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2015-09-25 tl;dr: I started off on the Cowboy Trail, but switched to the highway because the trail was too soft. I didn't sleep all that well. I kept thinking that even the rain their were folks prowling around my sleeping bag. According to tracks I found in the mud in the morning, I think there were.I left Norfolk, Nebraska on the Cowboy Trail at 5 AM. In the dark. And rain. No part of me is dry. I ate an awesome breakfast in Tilden. After Tilden, I pretty much gave up on following the Cowboy Trail. The trail is made from crushed gravel, and thanks to all the rain it is soft and rutted. The trail follows the highway very closely, and the highway has an eight-foot shoulder. Traffic isn't too bad, so I'm just taking the highway. I wish it would stop raining! For the most part the highway shoulder is pretty smooth, but I hit a stretch where the pavers obviously didn't take their job seriously. After a while my rear tire felt off. Inspection revealed two broken spokes. Now I don't know if I received a bad batch of spokes when I built this bike or if I'm just a horrible tire builder (I suspect the latter), but I'd previously broken three spokes on this trip. I am rapidly burning through my spares. This part of Nebraska is dominated by hay fields. The round bales are numerous. For some reason, a lot of frogs are attempting to cross the highway and failing. I've never seen so many dead frogs. More broken spokes! I don't know what I rolled over, but I broke five more spokes on my rear tire. I was able to replace three. Now I'm actually running on a spoke deficit. I stopped in a hay field. I wasn't going to set up a tent, but mosquitoes kept biting me and then it started raining. Again. I biked 89 miles today before giving up. |
 getting started early  Tilden just has this gun  The Cowboy Trail runs along the highway  Neligh has a tank and a jet  highschoolers around here like to paint  fuzzy migrating geese  round bales  water tank and windmill |