One of the great things about bicycle touring is that everyone who does a cross country trip, all the young people at least, keep a blog. I met a guy on his bike right before I got to the top of Togwotee Pass between Dubois and Moran Junction, Wyoming. John was headed east and is writing a blog about the bars and taverns along the Transamerica bike route that goes from Oregon to Virginia. He was headed to RAGBRAI (the annual ride across Iowa) that my roommate Kat and friend Lauren both did this past week, July 22-28. Anyhow, I'm mentioned on his blog so now I feel famous:
http://barsacrossamerica.blogspot.com/2007/07/sun.html
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
The last leg
I'm done! Let me walk you through it...though I completely forget the past 2 weeks or so and where I went and what towns I went through. As I've been saying, I will fill in all the details later on and then in about 6 months you'll be able to read all the great stories and see all the great pictures--the fun will never end, because I have no idea when I'll be able to finish writing this all up. It's going to be my "pet project."
Okay, I basically left Wisdom, Montana and then I think I was in Montana two more nights and then I crossed back into Idaho on Highway 12--a beautiful scenic route along the Lochsa River. I was only in Idaho two days because I booked it from Lolo Pass to Lowell and then to Lewiston. From Lolo Pass, which is incredibly steep if you are going west to east, is a perfectly reasonable grade if you're going east to west, and then you go downhill for about 60 miles or so...the first 10 miles are very steep downhill but then it's just a slight decline for the next 50 or so, but noticeably downhill. Other bike tourers headed east that I passed on the road didn't look like they were going to pass out or anything, but I was sure happy that I was going slightly down and not slightly up like them.
Fast forward, I left Lewiston and got out on the road sort of mid-day...I was taking my time. I crossed the bridge into Washington State and traveled about 20 miles down the road through the arid part of the state, took some photos. I was taking a banana break at the bottom of a steep-ish grade when a large truck pulled up next to me and the woman in the passenger seat asked if I wanted a ride up the grade. Presented with the opportunity, I hesitated for a couple seconds but then I couldn't say no, so we heaved my bike into the back and I hopped into the backseat. Cynthia and Dennis Phillips inroduced themselves and we got to talking and having a fun conversation--they were loving my trip and asking me all sorts of questions and I loved being able to talk about it...but before all this we established that I was heading west to Portland and then onto Astoria, Oregon. They said, "Well, we're going to Portland too--so you just let us know when you want to get out of the truck."
I didn't want to get out of the truck. Because they had watermelon and funny stories and we got to talk about so many different things...and I was honestly ready to be done with my trip. So I cheated, and loved every minute of it. Dennis and Cynthia said, "No one will ever have to know, Amelia." But the truth is the truth, and this is what happened.
So I got to Portland in one day! They dropped me off at the Hawthorne Street Hostel and I stayed there for 2 nights so I could check out Portland and buy my plane ticket home. This was Thursday, July 19. So Friday, July 20 I spent the day in Portland hanging out at the library and at Mother's Bar and Bistro which has amazing breakfasts.
Then on Saturday I got back on the bike and rode 60 miles to Clatskanie, Oregon and spent the night at a city park. It had rained off and on the whole day and was chilly. But overnight the temperature was nice.
And then on SUNDAY, JULY 22ND--the best day in the world, my birthday--I rode 37 miles uphill it seemed the entire way to Astoria, Oregon. They make you work for the finish line. But I whipped up those hills, honestly--I was so ready to be DONE! And it excited me to get to Astoria, so I did the 37 miles pretty quickly, in just over 2 and a half hours. And it was completely overcast and drizzling and I had left the campsite at about 7:30 in the morning. So I got to Astoria just in time for breakfast and had a great one on the main street near the Columbia River.
The great thing was that the battery in my camera died right when I got to Astoria so I couldn't even take a picture of myself finishing! But no worries, I charged the battery that night and reenacted my approach of the Pacific Ocean the next morning--it was still raining, so it looked the same. You would never know.
You may remember Astoria, Oregon from the hit 1980s Corey Haim/Feldman classic "The Goonies"--and did they ever pick the perfect place to shoot that film. At least the two days I was there it was both drearily overcast and incredibly picturesque with the houses sitting atop the steep hills and the Columbia River below. There were clouds on top of fog under a blanket of other clouds--and everything was steely gray/blue except for the brightly colored houses on the hills and boats in the port and all the evergreen trees. I got there on Sunday so there was a great farmer's market and crafts market happening, and lots of people milling about, shopping, eating, enjoying the day though it could have been called dreary.
