Day 5 Chadron, NE

Well today looked to be a pretty normal day. We got a good night’s sleep packed up fairly easy and headed out a little late but still at a good time. Devin even got coffee and it didn’t get thrown all over the trailer (he drank it before we left this time). Going down the road I felt something in my shirt. I looked and didn’t see anything so figured it was just the wind or my imagination.  A few minutes later I felt something again, similar to a hair. With hair like mine you find it everywhere (the best was when Devin found one of my hairs in his sock in Iraq, but I digress). So I reach into my shirt to grab a hair and instead find…a bee. Thankfully I got him out safely but it was still funny. I did a project on Nebraska as an undergrad and Nebraska’s state insect is the bumble bee. That’s about all I remember about Nebraska.

We enjoyed wonderful weather all the way until we stopped for lunch. We had packed PB&Js and sat at Ash Hollow State Park on the recommendation of Uncle Matt, about a half-way point. We had just left when an older gentleman in a red truck pulled right out in front of us. We swerved around him, gave him the ole what are you doing arms accompanied by the look of disdain only to see that he was looking completely the other way...maybe his head was permanently affixed to the right.

We had an uneventful trip all the way up to Gering. We saw Courthouse & Jail Rocks from the road (it wasn’t worth it to go all the way out there) and also Chimney Rock. Road pics are as good as any.

We had stopped for gas before getting to Gering and a nice guy chatted us up. He was from Gering and recommended a few places to wet your whistle. When we got to Gering, we found an overhang we could pull under and stopped for a few minutes to get our bearings and cool off a bit. We started looking and thinking and decided that rather than stay the night in Scottsbluff, like we had planned, to head farther north to get a jump start on tomorrow’s travels. We called for campsites and found one just 100 miles north, half way to our Day 6 destination of Hill City, SD. We then decided to drive down to see Scotts Bluff National Park and we would come back in town to eat and wait out the heat before we set off north.

We went on to Scotts Bluff. All I can say is it was astounding. Pictures don’t do justice at all:

We crossed over and drove down the Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail several times today. When we left we pulled into this little diner type place. Kinda felt like the ones back home. The waitress was crazy nice. We both couldn’t decide between the chicken strips & the roast beef so we got both and split them both. The fries were sooo crispy, the roast beef tender. We got salad with it too and home-made bread. It was a travelers meal and very delicious. 

100 miles really isn’t a huge ride for us. We had lots of time to get north and the directions were easy. We headed out of town and about 15 miles later…the most awful wind you could ever think of. It wasn’t wind it was a hurricane force (at least that’s what it felt like). And it didn’t stop for the next 85 miles. My helmet kept lifting up and throwing my head back. And it was chilly. I wasn’t about to ask Devin to pull over to put on a long-sleeve; it was too windy to try to stop. So I bucked up…except between the nerves and the chill my muscles were tense the whole way so I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow. But enough of my complaining…Devin had it way rough. The wind fought the bike so hard, he was really getting after it and we were barely hitting 60. The bike was driving at a 45 degree angle because we were going through a crosswind. He was gripping hard the whole time, his arms are going to be sore tomorrow too. He was literally counting down the miles. We stopped at a historic marker for a little break but he had a harder time holding it up sitting still in the wind than driving in it. But the bike did run a lot cooler because of the extra forced air and apparently the trailer pulled the best of the trip so far. So our ‘quick jaunt’ of 100 miles was rough…

But it was beautiful scenery. We’re here now in Chadron, NE and we saw many interesting things on the way that included a huge fire (and in that wind I’m sure it was out of control). We could see the smoke and smell it at 50 miles back. We saw more wild turkeys too. And the bluffs and buttes out here are crazy cool. 

A few other notes about our travels: On the advice of Ms. Jane (one of my teachers) we bought a National Parks pass, which covers the entrance fees to get into all the Nat’l Parks for a year. We used it today to get into Scotts Bluff. Saved us $5!

Today we travel 332.9 miles for a total of 1674.8 miles across America.