Day Thirty: Spencer, Nebraska to Yankton, South Dakota

July 14, 2024

After going to bed at 8:15 last night, I woke up a couple of times, at 2:00 and 3:00. It was very windy - So windy that it blew my flimsily locked door slightly open. I checked my phone. There was a severe thunderstorm warning, and it looked like it would last past my planned super-early departure time.

I went back to sleep.

I got up at 5:00 and walked outside. Surprisingly, the motel parking lot was full of cars. A lot of people had checked in last evening to this small town motel. It was still windy, and lightning flashed. I went back inside and messed around for a while.

Finally, after walking outside a few more times and looking at the sky, I decided I had to get going. It was going to be too hot today to waste any more time, although after wheeling the bike out of the room I did spend ten minutes talking to another guest, a man who asked about my trip. He was one of the people who wanted to know how I was able find the time to do a six week trip like this, and we talked about how my software business worked. He was in the solar/wind energy consulting business and had recently purchased a subscription to some software, created by a solo practitioner like myself, that targeted his industry. I sometimes enjoy boring business talk like this, but had to shorten the conversation because I needed to move down the road.

It was cloudy and spitting rain, but I had a tailwind.

I stopped at the first little town of the day, Bristow, population 70. The map didn't show any services in the town, but I was hoping there might be a pop machine. I hadn't had my morning caffeinated soda fix yet.

I took some photos of Bristow, which was in the state of decay that is typical for these tiny Nebraska towns. I was unsuccessful in my quest for soda pop.

About seven miles later, I arrived in Lynch, population 194. It took me a while to actually locate the Lynch downtown; it was a few blocks from the highway.

There was a community co-op grocery, but it didn't open for hours. There was a pop machine out front, but it wouldn't take any of my dollar bills. There is apparently an epidemic of malfunctioning pop machines in this part of Nebraska. I think this is the third time in the last few days that I've been thwarted like this.

A friendly elderly man, the only sign of life in the town this Sunday morning, approached and struck up a conversation. His description of the good old days, when Lynch was thriving, abruptly transitioned into political commentary. Ugh. 99.9% of the time on bike tours I deflect any attempted political discussion. I can think of only once or twice in eighteen years of doing these trips when I engaged with it.

This time I was annoyed at the man's presumption that, given my appearance and our shared demographic characteristics, I must be in agreement with his world view. So I told him what I really thought.

I was polite, but firmly gave him my opinion, which was the polar opposite of his. He seemed startled by this, although we parted on friendly terms.

Back on the road. I'd forgotten that the famous Monowi was on my route!

That's the population, not the distance to the town.

The lone resident, and mayor, Elsie Eiler, had her tavern open, so I went in, talked to her and a local farmer for a while, and finally got my morning Diet Pepsi.

It was very hot now, with no cloud cover. I enjoyed the smell of the recently mowed hay fields.

Verdel was a near ghost town. I didn't see anyone while I looked around.

The road narrowed as I rode through an area with water close to both sides of the pavement. Fortunately there was still very little traffic on NE-12.

I arrived in Niobrara, population 363, and walked into The Trading Post, a friendly convenience store / café, and sat down and had chocolate milk, a fountain pop, and French fries.

I'd been a little concerned about crossing the wide Missouri River into South Dakota, but it was fine, with wide shoulders and low traffic.

The route that John Egan had created for me contained a dirt section of several miles, "Bottom Road", that stayed close to the Missouri River. There was bar just before the turn onto this road, and I went inside to get a cold Gatorade, and confirm with the guy working there that the road did in fact still exist and was rideable and hadn't washed away in a flood since 2019, when John created the route. He confirmed that it was still in good condition.

What a great road! No traffic, no washboard, and intact despite the warning signs at the beginning:

I was only a few feet from the wide river. This was one of the best sections of this tour.

The dirt ended and I turned onto a low traffic paved highway and entered Springfield in a few miles.

I went into Doug's Food Center, a nice little supermarket, and bought some contact lens solution, something I'd been needing to replenish for several days, and a can of Diet Coke. I stood inside for a while talking to the teenage boy working the register, and a woman about my age who took over whenever someone came in wanting to purchase beer. I told the boy that I was surprised that the small town contained nearly 2,000 people, and he said it was actually more like 800 - the sign at the town limits that I'd seen actually counted the inmates at the local prison, but the sign at the other end of town, for some reason, showed the accurate number. Interesting.

Before I left, they told me that I should check out the project of a local man, who'd been building an enormous metal boat for the last twenty years, so I backtracked less than a block and looked at it:

He has a website about the project: SailingDakota.com

Finally, after 2,000 miles, I walked into the first Casey's of the trip. I didn't really need anything, but I bought a chocolate pie to have in my handlebar bag. I told the girl that it wasn't time for pizza yet, but she quickly replied that "it's always time for pizza."

I turned onto pleasant, no-traffic Apple Tree Road for a while. It was very hot now.

I was finally getting close to my destination, Yankton. I had to ride several miles on the wide shoulder of a busy highway, but it was alright.

Then I took a very nice route into Yankton, population 15,411: A low-traffic paved road, a no-traffic gravel road, an finally pavement through an industrial section that took me to the Holiday Inn Express on the north of edge of town.

There was a Wendy's a few thousand feet from the hotel. I was hot and dry, so I stopped there first, and walked in and ordered a large fountain drink, only to find that they wouldn't take my money. The woman told me that "It's so hot out there to be riding a bike today, there's no charge." Nice!

I checked into the hotel, cleaned up, did the usual chores, and ordered a large pizza from Domino's. They really have their act together with their online ordering process. I accidentally locked myself out of my room when I let the door shut while I tipped the delivery boy, but the friendly girl at the front desk quickly came up and unlocked it for me. "It happens!" she said.

I was tired, and the nagging cough had returned again. I added up the miles left and determined that it was about 630.

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Today's ride: 83 miles (134 km)
Total: 2,008 miles (3,232 km)

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John EganYep, dirt roads, especially dirt roads along a river can change a whole lot in 5 years. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Last stretch of the West. You will definitely be in the East from here on out.
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5 months ago