I decided to continue along highway 101 so I could get to a town that was actually on the Pacific Ocean--Astoria is on a peninsula and has the river and a bay...but I couldn't figure out if that was the ocean or not. So I went to Seaside, Oregon where there could be no doubt that I was on the side of the sea. That's where I spent the nght, at another hostel. And I spent another day there and in Astoria walking around, bringing my bike to the shop to have it boxed up and shipped back east, looking for the Goonies house, taking pictures with my newly-revived camera, and walking along the beach when the sun finally came out near the end of the day. It was a beautiful day, so windy and chilly, but beautiful. I also went on a short hike through the national forest right there next to the beach--I turned around before I got all the way to the top of the trail where you could look out over the Pacific because I got started late in the day, but it was a great trail in the middle of a very dense forest.
The next day I hopped on a bus back to Portland with a couple other folks from the hostel. We had a lively conversation for the two hours it took us to get back into the city. Then I got on a train headed for Seattle--that was July 24th. One of the reasons I sent my bike back earlier than I truly needed to was because I heard the siren's song of Seattle and wanted to visit while I had the chance. So that's where I am right now--staying with a friend of Loren's from college named Maria. I spent yesterday biking through the city, borrowing Maria's bike. I biked down to Lake Union and kayaked for 2 and 1/2 hours thanks to Maria's boyfriend, Darren, who used to work at this kayak place so I got to do all this for free...and then I kayaked down to meet Chris. another of Loren and Kat's friends from college (thank you Carleton College) who works at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union. So I kayaked to the dock and then got on a sailboat with Chris and a couple other folks and we sailed for an hour or so. It was all a fantastic time and what a great vacation at the end of my trip!
After all that I went downtown to visit Pike's Place Market, the one where they throw the fish at you or whatever...it was closing down by the time I got there so I couldn't get the full experience, but it was neat to be downtown.
So today I am heading back to Portland on the train and I'll be flying from there tomorrow to BWI in Baltimore. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back in DC/NOVA! And if you didn't already know, I got a new job that starts almost immediately in August up in Boston. So I actually now have to move from DC to Boston--all the while updating my blog about my bike trip! It's going to be a busy month.
Thanks again to everyone for supporting me on this journey in every way possible--sheltering me, giving me food, being next to a computer when I needed directions or the police's phone number, calling me, leaving me messages--all that stuff. I truly couldn't have done it without all of you. I'll see most of you very soon! And for those of you I met along the way, I can't imagine this being the only time our paths cross. For instance, I am determined to have a fantastic, worry-free experience in Wyoming the next time I go there. And Montana and Idaho, you'll see me again one day.
Love, Amelia
Okay, I basically left Wisdom, Montana and then I think I was in Montana two more nights and then I crossed back into Idaho on Highway 12--a beautiful scenic route along the Lochsa River. I was only in Idaho two days because I booked it from Lolo Pass to Lowell and then to Lewiston. From Lolo Pass, which is incredibly steep if you are going west to east, is a perfectly reasonable grade if you're going east to west, and then you go downhill for about 60 miles or so...the first 10 miles are very steep downhill but then it's just a slight decline for the next 50 or so, but noticeably downhill. Other bike tourers headed east that I passed on the road didn't look like they were going to pass out or anything, but I was sure happy that I was going slightly down and not slightly up like them.
Fast forward, I left Lewiston and got out on the road sort of mid-day...I was taking my time. I crossed the bridge into Washington State and traveled about 20 miles down the road through the arid part of the state, took some photos. I was taking a banana break at the bottom of a steep-ish grade when a large truck pulled up next to me and the woman in the passenger seat asked if I wanted a ride up the grade. Presented with the opportunity, I hesitated for a couple seconds but then I couldn't say no, so we heaved my bike into the back and I hopped into the backseat. Cynthia and Dennis Phillips inroduced themselves and we got to talking and having a fun conversation--they were loving my trip and asking me all sorts of questions and I loved being able to talk about it...but before all this we established that I was heading west to Portland and then onto Astoria, Oregon. They said, "Well, we're going to Portland too--so you just let us know when you want to get out of the truck."
