Entry for Saturday, 12 June 1999

Photo 1. The Ampride convenience store/restaurant/gas station where I had breakfast.

Photo 2. The main street of Clearwater, NE (pop. 401).

Photo 3. When you see an anhydrous ammonia distribution center you can be absolutely sure that you are in farming country.

Photo 4. Drive in movie theaters like this one used to be all over the West and Midwest. This is the first one I have seen open in several years.

Photo 5. This a portion of the Cowboy Trail.

Photo 6. PDQ's Udder Shoppe where I had lunch.

Photo 7. Glenn and Elaine Johnson at the Udder Shoppe.

Last Modified on 6/14/99 at 22:38:43

Day's Narrative: This was a good bicycling day. The weather was cool, reaching a maximum temperature of 75F (24C) this afternoon, no wind to speak of, and pretty good pavement most of the way. The traffic picked up this afternoon as I gradually worked my way out of the ranching area of Nebraska and into the more populated and farming East. At the end of today I could no longer ride out in the traffic lane when the shoulder was rough -- there was too much traffic.

The Ampride convenience store was were I ate my usual breakfast this morning at 6:00 AM (Photo 1). There was a surprising amount of business at this hour.

The first store I found down the road was at 21 miles away at Ewing (pop. 449). This was the first stop of the day and I had a sweet roll, sort of a breakfast desert. Farther down the road I stopped again at Clearwater, NE (Photo 2). Just after taking the picture of main street, I was standing beside the road when a woman in a large American car drove up on the shoulder beside me, putting me between the road and her car. She had a small child beside her in the passenger seat -- probably her grandchild. She asked where I came from and where I was going. I told her then she asked God to bless me and drove off. I think that was one of the strangest encounters I have ever had while bicycling.

Connie caught up with me in Neligh (pronounced nay-lee) and we had hot chocolate together.

At lunch time I pulled into PDQ's Udder Shoppe in Tilden, NE (Photo 6). I immediately noticed two mountain bikes outside and guessed the owners were having lunch inside. When I went in I met Glenn and Elaine Johnson from Lincoln, NE (Photo 7). Elaine teaches kindergarten and Glenn is the manager of Natural Resources District for Nebraska. He helps develop rural hiking and bicycling trails in Eastern Nebraska. They were out bicycling on the Cowboy Trail from nearby Battle Creek where they had parked their car. Of course we had lots to discuss about bicycling.

The Cowboy Trail is a reclaimed railroad grade which has been turned into a bicycle path by the state. It stretches from Merriman (near Chadron) in the West to Norfolk in the East, 321 miles -- almost across the entire state. A trailhead facility is planned for Norfolk. It's the longest rail-to-trail project in the nation. Glenn told me the state did not plan to pave the Trail, but rather cover it with a fine, crushed limestone gravel, which will harden over the years. I gather some cities along the Trail have decided to pave sections in their areas, since in Valentine the Trail was paved.

Chuck Tharp send me an email message with the URL for the Cowboy Trail:

http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/infoeduc/cowboy.html

From Tilden it was only 20 miles to Norfolk. As I was riding along on the shoulder I noticed a farm tractor pulling up behind me. When it passed the driver grinned and waved vigorously. I speeded up and pulled in behind it to draft and managed to keep up for a quarter mile or so, but there wasn't much shelter from the wind behind it and I couldn't maintain the 20 mph (33 km/hr) pace. I finally had to drop back. I thought it was a nice try anyway.

Connie was at the motel when I got into Norfolk at 3:00 PM.

Connie and I will be staying tomorrow night in Norfolk too. We will probably change motels to get a pool and hot tub.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 1998