Day 26 (Tuesday 11-15-2011): Osceola to Omaha, NE (and then to Philly via bus!)

The surprisingly rolling run-in to Omaha

So, over a year after the fact and I finally return to finish off my reporting about my 1/2 XC trip...  Sorry for the delay folks!  I figure I'll wrap this trip up, then work backwards on some of my other biking adventures like my recent Texas/Oklahoma trip, various summer trips up to NYC and beyond, possibly some bike racing trip adventures, and my month long vacation to Tenerife and mainland Europe.

Day 25 (Monday 11-14-2011): Holdrege to Osceola

Not too much of note happened today. I had around 220 miles to go to get to Omaha in two days so I needed to think about how I wanted to break down the mileage per day.  I was hoping to get as much knocked out today as feasible to make tomorrow as stress-free as possible.  After waking up, eating some breakfast, and bidding adieu to Tim and Bev, I set out on the road shortly after 8AM.  After an hour or so I was back on Route 30 headed north west. In the afternoon I biked through Grand Island which was a descent sized city (with close to 50,000 residents, about twice the population North Platte).

Day 24 (Sunday 11-13-2011): North Platte to Holdrege

The rain had stopped and the winds had died down overnight and when I awoke things looked pretty nice out.  On my way out of town I ate breakfast at the now open Daylight Donuts which did not seem like a hopping place unlike a lot of doughnut and coffee places back on the east coast.  Today's journey was going to bring me to my fourth and final Warmshowers household on my trip. Tim and Bev in Holdrege were going to put me up for the night so I had about a 100 mile journey today.  Their place was a little out of my direct, Route 30 path to Omaha, but it was be nice to shower, sleep indoors, and meet some new people before I concluded my journey.

Day 23 (Saturday 11-12-2011): NE 92 & US-385 intersection to North Platte

The start of my day on Route 92

A half hour or so later

Cornfield in the morning time

A lot more decent pictures today so I figured I'd dump a bunch of them here for my reader's enjoyment. Sorry about the formatting of the post - Blogger doesn't really allow much in the way of fine tuning how you place images in your post, especially when you are trying to incorporate quite a few of them in with text at the same time. Today was one of my if not my longest ride to date:  136+ miles.  I started the day pretty early and set off shortly after sunrise (which provided some nice photo opportunities).

Day 22 (Friday 11-11-2011): Corrington Pioneer Park to NE-92 Scenic and US-385 interchange

Welcome to Nebraska

Four in one auto (bike) route

Today I was set to enter Nebraska and see the only two real sights that I had planned out for my travels through the state - Scotts Bluff and Chimney Rock.  After packing up my gear (much easier without setting up my tent), I biked back through Corrington and a few miles later I was in Nebraska.  I spent all day on Route 26 which, for the second half of the day, was also NE-92 Scenic.  NE-92 roughly follows the same routes that four historical routes took across the area:  the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Pioneer Trail, the California Trail, and the Pony Express.

Day 21 (Thursday 11-10-2011): I-25 onramp to Corrington Pioneer Park

Nightfall near Corrington

Well, yet another morning of awaking to the sound of human activity outside my tent.  This time it was the rumbling of what sounded like two diesel pickup trucks. I hoped it wasn't the property owner as I wasn't exactly sure if I was camped on the right-of-way or the actual private property (it was outside the fence but still quite a ways from the road and the entrance and exit ramps to I-25). I figured it was really too late to worry about it now so I finished waking up, ate the rest of the Walmart doughnuts from yesterday inside my tent (it was quite windy out last night so I set up my tent to block some of the wind), packed up my gear, and exited the tent.  Turns out two hunters with ATVs loaded on the backs of their trucks were about to go hunting on the property.  There were signs posted saying hunting was allowed, but to please contact the property owner before doing so.  Obviously they didn't mind that I was camped there (but might have thought it somewhat strange), but until I got out of my tent I had no idea who was idling their truck right outside my tent for a good fifteen or twenty minutes.

Day 20 (Wednesday 11-9-2011): Rte 20/26 rest stop to I-25 onramp

So, I got an early rise on Wednesday to some knocking on the door.  I thought it might have been someone looking to use the restroom and ignored it but a minute later I heard keys rattling in the lock.  Uh-oh.  The door opened and a custodian looked in, said it wasn't a hotel (Yeah, I know!) and closed it again.  I quickly got up, packed up the rest of my stuff, and left.  The guy was waiting outside to clean but was actually quite friendly and we chatted for a little while.  He said he's seen other people doing the same thing, including a young guy who was trying to warm up after riding his motorcycle in cold, rainy weather wearing nothing but jeans and a shirt for protection from the elements.  It turned out that the custodian has woken me up at like 5:30 so by the time I got rolling it was just turning light out.  The earliest start to a day of riding so far!

Day 19 (Tuesday 11-8-2011): Riverton Motel 6 to Route 20/26 rest stop

So I do remember what happened today as well when riding and to tell you the truth, it wasn't much.  Wyoming is a lot more boring than I thought.  For some reason I thought Wyoming was mainly forested parks.  Nope - mainly dry, desert-like terrain and endless roads.  Don't get me wrong though - it wasn't bad riding at all - it was pretty flat, the temperature was perfect, and I was able to cruise along at a decent clip without headwinds or mountain ranges to slow me down.  Monday night I had cleaned some clothes in the sink (if you roll them up in a towel and and twist tightly, it will dry them most of the way).  Without really being tired from only about two and a half hours of riding, and doing a LOT of research and planning on determining the best way to get myself, my bike, and all my gear home, I never actually went to sleep the previous night.  However, I never really hit a wall like I do when I've pulled them in the past for something not very exciting such as finishing up all the details, layouts, and printing of a studio project.  I decided it wasn't worth the risk of going to bed for a few hours and sleeping through not only checkout, but another forecasted nice weather day of riding so I stayed up after I finally decided on going the Megabus route and mailing my bike back from Omaha, NE.