Day 39 - June 11 - Enders SRA, NE to Holyoke, CO - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

June 11, 2023

Day 39 - June 11 - Enders SRA, NE to Holyoke, CO

Inside Colorado

Ed’s Story

What a night!!! Got in my tent about 7:30 PM last night because the rain kept starting and stopping at our campsite. Additionally, the storm front in the area was bringing pretty strong winds. John suggested I push my tent stakes in a little further in the event of really high winds so it’s not blown away.

We stayed with Mike and Amy, our Warmshowers hosts, in Franklin NE. When we were talking to Len and Kirby we mentioned that Mike and Amy were wonderful hosts. While in my tent but before sleeping I get a text from Mike that Len and Kirby had shown up and they were 2 more wonderful guys. That would have been another 100 mile day for them.

The internet signal was bad for Verizon there so I couldn’t even listen to my daily podcast. I eventually fell asleep. I woke up about 10 pm and my tent felt like it was going to take off. The winds were that strong. The whole tent was buffeting. Rain was starting and stopping. I was glad I listened to John and pushed the stakes in further or I would have been chasing my tent, who knows how far.

It finally calmed down throughout the night and I did fall back asleep. It was quite an experience. There was not much rain with the storm, just high winds.

Most of the partygoers left the area where we were camped when the storm hit. There were quite a few people camping there when we left though.

Our destination for today is Holyoke, Colorado, and we were to stay at an RV park here. I was able to look up the park online. It turns out that it was at the fairgrounds. Further research showed a dirt surface. Some comments confirmed that it was dirt, and it got really muddy after it rained.

Well, it did rain there last night. And it turned out that the forecast is for more rain tonight while we were to be camped there. I found a nice motel online, and when we got up I discussed staying there with John. At our first stop in Imperial, Nebraska, I made hotel reservations.

We had a fairly strong headwind the first 10 miles to Imperial, the wind being from the northeast. We turned west once or twice and had a tail wind. Shortly after we left our first stop, we headed west almost continuously and had a push.

I always wondered where all the storm troopers in the Star Wars movies came from. Now I know.

We continued riding heading west toward Holyoke. This is a big farming area. There are barns and grain bins everywhere.

You could see these bins from a distance. Just imagine if they were full of beer or bourbon. What a feast we could have.

For the last couple days, I have been talking about the amount of climbing we have been doing as we need to reach 5000 feet of elevation at Fort Collins.

The GPS shows our elevation profile at the bottom of the screen. It has shown the same thing last two days and I expect it to show the same thing the next few days. A constant increase in elevation.

The route turned from west to more north west. This caused the winds that were giving us a push now to be pushing on our side. It slowed me down. As we entered Colorado the road turned west again.

Saying goodbye to Nebraska, the Cornhusker state. This is just one of several nicknames for the state. Several others are the Tree Planters state and the Bug Eaters state.

If you couldn’t tell by the road signs that you have entered Colorado, you could definitely tell by the roads. I do not think they worked on US 6 in Colorado in this part of the state for years. The road had many holes; the type of asphalt was different in many places; and the shoulders may or may not have had rumble strips. Additionally, if rumble strips existed, they were not always consistent.

Here’s one example of the type of rumble strips we saw on the highway in Colorado. In some places they were so smooth you couldn’t even tell they were there.

In addition to the road being worn, we saw a sign for a historical marker. When we got there, the sign was so worn you couldn’t even tell what it said. I hope they treat other parts of the state highway system better than here.

We finally arrived in Holyoke (before noon) and found a coffee bar/bakery/restaurant. We talked to several people outside of the restaurant before we went in. They were all interested in our journey. One individual even asked for our journal information so I texted it to him. Another happy follower.

We asked about restaurants in the area, especially with today being Sunday. We were told good luck and most things were closed on Sunday. We located a Mexican restaurant, Don Carlos Bar and Grill, just down from the bakery. They are open until 8 PM tonight. I guess we’ll be eating Mexican for dinner, which is fine because it’s been a while since we’ve had it.

We worked our way down to the Golden Plains Motel where we are staying. It is a nice place. The manager at the desk said that four other groups of touring cyclists stayed here over the past two weeks. It is nice to be able to roll your bike in and out of your room without going through the lobby or fighting with elevators.

Our room is on the far end of the wing to the left. Noticed the grassy area where there are two picnic tables and a charcoal grill you could use if desired.

There’s our room number 129. Big enough to store both bikes inside.

When I checked in, I asked the manager about laundry facilities. She said the hotel did not have any but we were allowed to share the facilities in the apartment complex behind the motel. Cha-ching. Laundry is done and it cost only a dollar each to wash and dry.

Tomorrow is a 48 mile road to Sterling CO. Even though the mileage tomorrow is the same as today, we may not be as lucky with the arrival time. Current forecast is rain starting and lasting most of the day tomorrow. If it does rain, at least it is cool enough that we can wear our rain gear without sweating inside.

We have already checked out the RV park we are going to. They have enough vacancies and a call to the park indicated we can just show up, go to the office and get a site. It’s good that a reservation is not needed. If it rains as much as they forecast, and it’s raining when we get there, we may spring for another motel.

Just as a note, the skies were cloudy most of the day during the ride. As I sit outside dictating the journal, the sun is coming out and it feels blessedly warm.

