It's not the end...

I went to the hand specialist today. He did not remove the stitches. He put me in a hard cast and told me to come back in two weeks to get the stitches out... and I will get another hard cast after that.  To console myself I just have to keep reminding myself that it could have been so much worse. And it sure could have! Aside from the damaged hand I have bumps and bruises everywhere, but no other serious injuries.

My bike arrived yesterday but I have not opened the box. Maybe tomorrow, and then it's off to the bike shop to see if it needs to be repaired too. At least we can both recover at the same time! I wonder if it's true that you can get a free replacement helmet when you break one? I will take my broken helmet to the bike shop with me just in case...

This too shall pass.

June 8, 2013. Brainard to Ashland, NE. The end.

This morning I rode in the car with Marlene and Denise followed us. We went first to the Strategic Air and Space Museum where BRAN ends, but it was not yet open. So we went back to Ashland to a little cafe where we had coffee and cinnamon rolls.

Above are Marlene and Denise--we had a pleasant morning...The first rider to arrive was Randy. He arrived shortly before the rains came... driving rain, wind, thunder and lightning. Oh my.

Most of the riders got caught in the storm, many were pulled off the route in the worst of it, but all arrived safely. Below is Bill and his trusty truck that hauled me all over the county yesterday.

Dianne finally arrived--sopping wet and smiling! On her head is the pinwheel I gave her as her "windy day" award.

This is a different sort of photo from most of our "end of ride" shots, but you do what you gotta do...Bob came with his pickup truck and brought us, our bikes and our soaking wet bags to our hotel near Omaha airport.We both fly out tomorrow; another adventure is at an end.

June 7, 2013. BRAN: Aurora, NE to disaster. 9 miles.

This day started out perfect. It was sunny and pleasant and winds were calm as we left the campground around 6 AM. Breakfast at the campground had hit a new low (pre-packaged burritos) so we stopped at McDonald's on the way out of town.  Dianne and I were riding with Bob, but we were not drafting since it was not windy.

At 9 miles into the ride, the unexpected happened--a group of cyclists had just passed the 3 of us and called out to another cyclist that they were passing on the left. That cyclist then steered LEFT instead of right, causing the group that had just passed us to take sudden evasive action. They went in all directions, braking hard, Bob braked hard in front of me, I braked hard, but not hard enough--my front wheel kissed Bob's rear wheel and my bike and I went down. After my helmet bounced off the pavement it contacted Dianne's wheel; fortunately she did not hit the road too. She thought she was going to run over my head!

When I got up I found I had a bent finger. I could see its inner workings so one of the people who stayed with me called the BRAN emergency number.  The medic came and agreed with me (gee, ya think?) that I needed professional medical attention.

A SAG driver named Bill came and loaded my bike in the back of the truck and took me to Aurora Memorial Hospital. The doctor there thought I had a severed tendon so he called an Orthopedist in Grand Island.They dressed my other wounds, wrapped up my hand and called Bill to come back for me.

When we arrived at Central Nebraska Orthopedics, Dr. Cahoy saw me immediately. He sent me to the Surgery Center a block away and they prepped me for surgery. The tendon was not severed, just tangled up in the exposed joint. I underwent surgery, made it through recovery, and Bill hauled me to our next stop: Brainard. Everyone else had a very nice ride; the weather was perfect and the terrain was a little hilly.

At Brainard I found Dianne and we asked the first local volunteer we saw if he knew of a place I could sleep indoors for the night. He called his wife and they graciously invited me to their home. We attended the closing meeting at the park, where I presented my song, sung to the tune of "Don't Fence Me In".
       Oh give me wind, lots of wind, on Nebraska's open plains. Don't draft on me.
       Let me ride in the sunshine and keep riding when it rains. Don't draft on me.
       Let me lie in my tent in the evening breeze, listen to the campers as they snore and wheeze,
       I'll ride across Nebraska but I ask you please:Don't draft on me.

The song was well received. Below you can see Sarah and Matt, from Lincoln and Bob, whose wheel I touched this morning. Bob's wife Marlene is going to give me a ride tomorrow, since I am not ready to get back on the bike.

June 6, 2013. BRAN. Kearney to Aurora, NE. 75 miles.

It was sunny and bright this morning, Kearney put on a nice breakfast, and we were on the road around 7. Dianne had forgotten to fill her water bottle so we stopped at a gas station-convenience store, and met Gene Snyder, one of the tractor drivers! They are having a grand time riding their farm tractors across Nebraska!

We started out on Hwy 30, but soon enough we were on the secondary roads, where there was little traffic. There was a northwest wind, but we were going east so that was OK. We were on the road that encompasses the old Mormon Trail, the California Trail, the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express (and the BRAN route).

As we entered Shelton (mile 20) we found bikes decorated with welcoming signs. There were cold water and soda, cookies and chips for sale and popsicles for free. It was a nice stop--notice the brick pavement behind the sign. Two block of this old road remain and we rode on it to get to the park.

We rode past the National Crane Sanctuary, but did not stop at the visitors' center. The Platte River runs by this sanctuary where the world's larges population of Sandhill Cranes spends time on its annual migration.

Near the sanctuary we saw this historical marker commemorating two young brothers who were shot through by one arrow and survived. Later in the day we saw more markers for settlers killed by Indians.

