June 27, 2013
High quality chocolate milk is a pretty big deal to me, OK?
Day 4: Humphrey, Nebraska to Ord, Nebraska
I woke up to the sound of thunder and rain, then got up and drank cup after cup of water from the bathroom faucet. After getting everything together I rode across the highway to the truck stop, where I ate a bag of crackers and drank some chocolate milk. Nothing else seemed appealing after last night's terrible meal.
As I rode towards the next small town, Lindsay, the sky grew darker and it started to rain. Traffic was lighter this morning, so I felt comfortable riding in the rain. Eventually, though, it started lightning, and I looked for a place to get off the road and out of the rain. I pulled into the driveway of a farm where a man stood in the yard, looking up at the sky. It was Mike Pfeiffer, pig farmer. He invited me to stand with him out of the rain in one of his buildings (which contained only machinery, not pigs, fortunately.)
We had an interesting conversation for the thirty minutes the storm lasted. Based on what Mike told me, I believe that if I were forced to choose, I would rather raise pigs than milk cows. But I really, really do not want to do either one.
When the rain was diminished to a drizzle I told Mike goodbye and rode to Lindsay, where I talked to some ladies at the small grocery store and had an ice cold Diet Pepsi. The power of the Pepsi is so much more magnified when I only have a few day, rather than ten.
Traffic on the formerly busy Highway 91 virtually disappeared as I rode to Albion, population about 1100, and the largest town I'd seen for days. It was big enough to have a Casey's, a Subway *AND* a Pizza Hut. I arrived at the Pizza Hut fifteen minutes before the lunch buffet started, and spent the time anxiously standing there waiting for them to bring the pizza out. I was joined by an extremely large man (as in, more than 400 lbs, probably), and as we jockeyed for position in the buffet line, he offered what later proved to be several surprisingly useful tips about road conditions on my route.
After confirmation that my usual appetite had returned, I got back on Highway 91, which was now virtually empty, and much flatter as well. Things were certainly looking up after yesterday's nightmare ride!
Tiny Spalding was yet another friendly little Nebraska town. I stopped in a grocery store and drank the best chocolate milk of the trip. I told the lady at the store that it was far, far superior to the
weak-assed 1% "Tru-Moo" I had been drinking lately, and she said she would be sure to pass it on to the local man who produces the chocolate milk. High quality chocolate milk is a pretty big deal to me, OK?
I felt tired after the pizza, the riding and the chocolate milk, so I
rode a block to the town park and slept for an hour under a shade tree.
Refreshed, I got back on the road. It was 23 miles to the next town,
Ericson. The scenery was starting to change now - fewer of the fields were planted in corn or beans, and it was mostly rolling grassland. Nice.
Ericson was mostly just a little store, where I had Gatorade and a Diet Pepsi. Gatorade is my medicine now, after my system got so out of wack yesterday. I sat at a table in the store and talked to a genial rancher for a while. When I mentioned I was planning to go to Colorado, he became slightly indignant about Coloradans because of the way they treated Cornhusker fans during some famous football game, or something. I have no knowledge of such sporting rivalries, and have no opinion on college sports in general, with one exception: Duke Sucks.
The last 24 miles to Ord were flat and easy and almost traffic-free. I stayed at an ok-but-nothing-special cheap motel, where the lady at the desk dared to scoff at my offered AAA card. The nerve of
her!
Dinner was a pizza from the Hut (again), delivered to my room. Bonus: The previous occupants of the room had left a nearly full twelve pack of ice cold Diet Pepsi in the room's refrigerator!
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Today's ride: 98 miles (158 km)
Total: 357 miles (575 km)
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