Until tomorrow, happy biking

John’s Story

In industry there is a thing called non-destructive testing (NDT). It’s used to inspect and evaluate materials and components without destroying their serviceability. Last night we had the opposite of NDT when a storm rolled through about 10 or 11 PM. The winds I’m guessing were at least 50 to 60 mph and gusty and sustained for probably 20 minutes or so. Our tents were knocked around pretty well but stood up to the storm admirably. I was glad we went through this test successfully. It’s a little bit like walking out onto the wing of an airplane and jumping up and down on it really hard to make sure it doesn’t break off before you fly the plane.

It won’t be long before we are in bear country. We have our bear hang kits ready to go. What you see in the picture below is a simulated bear hang which we have been using through the eastern part of the United States. We call it a raccoon hang. Since the night in Indiana when the raccoons fighting over our food stored in rat sacks tied to the picnic table kept us awake, we have been hanging our kitchen panniers from trees or picnic table shelters or whatever presented itself. This was last night at Enders SRA. I was a little worried after the storm blew through that mine might’ve come off the tree since it was toward the end of a branch, but it made it.

I was a bit concerned with the bags hanging so low, in a crowded park, and near a heavily trafficked path that it might not have passed the people hang test.

When we parted ways with Len and Kirby in McCook two days ago, Len gave us his bear spray. We had not considered carrying bear spray because it is more likely to be needed while trail hiking in the back country than in established campgrounds or along the road, but now we have it. I look forward to giving it away at some point to someone traveling in the opposite direction once we have moved out of bear country.

Today’s flower pic. These plants were two or three feet tall.

We saw several places along the route today that looked to be recently flooded. There were storms all around us last night (our storm was just the feather edge of a much larger one), and it looks as though some places received significant rainfall. This is something we do not want to happen under our tents.

I wonder how often this field floods like this. In the Nebraska Sandhills there are ephemeral lakes that appear and disappear depending on the weather. This might be like one of them.

In the back of the convenience store in Imperial there were four or five old guys chatting with one another over coffee. They quizzed me about our trip. One of them (let’s call him Bob) told me that he used to be a pretty heavy duty bike rider, but not anymore, as he patted his hefty stomach. When I told them that today’s plan called for 48 miles of riding, one of the other fellows (let’s call him Bill) commented that it seemed like a very conservative distance. Bob came to my defense when he turned to Bill and said, “Bill, if you think it’s that easy, why don’t you go plant your butt on a bike and try it.“😂

We are prepared to carry extra water with us when we ride into areas where finding it may be problematic. I am carrying two 2L Platypus collapsible bottles. Most of our ride today was the 38 miles between Imperial, Nebraska, and Holyoke, Colorado. There are no towns along the stretch of US 6. At Imperial I filled up one of my collapsible bottles and strapped it to my rack.

That is, I strapped it to my rack after I found the straps, which I had accidentally thrown into the trash bin outside the convenience store along with the wrapper of the honey bun that I bought there. I spent at least 10 minutes going into and out of the convenience store, up and down the aisles, into and out of the restroom, looking under the counters, quizzing people about what they might’ve seen on the floor. Finally, on my third trip into the back room with the old guys, one of them told me he saw me throw something into the trash bin outside. It was then I remembered I had unwrapped the honey bun and tossed the wrapper outside, absentmindedly tossing the straps along with it. Insert dope slap here. To be honest, early on Ed said you might have thrown it in the trash can.

The day was so cool we never needed the extra water we schlepped most of the way to Holyoke. In those 48 miles I only drank one bottle of orange juice and 1/3 of a bottle of water. Better to be prepared than not, though

Nebraska farm yard art. A metal dog silhouette is sneaking up on the giant wind vane.

The last of this sort of thing we’ll see for a while, I suppose.

Stanley, maybe you can get a discount on your bulk corn or wheat purchases here.

I remember the first time I ever saw the Great Plains. It was the summer of 1977 between my first and second years of graduate school. Carol and I took a road trip from Mississippi to Colorado to go camping. We drove west from St. Louis across Missouri, Kansas and Colorado. I remember seeing the “amber waves of grain” and the rolling hills with long sight lines to the far horizons for the first time. A lot of the scenery the last week or so has evoked memories of that trip. Today, however, was mostly “flat”, meaning we couldn’t really tell we were going uphill except for the little extra effort it took to pedal at a certain speed.

Colorado at last! This seems like a psychological milestone. Surely the amber waves of grain will be transitioning to snow covered peaks sometime soon, but not here.

This is the Welcome to Colorful Colorado sign seen on edge. Is Colorado to the left or to the right? Who can tell?

There was a major milestone today. When we returned from our dinner at the only restaurant open in Holyoke on a Sunday evening, our cumulative odometers rolled over to 2,000 miles. Surely we must be close to halfway across the country.

Tomorrow promises to be a very rainy day transitioning into a stormy day. All my rain gear is sitting at the top of one of my panniers ready for tomorrow morning. We will almost certainly be spending tomorrow night in a motel again if the weather forecast proves reliable.

Reprise Day 29 Near Rocheport, MO

Remember this shot from Day 29? I offered an Honorary Road Angel Award to someone who could identify these features for me.

We have a winner! My good friend Helen, a structural geologist whom I have known for at least 40 years, has helped me confirm that these are stylolites. It is rare (the first time for me anyway) to see these features in three dimensions like this. You’ve seen them all your lives in the marble floors and walls of restrooms in old buildings. I won’t bore you with any geological explanations. If you want to know more just Google stylolite. Helen, the award is yours!

Pernell Roberts strikes again!

The Water Is Wide

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 2,072 miles (3,335 km)

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Sarah GordonYay 2000 miles! 🎉
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