I didn't want to get out of the truck. Because they had watermelon and funny stories and we got to talk about so many different things...and I was honestly ready to be done with my trip. So I cheated, and loved every minute of it. Dennis and Cynthia said, "No one will ever have to know, Amelia." But the truth is the truth, and this is what happened.
So I got to Portland in one day! They dropped me off at the Hawthorne Street Hostel and I stayed there for 2 nights so I could check out Portland and buy my plane ticket home. This was Thursday, July 19. So Friday, July 20 I spent the day in Portland hanging out at the library and at Mother's Bar and Bistro which has amazing breakfasts.
Then on Saturday I got back on the bike and rode 60 miles to Clatskanie, Oregon and spent the night at a city park. It had rained off and on the whole day and was chilly. But overnight the temperature was nice.
And then on SUNDAY, JULY 22ND--the best day in the world, my birthday--I rode 37 miles uphill it seemed the entire way to Astoria, Oregon. They make you work for the finish line. But I whipped up those hills, honestly--I was so ready to be DONE! And it excited me to get to Astoria, so I did the 37 miles pretty quickly, in just over 2 and a half hours. And it was completely overcast and drizzling and I had left the campsite at about 7:30 in the morning. So I got to Astoria just in time for breakfast and had a great one on the main street near the Columbia River.
The great thing was that the battery in my camera died right when I got to Astoria so I couldn't even take a picture of myself finishing! But no worries, I charged the battery that night and reenacted my approach of the Pacific Ocean the next morning--it was still raining, so it looked the same. You would never know.
You may remember Astoria, Oregon from the hit 1980s Corey Haim/Feldman classic "The Goonies"--and did they ever pick the perfect place to shoot that film. At least the two days I was there it was both drearily overcast and incredibly picturesque with the houses sitting atop the steep hills and the Columbia River below. There were clouds on top of fog under a blanket of other clouds--and everything was steely gray/blue except for the brightly colored houses on the hills and boats in the port and all the evergreen trees. I got there on Sunday so there was a great farmer's market and crafts market happening, and lots of people milling about, shopping, eating, enjoying the day though it could have been called dreary.
I decided to continue along highway 101 so I could get to a town that was actually on the Pacific Ocean--Astoria is on a peninsula and has the river and a bay...but I couldn't figure out if that was the ocean or not. So I went to Seaside, Oregon where there could be no doubt that I was on the side of the sea. That's where I spent the nght, at another hostel. And I spent another day there and in Astoria walking around, bringing my bike to the shop to have it boxed up and shipped back east, looking for the Goonies house, taking pictures with my newly-revived camera, and walking along the beach when the sun finally came out near the end of the day. It was a beautiful day, so windy and chilly, but beautiful. I also went on a short hike through the national forest right there next to the beach--I turned around before I got all the way to the top of the trail where you could look out over the Pacific because I got started late in the day, but it was a great trail in the middle of a very dense forest.
The next day I hopped on a bus back to Portland with a couple other folks from the hostel. We had a lively conversation for the two hours it took us to get back into the city. Then I got on a train headed for Seattle--that was July 24th. One of the reasons I sent my bike back earlier than I truly needed to was because I heard the siren's song of Seattle and wanted to visit while I had the chance. So that's where I am right now--staying with a friend of Loren's from college named Maria. I spent yesterday biking through the city, borrowing Maria's bike. I biked down to Lake Union and kayaked for 2 and 1/2 hours thanks to Maria's boyfriend, Darren, who used to work at this kayak place so I got to do all this for free...and then I kayaked down to meet Chris. another of Loren and Kat's friends from college (thank you Carleton College) who works at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union. So I kayaked to the dock and then got on a sailboat with Chris and a couple other folks and we sailed for an hour or so. It was all a fantastic time and what a great vacation at the end of my trip!
After all that I went downtown to visit Pike's Place Market, the one where they throw the fish at you or whatever...it was closing down by the time I got there so I couldn't get the full experience, but it was neat to be downtown.
So today I am heading back to Portland on the train and I'll be flying from there tomorrow to BWI in Baltimore. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back in DC/NOVA! And if you didn't already know, I got a new job that starts almost immediately in August up in Boston. So I actually now have to move from DC to Boston--all the while updating my blog about my bike trip! It's going to be a busy month.
