database to generate the HTML for the day's web page. The HTML and the photos were then uploaded to the web page area.
Bicycle:
I have been riding a Bianchi Veloce with a Cro-Mo steel frame. The bike came originally with Campagnolo equipment and a 32 spoke rear wheel. I rode it across the US in 1997 with this equipment. After that ride I switched to Shimano brakes and drive train for two reasons: One, I like the Shimano shifting mechanism much better, and second, Shimano replacement parts are available everywhere, whereas Campagnolo equipment is almost never stocked by small bike shops. The 32 spoke wheel I replaced with a 36 spoke wheel for strength.
© Ray & Connie Poore, 1999