Day 55 - still at Anton, CO - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

July 8, 2023

Day 55 - still at Anton, CO

At 2:00am last night we had rain for 20 minutes. The tent handled it well. Up at 4:52am. It was cool, damp, foggy, and overcast. Worked on report for three days ago, and got it posted.

At 8:10am I went to Anton Super's, which is a grocery store, for breakfast items and lunchbox items. Since I'd spent over $20, I got a free cloth grocery bag. They don't have any sit-down inside tables, so I ate breakfast outside on their picnic table in the cold breeze.

I did some research this morning on bike shops and routes. The crack in the rear hub is getting a little worse. I'm four days from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where there are two bike shops. I see there's one also in Fort Morgan, Colorado. I could order a whole new wheel from Amazon and have it shipped to one of the bike shops . . . maybe, if I could get all the specifications matched correctly.

At 9:15am I tried calling my wife, since I had a one bar cell signal for the moment. The call wouldn't go through, so we sent text messages back and forth instead.

Being so far behind on journal postings, I decided to take the day off. I've got fast wifi here, electricity, and camping's a lot cheaper than staying in a motel. With that decision made I took a short mid-morning nap. I am missing out on the strong southeast wind that would be a tailwind for me today, if I was bicycling. Though, strong storms are predicted for the afternoon. It would be good not to be out on the road for those.

I paid for a second night, which was only $10 this time. They unlocked a motel room for me so I could take a shower later.

After lunch from my lunch bag, I worked on the bike. Found a 9 mm wire in the rear tire and was able to get it out. A wire that long should have poked a hole in the tube. Maybe it did. I'll know in the morning. I disconnected the spoke next to the hub crack completely from its nipple and tied it to a nearby spoke. I trued the wheel some. We'll see how that works.

Rain was coming, so at 3:50pm I went back to Super's to buy supper items. I got back to the tent just when it started raining. That lasted about an hour. In the meantime I was able to get the report posted for two days ago.

At 6:00pm I ate supper outside in the sunshine. Got my shower at 6:40pm.

The weather was different when I got outside after my shower. It had turned cold and there was a strong wind from the east. Earlier in the day I'd added four guidelines to the corners of the tent. I tightened all those up then got in the tent for the night.

Worked some on yesterday's report until bedtime, which was 10:00pm tonight. I'm happy with what I got done today.

Jeff

Spent: $10 (campsite) + $26.88 (breakfast items, lunch bag items, deodorant) + $9.63 (supper items) = $46.51