Thanks again to everyone for supporting me on this journey in every way possible--sheltering me, giving me food, being next to a computer when I needed directions or the police's phone number, calling me, leaving me messages--all that stuff. I truly couldn't have done it without all of you. I'll see most of you very soon! And for those of you I met along the way, I can't imagine this being the only time our paths cross. For instance, I am determined to have a fantastic, worry-free experience in Wyoming the next time I go there. And Montana and Idaho, you'll see me again one day.
Love, Amelia
Saturday, July 14, 2007
10 Days Later...
It's been about ten days or so since I wrote my last blog and here I am at a bed and breakfast in Wisdom, Montana at the friendly owner's computer looking out at the mountains and sunset and horse pastures...Montana, my friends, is an amazing state. I'm really glad I came this way. Well, it's really the only way to come because there aren't many east to west roads through Idaho--I had to come up north, go west through Montana, then I'll head back into Idaho in two days or so and then I'll be able to head west. I'll hit the borders of Washington and Oregon and probably follow the Columbia River on the Washington side until I finally FINALLY make it to Astoria, Oregon.
That's the plan anyway. If there's one thing I've learned on this trip it's to really be prepared for the unexpected. I remember laying in my tent in Grand Island, Nebraska, after doing an awesome amount of miles from Lincoln that day, getting giddy and unable to sleep I was so excited to think that I would make it all the way to the coast in a matter of weeks. But of course Wyoming was the hardest part...and I knew it would be...I just didn't know that this would include:
calling the highway patrol (thanks for the number Loren) to pick me up off the side of the interstate after 3 flat tires in a row...
taking a bus, carrying only my bike tires, tent, and toiletries (and leaving everything else at a gas station in Wheatland, WY), to Cheyenne on the Fourth of July in order to go to the CLOSEST bike shop in Wyoming in order to purchase new tires because I had worn mine out...
once i got to cheyenne having a furnace repairman give me a ride to a bike shop and a camp site out of the goodness of his heart...
celebrating the Fourth in Cheyenne, Wyoming...
getting back on the road and busting a rear brake in the process...which led to getting a ride in a pick up truck with a man named Chris who has a daughter in a punk band, up to Casper through the inspired help of my favorite family, the O'Connor's...
which led me to stay with their close friends and my other favorite family, the Perry's (yes, perry place!) , in Casper...and then getting another ride from Julie Perry through the desolate part of Wyoming where 15 years ago the scary murderer once lived...
which led me to Riverton where I got a cold and watched "Evan Almighty" in a movie theater...
and then to Dubois where I stayed in a motel with shag carpet, which I took a picture of...
i continued to have a cold and then I fell over on some loose sand on the side of the road and scraped my elbow pretty bad...and had headwinds...that was a bad day...
then i got to Moran Junction where nothing was...so I camped out in a horse pasture of a Dude Ranch a few miles down the road thanks to the kindness of the owner, and it was FREEZING but I had an amazing view of the Grand Tetons at sunset...but i didn't get much sleep...
oh, back there I crossed the continental divide at the Togwotee Pass...
and then I cruised into Jackson Hole where all the millionaires have homes and go skiing and I was so tired i could barely function...
so i finally was able to sleep at a hostel in Jackson after many hours of torturous sleep deprivation...
and then the next day I felt renewed and I WALKED up the Teton Pass which is 6 miles at a 10% grade (which is steep by the way) and it took me 3 hours and I wondered why people, like me, put themselves through torture...
then i ate salsa and chips in Victor, Idaho and felt at peace with the world...
That was Wyoming in a nutshell. I'll be filling in the details later on in writing; and it will be much funnier when I reenact my facial expressions in person.
Idaho and Montana have been tough, for the hills and valleys and such, but the landscape and the rivers have been phenomenal. Today I biked on a road between a rocky cliff and a green
hillside with the Big Hole River flowing right next to the road on my right side...and it was beautiful. And before that in Idaho I biked through the Targhee National Forest, on a road which remains the only hill I have loved to climb on this trip...
I love rivers. I have decided rivers are my favorite thing in the world. And the ones here in Montana and Idaho are clear like glass.
