Saturday, June 1, 2013

June 1, 2013.BRAN: Kimball, Nebraska

Bill dropped Dianne and me at the airport around 7 this morning. We flew to Denver, about a 3 hour flight; waited another few hours for a shuttle, then spent 2 hours on the shuttle from Denver airport to here. We arrived somewhere around 3 PM, making it 5 PM at home.... We walked half a mile to register for BRAN: Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska.

This is the 33rd year for BRAN, and this year's tour celebrates the 100th anniversary of the opening of Lincoln Highway, first transcontinental highway for automobiles in the US. It was not a federal government effort, but was spearheaded by the automobile industry, businesses, and local governments. The name of this year's tour is Historic Highway Tour.

We are a little spoiled after our wonderful Natchez Trace ride 2 weeks ago... after we put our bikes together we contemplated walking the half mile back to the meeting point dragging our bike boxes and camping gear to load into the trucks, but got lucky when one of the tour trucks parked next door to our motel to get dinner. We loaded our boxes and tent bags and then rode bikes to the evening ride meeting. After tonight we will be camping for the duration of the ride (7 days).

There are over 600 riders on BRAN this year, from 32 states and 2 foreign countries. There are 2 bike shops, a medical support team and rider support team, roving and stationary sags.



Meals will be prepared by school, church and civic groups in the small towns we will camp in as we ride 471 miles across Nebraska. The smaller the town, the greater the support, according to the leaders at tonight's meeting.And Kimball seems happy to have us start our adventure here!


No comments: