After being spared the dugouts of Treynor by the lovely Kay and Terry Bahl, we headed towards Nebraska with our blood still pumped full of warm fuzzies. Wanting to continue with our high daily average, we were looking at a little over 80 miles to Lincoln. The riding was mostly flat and the day was overcast. We crossed the Missouri River entering Nebraska, (our 9th state, 10th if you count Ontario) and met a cyclist who had just crossed the length of the state. Soon after, we passed through the town of Papillion, complete with a large painting of a butterfly on the water tower. (Papillion is derived from the French word for butterfly.) Later in the day, my unparalleled incoordination made itself known to the world again when I wiped out on some loose gravel. Attempts were made at cleaning and dressing the resulting wound, but my legs were too sweaty for any tape or band aids to stick. Some kind passing strangers gave me a bag of ice to soothe my pain, and I vowed to further clean it up when we arrived at our destination for the night. Little did I know about what was in store.
We continued on. When we were a few miles away from the campground we were aiming for, it started raining. The precipitation picked up quickly and was soon accompanied by thunder. Lightning was spotted in every direction. To be safe, we pulled over in the closest lot and took shelter under a gas station pump cover. There was a line of vehicles parked along the road in front of the gas station, all for sale. Mark mentioned that we’d probably be safer in one of them, so I wandered over to the closest truck to see if it was unlocked. It was! We climbed in and hung out on the bench seat waiting for the storm to pass. We waited, and waited……and waited. The storm wasn’t passing. The radar indicated that it would storm all night and still be raining in the morning. We decided we might as well get comfortable. The vehicle to our right was a cargo van. It was also unlocked! We said hello to home sweet home. My very positive initial assessment of the spacious, two benched van quickly diminished as we tried to settle in to sleep. The benches were too short to spread out on and the van was stuffy, but opening any windows would immediately invite in hoards of mosquitoes. The close proximity of the train tracks also proved problematic, as trains passed through at all hours of the night, not at all bashful to announce their presence. Despite the fact that reality fell quite short of our expectations, I do not regret our decision. How many people can say that they took refuge from a storm in a used van?
Wanting to avoid confrontation and escape before anyone found us, we awoke at the ungodly hour of 5 am to start packing up. It was cold, gray, and still raining. We headed towards Lincoln. Moments later, Mark received the first flat tire of our entire trip. The flat, the weather, and the lack of sleep did not two happy cyclists make. We needed a rest day. Thankfully, our first positive experience with Nebraska came shortly after, when we found a motel in Lincoln that was willing to let us check in at 8 am. This was extra advantageous, because breakfast was still being served!! After eating, resting, and showering, the sun finally came back out. I biked into town to tour the state Capitol and explore a bit.
After our rest day, we were prepared to take on a 93 mile day to Grand Island, where we had warmshowers hosts Steve and Sherry Jones waiting for us. The flat terrain and tailwinds helped us reach their house in time for a fantastic dinner that included a homemade dessert!
We relaxed on their porch for the evening, writing postcards and enjoying the summer night until it got too buggy. Steve and Sherry were planning a bike tour of their own, and we were excited to hear about their proposed route and plans. In the morning, we had breakfast with Sherry, grabbed some snacks and were on our way! We were fortunate enough to have tailwinds again, and finished the day at 101 miles. We rolled up to the Gothenburg sports complex around 10 pm and waited for a baseball game to end before rolling out our sleeping bags next to the concession stand and calling it a night. What an eventful few hours we had in store!
Around 1:30 am, we were woken up by a very friendly police officer. She asked to see our IDs and inquired about our trip. When she confirmed that we were not criminals, she departed and wished us a good night’s sleep. We were relieved we didn’t have to pack up and move!
Mere hours later we were abruptly awoken again when an enormous thunderstorm began approaching. As we scrambled to pack up our belongings, huge gusts of winds kept blowing everything out of reach and there were more strikes of lightning than I’ve ever seen in a single storm. Our goal was to gather everything up and sprint to the high school across the street. I started pushing my bike across the field with all my sleep gear shoved under one arm, but in my panic I forgot that I had a loose bungee cord dangling over the rear wheel. Almost immediately the bungee cord wrapped around the cassette multiple times, rendering the wheel immovable. The only thing I could do then was pick up the ~80 lb bike with my remaining arm and hobble onward. This was one of the most terrifying moments of the bike trip for me: awkwardly attempting to run through a field with metal poles surrounding me while lightning only got closer. Mark dropped off his bike under the awning of the high school entrance and ran back to grab mine. It started pouring moments after we both made it to safety.
We were fully planning on waiting out the storm in the vestibule, but a kindly crew of janitors invited us in to the school. Since it was around 6 am at this point and we couldn’t bike in the current conditions, Mark took out his pillow and fell asleep on one of the foyer benches. I wandered around the school a bit, unable to sleep on the hard metal bench myself. I went into the faculty break room to make some of my oatmeal and a few minutes later the entirety of the janitorial staff (around 10 men probably all in their 60’s) went on break and joined me in the small room. They were very friendly and shared a bagel with me as we chatted about the bike trip and the small town of Gothenburg. I admired their mid Western hospitality and kindness, allowing two complete strangers to take refuge in their school. Mark later told me that he had experienced the same kindness when the summer band director apologized to him for the noise as he tried to sleep. We hardly felt like outsiders at all.
When the storm eventually died down, we started biking again. We had contacted a warmshowers host in Ogollala and were heading there. My friend Emily was currently driving cross country to start a graduate program at Stanford, and we were lucky enough to be passing through the same section of Nebraska on the same day! We met up with Emily and her friend Lynda at a diner and enjoyed some enormous chocolate chip pancakes.
When we finally made it to our hosts house, we were exhausted and looking forward to bed. Little did we know that more excitement was in store! Our wonderful hosts Jolene and Ted Robinette (and kids Emily and Colter) had prepared us a wonderful meal, with the help of two other warmshowers guests they were also hosting that night! The guests, Rebecca and Tim, were actually WALKING across the country! We simply couldn’t go to bed early when there were such interesting and wonderful people to chat with! As we were getting to know each other, we learned that Tim and Rebecca used to live in Chicago, and that Tim used to work with our friend Brad whom we had stayed with on our first night in the Windy City! What a small world. After dessert and playing with my favorite dog of the trip, Aspen, we fell asleep immediately. After breakfast the next morning we said our goodbyes and headed to the great state of Colorado!