Getting closer to the end of my trip, I have equal parts anxiety and impatience. Pretty much I really want to finish...not to necessarily end my trip, but to reach my destination. I started out thinking I might only make it to Nebraska...but I think it only took me getting there to be able to actually make my goal to go across the full United States. I don't naturally like setting goals, or planning, as some of you may know...but now with the goal so close--every day is a test of my ability to take this trip one day at a time and enjoy every moment.
My birthday is July 22nd and I thought I might be able to finish my trip on that day so that it really would be a Hollywood tear-jerker ending to an epic journey...But I think I'll cry just as hard whatever day i finish...so let's just plan to not plan a specific date. I'll finish when I finish!
That's the plan anyway. If there's one thing I've learned on this trip it's to really be prepared for the unexpected. I remember laying in my tent in Grand Island, Nebraska, after doing an awesome amount of miles from Lincoln that day, getting giddy and unable to sleep I was so excited to think that I would make it all the way to the coast in a matter of weeks. But of course Wyoming was the hardest part...and I knew it would be...I just didn't know that this would include:
calling the highway patrol (thanks for the number Loren) to pick me up off the side of the interstate after 3 flat tires in a row...
taking a bus, carrying only my bike tires, tent, and toiletries (and leaving everything else at a gas station in Wheatland, WY), to Cheyenne on the Fourth of July in order to go to the CLOSEST bike shop in Wyoming in order to purchase new tires because I had worn mine out...
once i got to cheyenne having a furnace repairman give me a ride to a bike shop and a camp site out of the goodness of his heart...
celebrating the Fourth in Cheyenne, Wyoming...
getting back on the road and busting a rear brake in the process...which led to getting a ride in a pick up truck with a man named Chris who has a daughter in a punk band, up to Casper through the inspired help of my favorite family, the O'Connor's...
which led me to stay with their close friends and my other favorite family, the Perry's (yes, perry place!) , in Casper...and then getting another ride from Julie Perry through the desolate part of Wyoming where 15 years ago the scary murderer once lived...
which led me to Riverton where I got a cold and watched "Evan Almighty" in a movie theater...
and then to Dubois where I stayed in a motel with shag carpet, which I took a picture of...
i continued to have a cold and then I fell over on some loose sand on the side of the road and scraped my elbow pretty bad...and had headwinds...that was a bad day...
then i got to Moran Junction where nothing was...so I camped out in a horse pasture of a Dude Ranch a few miles down the road thanks to the kindness of the owner, and it was FREEZING but I had an amazing view of the Grand Tetons at sunset...but i didn't get much sleep...
oh, back there I crossed the continental divide at the Togwotee Pass...
and then I cruised into Jackson Hole where all the millionaires have homes and go skiing and I was so tired i could barely function...
so i finally was able to sleep at a hostel in Jackson after many hours of torturous sleep deprivation...
and then the next day I felt renewed and I WALKED up the Teton Pass which is 6 miles at a 10% grade (which is steep by the way) and it took me 3 hours and I wondered why people, like me, put themselves through torture...
then i ate salsa and chips in Victor, Idaho and felt at peace with the world...
That was Wyoming in a nutshell. I'll be filling in the details later on in writing; and it will be much funnier when I reenact my facial expressions in person.
Idaho and Montana have been tough, for the hills and valleys and such, but the landscape and the rivers have been phenomenal. Today I biked on a road between a rocky cliff and a green
hillside with the Big Hole River flowing right next to the road on my right side...and it was beautiful. And before that in Idaho I biked through the Targhee National Forest, on a road which remains the only hill I have loved to climb on this trip...
I love rivers. I have decided rivers are my favorite thing in the world. And the ones here in Montana and Idaho are clear like glass.
Getting closer to the end of my trip, I have equal parts anxiety and impatience. Pretty much I really want to finish...not to necessarily end my trip, but to reach my destination. I started out thinking I might only make it to Nebraska...but I think it only took me getting there to be able to actually make my goal to go across the full United States. I don't naturally like setting goals, or planning, as some of you may know...but now with the goal so close--every day is a test of my ability to take this trip one day at a time and enjoy every moment.
My birthday is July 22nd and I thought I might be able to finish my trip on that day so that it really would be a Hollywood tear-jerker ending to an epic journey...But I think I'll cry just as hard whatever day i finish...so let's just plan to not plan a specific date. I'll finish when I finish!
