June 5, 2013. Gothenburg to Kearney, NE. 73 miles.

I woke to my tent fly flapping in the wind, not a good sign... it was cold and windy, with rain threatening. The rain started around 7:30 AM, enough to make us cold and wet, but not a torrent by any means. It could have been worse. We are on the Pony Express route and the Mormon Trail.

We started the ride on the back roads and stayed there until around mile 30. Then we got on Highway 30 and rode into Lexington, our first lunch option. Dianne and I went into a restaurant and took a seat with Sarah and Matt from Lincoln, NE on their first bike tour. We had pleasant conversation while waiting for our food. And waiting. And waiting....  When we asked a young man where our food was (an hour later and after watching a table of 10 cyclists enter, order and eat) he told us the kitchen did not have our ticket and took out an order pad and wanted us to order it again. We paid for our coffee and left.

I took the lead and hauled bike (20 MPH) to Overton, 11 miles away and slightly off route. It took a long time to get our food there, but at least we got it. While waiting for our food we saw a convoy of tractors going down the road (we were on Highway 30).

Just as we are celebrating the 100th year of the Lincoln Highway by riding our bikes across the state, the Antique Farming Organization is celebrating by driving tractors across! This explains the sign I saw yesterday.

Just east of Overton we stopped to see the only remaining bridge from the original Lincoln Highway.

Since we were already a mile or so east of Overton off route, we decided to stay on Highway 30 for the rest of the ride. There were several others in the restaurant where we finally ate that did the same thing. We passed a few historical markers noting where local Cheyenne Indians killed railroad workers and early settlers in the area. There was no marker noting the way the railroaders and settlers took land away from the Indians and sent them west to what was then considered wasteland....

We are staying at Kearney Catholic High School. It is quite a large campus so we are being driven around on golf carts piloted by students. They are hosting a steak dinner for us ($17) and breakfast ($7). I am going to have to find an ATM soon.... I climbed up the bleachers to take a photo of the tents--even up there I could not get them all in one photograph.

We ate the steak dinner to avoid having to leave the property, then played Scrabble until I said UNCLE.