July 29, 2024
Day 15 - ending at Barneston, NE
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I was up this morning at 5:45am, pushing back concerns that I'm not getting reports done. Of course it hadn't rained overnight and was a pretty nice morning. Last night the couple that let me camp at this spot told me that breakfast is available in town at the Fox Hole Tavern. I was packed up leaving for town at 8:03am.
After a few pictures, I arrived for breakfast at 8:15am. One of the waitresses apparently saw me taking pictures of the place. She came out and offered to take one with me in it. All the booths inside The Fox Hole Tavern have outlets, and they have wifi for customer use, so when I wasn't eating I was uploading pictures. This was another inexpensive meal. Eggs, ham, toast, French toast, orange juice, and coffee all for $10! Outside at 10:57am, a woman walking by turned around and gave me a tangerine from the bag she was carrying. A stop at Casey's for Gatorade and I was on my way out of town heading south at 11:09am.
Today's destination is the Barneston Trailhead for Chief Standing Bear Trail. Today I had flat roads and no wind. Perfect, except the high today is supposed to be 96F.
By-way-of gravel roads I arrived in DeWitt right at noon. 7.9 miles. I took a break at their downtown park to eat the tangerine. In the afternoon I was able to listen to KUCB, 91.1 MHz, National Public Media out of Lincoln.
At 2:17pm I arrived at Homestead National Historical Park. Decided I'd spend no more than an hour there. Admission was free, and the cool air inside felt nice. I was pleased with the displays. I think they did a good job noting the injustices done to Native Americans and also the hardships that the homesteaders endured. The outside of the building is interesting. The roof is shaped like a plow.
I was back in the heat at 3:14pm. Beatrice wasn't too far away, but it was a little hilly the way I went to get there. I rode through Riverside Park and was downtown at 4:08pm. I wanted a shake, so diverted to Dairy Queen in town. With my shake in hand, I checked for places to eat in Barneston. The one place in town is not open today, so I ordered two bacon cheeseburgers for supper with my shake. It was so cold in that DQ that I was looking forward to getting back outside!
Chief Standing Bear Trail's northern end is on the south side of Beatrice, and I was there at 5:14pm. (I see now on the map I picked up that the trail actually starts at the center of town.) Nineteen miles to go to get to Barneston. It was so much fun to be on a trail for a change, especially being on this one. The trailheads are amazing. They are relatively new. I passed Holmesville at 6:20pm, and Blue Springs at 7:05pm. I'd used the phone too much today, so had to rig the phone up for charging from the bicycle accessories battery as I rode.
Sunset was around 8:40pm this evening. Looked like I'd arrive at Barneston about then. It is so pleasant and peaceful this time of day. There were an amazing number of dragonflies all around me. They are so much fun to watch.
I bicycled past the west side of Barneston to arrive at their trailhead at 8:48pm. There's a pavilion here with information boards, as there is at all the trailheads for this trail. This pavilion has electricity, and later I discovered there's also a water fountain. The lights of the pavilion were a big help in getting the tent set up after I'd sent out my evening report. As seems to happen, at this point I was more interested in getting some sleep than working on reports. So I shut the lights off at 10:40pm. More trail riding ahead for me tomorrow, but most of that will be on the Blue River Rail Trail.
Jeff
Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 510 miles (821 km)
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