Monday, July 2, 2007
WYOMING!
I am just about to cross into Wyoming. The license plates on the cars are getting mixed more and more between Nebraska and Wyoming, so I know I'm almost there. I've really blown through Nebraska over the past 5 days. I"ve been doing 100 mile days! I go about the same amount of hours but since it's been so flat I just cruise right along and get more miles done. Be amazed! I sure am.
I've had to deal with a couple flat tires this past week due to a small hole in my tire that keeps letting small rocks and glass from the road puncture my inner tubes. But I reinforced that area with a patch and that's worked so far so good over the past 2 days. Keeping my fingers crossed. Nebraskans are big on self-reliance I'm finding, and no one stopped to ask if I needed help the other day when I was fixing my tube--while in Missouri just about 5 different cars stopped to ask if I needed help when I had a flat there.
But other than making me do everything myself without any moral support, Nebraska has been actually my favorite state so far. Leaving Lincoln I went to Grand Island where I stayed at a great county campground. I had to leave Lincoln on highway 34--little did I know, having not looked at a more detailed map, silly me, 34 runs concurrent with Interstate 180 for about 3 miles. Soooo...I'm cruisin along and I get pulled over by a cop. I had a feeling I was not on the best road, but kept telling myslef I'd been on freeways before, I'm fine if I'm on the shoulder...and there was no "bikes/pedestrians prohibited" sign...but after honestly telling the cop I didn't mean to be on the Interstate, he told me I had two choices: either he could fine me, confiscate my bike and throw me in jail for 2 weeks while I figured out my route OR we could put my bike in his trunk and he could drive me up the road until I got to the non-Interstate part of 34. My heart skipped a beat when he described that first option--though I knew I wasn't in trouble, for a split second I wondered if the seriousness in which the cop said "fine" and "confiscate" and "throw in jail" meant I actually was. But he was a friendly guy who just had a great dead pan...a GREAT dead pan.
So he drove me up the road and when he pulled over to let me out I tried to get out of the backseat like in a normal car, and he asked, "Haven't been in a cop car before?" and that was pretty funny.
So a great beginning to the day.
After Grand Island I pedaled along to Lexington, Nebraska where I stayed with a WarmShowers.org host names Bryan. He worked the night shift at an ethanol plant so he let me have the house to myself and I drank a lot of his root beer in the fridge. When he got home at 8 in the morning he took me out to breakfast and gave me a tour of the ethanol plant which was absolutely fascinating. At points along the road there were different smells correlating to different industries in the town: the Tyson Chicken plant's incinerator (fried grease), the ethanol plant (sweet alcohol), the waste treatment facility (the bathroom of a dirty gas station)...I'll write more about Lexington later because I really learned a lot there and thought it was so cool that Bryan took it upon himself to show me the plant and the town.
After Lexington I made it to just outside Ogallala, Nebraska to an unincorporated town called Roscoe. I stayed with my favorite campground hosts, Bonnie and Greg Johnson--though they actually are in a close tie with Barb and Don at Pershing State Park in Missouri who saved me from a raccoon (more on that later). Bonnie made me a fantastic breakfast with homemade apple butter on toast, and set me up with a huge bag of her own dehydrated fruit (including pineapple) which I have been enjoying ever since. Bonnie and my politics clashed but it was all in good spirit and we really could have talked all day about Hillary Clinton, my liberal New Yorker father, and how hunters and farmers are the true environmentalists. Oh man, that conversation got me through the whole day while I was biking, thinking about my responses to her comments and why I believe what I believe. We did agree on this: rural america has much to offer the entire nation...and that is a definite truth.
Nebraska is beautiful and scenic and the land is something like I've never experienced before. The grasses are gold and white and green and yellow-green, and the handful of trees are the deepest forest green. There are hills and sandy bluffs, which I still don't know what that means, but I'm gonna look it up. And the sky is big and blue. It's amazihng.
Last night I met two Tejanos, Mexican-Americans who live in Texas, but they migrate to Nebraska every year to work the fields up here, sugar beets, corn, and wheat. They do back-breaking work for three months--and generations of their family have been doing the same since the 1950s, coming to the same town of Bridgeport. Eleuteno and Orelia Guerrero are their names and they invited me to come down to Texas and visit them on my next vacation and gave me their address. I'm planning on it. They lived at the motel I stayed at last night.
