July 24, 2024
Day 10 - ending at Newman Grove, NE
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I wanted to sleep longer, but got up at 4:45am. Needing some morning coffee, at 5:55am I rode my bike over to Cubby's gas station/convenience store, also picking up chocolate milk and Zingers. Worked some on the report back at the motel room, then biked over to Neligh Community Center at 8:30am. I'd noticed yesterday evening as I rode through town that they serve breakfast here. I wasn't sure it was for the general public, but it is. There's no other place in town for breakfast except Cubby's.
Payment for the community center breakfast is donation based. I had a sweet roll, a sausage egg biscuit, and coffee. So very good. I was the only one there until much later. I'd mentioned to the cook that I'd eaten at the restaurant in town back in 2013. She said back then she made the sweet rolls for that restaurant.
Destination for today was the city campground at Newman Grove, Nebraska. I had it figured at 36 miles.
I was packed up and out of my motel room at 10:37am, headed to Cubby's again, this time for Vitaminwater and ice for my thermos. I rode past the Elkhorn River at Riverside Park (where I should have been camping last night), and checked out their new suspension bridge I was told about during breakfast. I'd forgotten that my routing had me on the Cowboy Trail some today after leaving the park. I wasn't too far along it when I remembered I was supposed to get water at the park campground. So I turned around, but didn't have to go all the way to the campground, since the fairgrounds were nearby and has a faucet.
At 11:31am I got off the trail and onto US-275, then some gravel roads, to get to a bridge that crosses the Elkhorn River near Oakdale. Noon arrived before I got to the river. 6.4 miles to report. After crossing the river I was back on the Cowboy Trail for 5 miles. I stayed with the trail, even though the wide shoulder on paralleling US-275 would have been an easier ride.
I arrived in Tilden at 1:28pm. They're getting ready for Pioneer Days this coming weekend. South onto NE-45 was my next turn. I passed Tilden's library after the turn and went in for a break. It's impressive. The librarian gave me an information sheet about the place. The restrooms are tiled with imported Italian Crystal!
I had 13 miles to ride south into the wind on NE-45. It was hilly but pleasant. No shoulder on this highway, but the payment is smooth, and there was almost no traffic. I listened to country music on KQKX, 106.7 MHz as I went. When I got to the junction with NE-32, I was surprised my routing had me going further straight on a hilly gravel road. I see now that was to get to Shell Creek. I got started on that at 3:51pm. At 4:50pm, a guy in a pickup stopped to talk, and offered twice that I put my bike in the truck and he'd give me a ride to Newman Grove. He told me that I'd soon be on pavement, though it was in poor condition.
I was near Shell Creek at 5:30pm. I noticed a bridge over a tributary about a quarter mile on a dirt road going east. I parked the bike and walked over to get a picture. A pleasant break from bicycling.
I was a mile and a half from Newman Grove, struggling (walking the bike) up another gravel road hill. At the top a woman on a riding lawn mower stopped to talk. She pointed me south to get on the paved road to Newman Grove.
I arrived at the campground at 6:45pm. It's near Shell Creek also. It took some looking to find a 120v outlet. Most of the boxes have only 30 amp circular outlets. I've run into this problem before and have considered buying an adapter, but I'm carrying enough weight as it is.
After the tent was up, I ate the bag of Potato Skins that I've been carrying around since their purchase in Niobrara. There are some very old cottonwood trees in this park, planted by some of the first settlers in the 1860s.
I was in bed at 10:20pm, kept awake a few minutes longer by someone across the highway revving an engine that didn't have a muffler. I was thinking it was an irrigation pump engine, but then the sound diminished as if it was a truck driving off. Don't know.
Jeff
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https://nwwildflowers.com/compare/?t=Silphium+integrifolium
2 months ago
2 months ago
Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 327 miles (526 km)
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| Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
2 months ago
From the information sheet I was given at the library: "The Elkhorn Valley seventh grade art class of 2000 submitted designs for the window, and Kyle Hasebroock's spiral design was selected. Local stained glass artist Pam Ashburn took the design and created the window around it. She used cut agates to decorate the glass and included two viewers that make a kaleidoscope of the window when you view it through them."
Jeff
2 months ago