October 2, 2022
Day Twenty-one: Albion, Nebraska to Wisner, Nebraska
I was up early as usual, long before the motel's breakfast started at 6:00. While I waited for that, I consumed the remainder of the chocolate milk and the "Cool Ranch" Doritos I'd purchased at the Dollar General store yesterday evening. Even on a bicycle tour, where "the rules are different", eating a (pre-) breakfast of chocolate milk and "Cool Ranch" Doritos was pretty far outside the bounds of normal behavior.
The only other person up at 6:00 for the mediocre motel breakfast was a Nebraska man in the livestock business. He was interested in hearing me list all the tiny Nebraska towns I'd traveled through on this, and previous bicycle tours in the state. I asked about the poor-looking corn I'd seen the last several days, and he explained that it was "dry corn", which wasn't irrigated, and was used as cattle feed.
After breakfast, I did a few more chores, then rode out at 8:30 onto a quiet city street for a short distance, then onto a country road.
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Soon the road turned to gravel.
It was nice enough, except for a disgustingly stinky feedlot I had to ride past. That place seemed like a mile long.
After several miles, I exited the gravel road onto highway 32.
The route I'd worked out last night was 80+ miles to the town of Wisner. Most of it would be on highway 32, and there was only one place with services the entire day, at the halfway point in the town of Madison.
The SSE winds were already strong. I'd have a semi-headwind the 30+ miles to Madison.
There was very, very little to see on the ride to Madison. Scenery was pleasant enough, and traffic was light, though.
There were a few cemeteries alongside the highway, but no churches. I saw signs for a couple of different Lutheran churches, but they were miles down gravel roads. Seemed odd that cemeteries would be adjacent to the highway, but churches would be miles off the pavement.
Traffic became slightly heavier in late morning. A pickup truck passed me more closely than necessary, only about the third time that's happened on this trip, but I have a low tolerance for that behavior, and it aggravated me.
I arrived in Madison, population 2,239. It initially looked a little shabby compared to the other recent Nebraska towns. Several small yapping dogs ran out into the road and chased me a short distance.
I was surprised to see a sign in a front yard advertising this moron's website:
He makes a decent pillow, but he's batshit crazy.
I stopped at Brad & Amy's convenience store. The woman working there - Amy, presumably - was very friendly, and had questions about my trip. Upon hearing that my destination was Iowa, she told me that her dad did RAGBRAI every year. I wasn't even in Iowa yet, and the Inevitable Subject was already broached.
She was impressed by my daily mileage (which is of course nothing special), and remarked that "You look really fit!" I will admit that I feel a certain mild, childish glee when I occasionally hear this.
It's too bad that the only way I can get into this kind of shape is by riding a heavy bike every day for weeks.
The enjoyable interlude at the store ended when a woman entered with an annoying small child whose repeated, piercingly loud questions/announcements the woman ignored, and which gave me an instant headache.
I rode through Madison's main drag and took a few pictures.
I stopped at a Mexican restaurant and ate a burrito, then got back on highway 32. It was clear I'd left the Sandhills region. This looked more like Iowa.
It was hot now, and I was getting tired. Traffic was light, fortunately. I saw a gigantic American flag from what seemed like miles away. When I finally reached it, I was surprised to find that it was located literally in the middle of a corn field just off the highway on a gravel road.
I turned off the highway and headed north on a paved county road to my destination, Wisner. After the relatively light traffic on the highway, I was aggravated when the county road was very briefly busier than the highway. By the time I reached this Lutheran Church, though, it disappeared, and I had the road to myself.
Wisner, population 1,364, was located right on super-busy US-275. I actually had to check into my motel, The Cattlemen's Lodge, at the adjacent 24-hour convenience store, which was one busy, bustling place.
As the super-efficient young guy working there handed me my key card for the room, I asked if it was possible to get a cheese pizza made. He immediately called out to the kitchen "Make a cheese pizza!" Then he old me to be back in 15 minutes to pick it up.
I walked across the street to the Cattlemen's lodge, where dead bugs littered the floor by the door, and it looked like no one had occupied the room in quite some time, and showered and changed clothes at record speed. I walked back to the convenience store to find my pizza ready for me, ate it in my room, then walked around Wisner for a while before going to bed.
Today's ride: 82 miles (132 km)
Total: 1,441 miles (2,319 km)
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