So Nebraska! It's been a great experience here and I'll plan on writing more about it probably when I get back to DC.
Love to all--Amelia
I've had to deal with a couple flat tires this past week due to a small hole in my tire that keeps letting small rocks and glass from the road puncture my inner tubes. But I reinforced that area with a patch and that's worked so far so good over the past 2 days. Keeping my fingers crossed. Nebraskans are big on self-reliance I'm finding, and no one stopped to ask if I needed help the other day when I was fixing my tube--while in Missouri just about 5 different cars stopped to ask if I needed help when I had a flat there.
But other than making me do everything myself without any moral support, Nebraska has been actually my favorite state so far. Leaving Lincoln I went to Grand Island where I stayed at a great county campground. I had to leave Lincoln on highway 34--little did I know, having not looked at a more detailed map, silly me, 34 runs concurrent with Interstate 180 for about 3 miles. Soooo...I'm cruisin along and I get pulled over by a cop. I had a feeling I was not on the best road, but kept telling myslef I'd been on freeways before, I'm fine if I'm on the shoulder...and there was no "bikes/pedestrians prohibited" sign...but after honestly telling the cop I didn't mean to be on the Interstate, he told me I had two choices: either he could fine me, confiscate my bike and throw me in jail for 2 weeks while I figured out my route OR we could put my bike in his trunk and he could drive me up the road until I got to the non-Interstate part of 34. My heart skipped a beat when he described that first option--though I knew I wasn't in trouble, for a split second I wondered if the seriousness in which the cop said "fine" and "confiscate" and "throw in jail" meant I actually was. But he was a friendly guy who just had a great dead pan...a GREAT dead pan.
So he drove me up the road and when he pulled over to let me out I tried to get out of the backseat like in a normal car, and he asked, "Haven't been in a cop car before?" and that was pretty funny.
So a great beginning to the day.
After Grand Island I pedaled along to Lexington, Nebraska where I stayed with a WarmShowers.org host names Bryan. He worked the night shift at an ethanol plant so he let me have the house to myself and I drank a lot of his root beer in the fridge. When he got home at 8 in the morning he took me out to breakfast and gave me a tour of the ethanol plant which was absolutely fascinating. At points along the road there were different smells correlating to different industries in the town: the Tyson Chicken plant's incinerator (fried grease), the ethanol plant (sweet alcohol), the waste treatment facility (the bathroom of a dirty gas station)...I'll write more about Lexington later because I really learned a lot there and thought it was so cool that Bryan took it upon himself to show me the plant and the town.
After Lexington I made it to just outside Ogallala, Nebraska to an unincorporated town called Roscoe. I stayed with my favorite campground hosts, Bonnie and Greg Johnson--though they actually are in a close tie with Barb and Don at Pershing State Park in Missouri who saved me from a raccoon (more on that later). Bonnie made me a fantastic breakfast with homemade apple butter on toast, and set me up with a huge bag of her own dehydrated fruit (including pineapple) which I have been enjoying ever since. Bonnie and my politics clashed but it was all in good spirit and we really could have talked all day about Hillary Clinton, my liberal New Yorker father, and how hunters and farmers are the true environmentalists. Oh man, that conversation got me through the whole day while I was biking, thinking about my responses to her comments and why I believe what I believe. We did agree on this: rural america has much to offer the entire nation...and that is a definite truth.
Nebraska is beautiful and scenic and the land is something like I've never experienced before. The grasses are gold and white and green and yellow-green, and the handful of trees are the deepest forest green. There are hills and sandy bluffs, which I still don't know what that means, but I'm gonna look it up. And the sky is big and blue. It's amazihng.
Last night I met two Tejanos, Mexican-Americans who live in Texas, but they migrate to Nebraska every year to work the fields up here, sugar beets, corn, and wheat. They do back-breaking work for three months--and generations of their family have been doing the same since the 1950s, coming to the same town of Bridgeport. Eleuteno and Orelia Guerrero are their names and they invited me to come down to Texas and visit them on my next vacation and gave me their address. I'm planning on it. They lived at the motel I stayed at last night.
So Nebraska! It's been a great experience here and I'll plan on writing more about it probably when I get back to DC.
Love to all--Amelia
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