At mile 47 we had lunch in Doniphon (population 829). The local school sold us a hot dog, cold drink, chips and cookies for $5. I don't usually eat hot dogs, but after waiting so long for food yesterday we went for it! Jut outside Doniphon we saw that the Sheriff who had been patrolling the road all day had someone pulled over. We had been warned all week to ride single file or we would get a ticket...

Above is Dianne riding past the ubiquitous grain elevator. Every small town has a grain elevator (usually a co-op) and railroad tracks beside it. This one is in Giltner, where Deb came out to welcome us.

After Giltner we turned north into a gusting northwest wind (18 MPH). It was 7 miles of torture after a wonderful day. There even was a warning on an overpass; must be a high wind area...

After the brutal 7 miles we turned east, and the northwest wind was not such a problem any more... We arrived to a warm welcome at Aurora--they even installed bike racks under the bleachers!

We got on a trolley to go to the fairgrounds for dinner, an easy option and much preferable (to me anyway) to the pizza and Chinese food available nearby. After dinner we bought homemade pie and ice cream from the Girl Scouts. Life is good in Aurora, Nebraska.

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.

June 4, 2013. BRAN: Paxton to Gothenberg, NE. 81 miles.

I did not want to get on the bike this morning! I woke up with the same headache I went to bed with, from fighting the wind on the bike. Below is the semi truck that carries all our gear every day. We each pack up and load our own stuff before we get on the bike.

A local VFW group made us pancake breakfast for a free-will donation. That was a nice switch! We have paid a lot for food this week. They even brought a table-wagon so we would have a place to sit and eat!

We headed out on Highway 30, into the wind again. This wind is getting tiresome! Dianne and I pulled each other along, each taking a mile in the front before switching places. After about 35 miles we got off Hwy 30 onto some side roads which took us past Scout's Rest Ranch, where Buffalo Bill Cody spent his time when he was not doing wild west shows.The house, barn and property are meticulously restored.

We zig-zagged through the countryside on our route this afternoon; it was nice to be off the highway. At about 55 miles into the ride there was a detour where a bridge was washed out from last night's rain. After the SAG stop there we stopped at the Fort McPherson National Cemetery, just a half mile off route.

We passed through the small towns of Maxwell and Brady and then got back on Highway 30 for the last 13 miles of the day. We had a time zone change today, so we were even later coming in than our time on the road would indicate... we were surely ready to get off the bikes after 81 windy miles!

We collected our bags, put up our tents, and then I went to the Pony Express Museum--Dianne said she was too tired to go. It surprised me to see that it was made of cottonwood logs, not stone like the ones farther west. How strange is it that I have seen and heard more about the Pony Express in the past year than I did in my entire life up until last September?

June 3, 2013. BRAN: Chappell to Paxton, NE. 60 miles

The wind kept up late into the night last night. The most prominent sound in the campground was flapping tents... not a bad way to go to sleep. This morning most people were up and gone by 6 AM. I left around 6:20, about 10 minutes after Dianne. I caught up with her by the first rest stop and we took one-mile turns blocking the wind for each other--it made a big difference; there were some hills on the route today too.

The wind was strong and steady (14 MPH) from the northeast as we headed east. Nebraskans seem to be used to it... We are on the old Pony Express trail as well as the route wagon trains took to get to California during the gold rush. We saw California Hill, where the wagon trains had much difficulty moving west. There was a historical marker there and it was a couple of miles down a dirt road to see wagon ruts from that time. I don't think any of our group took that option.

Today's official route went up along Lake McConoughy, but quite a number of riders, including Dianne and me, took an alternate route to go into Ogallalla for lunch. I missed lunch yesterday and that is never a good thing on a long ride...

We saw this restored Standard Oil Red Crown filling station while looking for the cafe where we had lunch. After lunch and pie we stopped at the Front Street Old Western town.

I bought post cards for the grandchildren there, and we headed back into the wind for the last 20 miles. We were here around 1:10, set up tents, showered, and retrieved my backpack from the kind people who take it in their truck every morning (to keep it safe from the semi-truck full of tents and luggage).

These small towns are doing a great job feeding us--we are over 600 people descending small towns like Paxton (population 500). And we eat a lot! Several of the food options ran out of food last night, but we all got dinner eventually. I expect tonight will be the same. The Knights of Columbus group sponsored a chicken and steak dinner "from 4:30 until the food is gone". So at 4:30 Dianne and I joined a group on the hay wagon heading to the K of C dinner.

The dinner, cooked by the Knights seen below, was great! We had a choice of steak or chicken, and a baked potato, salad, corn and dessert! They are all amazed at what we're doing, riding across Nebraska.

On the return trip in the hay wagon we met Al and Shannon. Al is the only BRAN participant who has ridden all 33 BRANs! And his daughter has ridden 25. I saw them earlier today on the road riding a hybrid tandem with pink fenders. What a great thing to do together!

We came in the school building to play some Scrabble--too hot outside to do anything. I charged this computer in the  cafeteria, but passed by the phone charging station on my way here.This setup was created by one of the ride leaders. This is but one example of how they strive to make this ride better every year.

Now it is raining. But all riders are off the road and all tents are set up, so it could be much worse... perhaps this will cool it down a bit... we can only hope!