May 29, 2018
Falls City NE: 2 Beaucerons and a Jailbird
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That's a photo of Ron in an old jail cell that is on display at the impressive town arboretum. Ron insists it's "arbortoreum" but he's from the backwoods in Missouri.
Our original plan was to spend one night in Falls City and to check out Indian Cave State Park on May 29, but the Weather Gods issued a re-direct. If we left at 6am we could probably get to Indian Cave in under-80-degree temperatures. But we probably wouldn't feel like doing much exploring in above-90 heat, which would be most of the rest of the day. It just wasn't worth the ride up a steep hill, so we decided to stay one more night at our $5/night campsite at Stanton Lake.
Despite a harrowing lightning storm during the night and a 4am dash to a park shelter to wait out the threat of death by electrical storm, we woke up feeling refreshed. As we were moving the tent to a sunny spot to dry off, we met Brian and his 2 Beaucerons, Juko and Cici. They are at the start of a long camping van journey that will take them across the US and Canada and then down the PanAm highway to Argentina.
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5 years ago
Afterward, we rode about a mile to Terri Jo's Family Restaurant for breakfast. A twenty-something guy at a nearby table was having a phone conversation with Chase Bank about his wallet and driver's license being stolen. We're normally cautious about giving people money, but his tone of concern seemed legit so we gave him $20. His car was loaded with all his belongings and he said he was on his way from Kentucky to Washington state to make a living as a musician. Hopefully he'll make it and find a way to replace his license!
On our way back to Stanton Lake we stopped at the Police Station/City Hall to pay our camping fee as there were no fee envelopes available at the campground. It's nice to be in a small town where everyone knows everyone and, of course you can pay your camping fee at the police station.
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5 years ago
Back at Stanton Lake again, Ron chased down the groundskeeper on his turbo-speed riding lawnmower. If we ever get sick of these bicycles, the modern-day riding lawnmower might be a great alternative for slow travel ... Just like Alvin Straight in the Straight Story (if you haven't seen this movie, check it out!). Anyhow ... Ron checked to make sure the groundskeeper wasn't planning to mow our tent site. And then it was off to the library.
We've only been to 2 small town libraries so far, and Falls City wins the prize for excellent place to spend an afternoon. Ron made a beeline to the Technology Room to update Undaunted Porridge and explore route alternatives and I checked out an exhibit of Jeremy Bower's storm photography. After looking at a few photos I'm pretty sure the storm we had last night was just a lot of cloud-to-cloud strikes, and not the cloud-to-cloud-to-ground strikes that seek out weary cycle tourists.
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Happy with our survival of mid-west heat and storms, I found a cozy nook near an outlet and plugged in my phone to organize photos and update Monefy, our expense tracking app. This exercise was a good reminder of the cost benefits of campgrounds and grocery stores.
Lodging cost per night:
Campground average $8.50
Hotel average $104.00
Cost per meal for 2 people:
Restaurant: $22.00 (not bad)
Grocery store: $6.00 (but much better)
Speaking of which, we wrapped up our outing with a stop at Sunmart, a great store with an ample selection of produce and ... cookies!!
For our second and final night at Stanton Lake we decided to spice up the evening and relocate our tent to a handsome picnic shelter. Thunderstorms were likely again, we were the only tent campers in the park, and the number of other visitors was sparse. The only other occupants in the shelter were a family of robins. After chatting with a few friendly people who were walking around the lake, we settled into the Hubba Hubba for a mostly restful (except for another scary thunderstorm) night.
Falls City was a great place for a lazy day!
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| Comment on this entry | Comment | 5 |
I'm enjoying following along. Let's hear it for short days in hot weather.
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