We woke up in our tent in Stromsburg (Swede Capital of Nebraska) at the Buckley Park. The grass had been soft and comfortable for me, and the night pleasantly cool.
We went to the gas station up the road in town to get some breakfast. Muffins and donuts for me, and chocolate milk. There were two older gentlemen, one of whom was named Larry, seated at the tables as well, one talking languorously about the past and the other halfway listening. They were quite caricatures of old mid-westerners. Lots of s'poses, talk of punch and some sort of get together (but this was their wives business and they were not to be involved). I overheard them mention a 30% chance of rain. Of course, after not too long the gentleman who was half listening to his companion asked us where we had biked from and we talked a bit, about flat tires and the trip so far. I waved to him as we headed on our way, and not long later he gave us a honk and a wave further down the road in town.
The morning was smooth, and the wind wasn't bad. It was much more calm. We passed over the Platte River. At some point during this day, we would reach 1,000 miles ridden. We estimated this to be approximately when we entered the town of Albion. Just as we were entering town, we received our very first derisive comment. We have met only nice people for the most part thus far, and most drivers have been respectful. Only a few have honked or sped by us, and of those that honked, a few waved back at us to show they were being friendly. Sometimes we also get thumbs up, or waves. So we've been very pleasantly surprised, and fortunate. As we approached the stop sign into Albion, a pick up truck passed us filled with youngish men. The passenger had his window down, and shouted "get a job" as they passed. I, naturally, gave them the middle finger. (If you know me, you may find that surprising! But enough time running or biking will harden you against folks that shout). So that was very disappointing, especially at the marker of our 1,000th mile. As a result, I don't look especially favorably on the town of Albion NE! Although to be fair, I'm sure there are many nice people there and we were just unlucky to meet the rotten eggs. Young people, my age and slightly younger in particular, can really be obnoxious. Even as a relatively young person, I often think so! They often like to overuse their mouth, and underuse their brain. But perhaps that is just my inner old person talking. There are many delightful young people.
After lunch, it had become cooler still. The skies were hesitantly grey. We continued on through increasingly rolling hills, into small valleys of deep green corn that spread on forever. A sea of corn. There were Cargill signs a plenty. It became cloudy and dim enough that I took off my sunglasses (which I dislike anyways, except that they are a necessity when biking all day. I think sunglasses make folks, in particular cyclists, look arrogant and so I am bashful wearing them).
I thought back to the morning, remembering the 30% chance of rain. For me, if there is even a 1% chance of rain, it is a guarantee. So I had been apprehensive and anticipating some form of shower in the afternoon. The skies were getting greyer, and the air cooler. The hills became more dramatically rolling, and because we had no shoulder on highway 91 it was difficult to know when a car (or more often, large truck) was coming up the other side. When we would crest the hill, we could see far ahead as the hills rolled up and down into the distance.
With less than 10 miles to Spalding, I caught a flicker of lightening. We continued hesitantly on. Then we saw more flashes across the sky, and being in such open and exposed grass land, we knew we could not stay on the road. That was asking for trouble. Laurel has in fact seen lightning strike close to her while part of an undergraduate research experience at University of Nebraska a couple years back. We were both thinking of this, and of the strong storms we associate with this part of the country. We pulled off the road and walked our bikes into the grass and a little ways onto the side of the hill we had been in the process of ascending. Here we tried to spy the sky behind the hill and the clouds moving in from the north west above us. I suggested we take out the blue tarp for the tent, and just wait it out in the grass. It seemed to be moving quite quickly, with the thunder and lightning growing closer even as we had paused. This made us feel that it would likely pass by fairly quickly. So it was. The lightning and storm was not especially strong, but it did downpour slightly and then rain for perhaps 20 minutes or 30 minutes while we waited under the tarp, tucked into the grass of the hillside. We wear sitting in the grass by our bikes, beneath the bright blue tarp close over our heads (still wearing helmets), listening to the pitter patter and watching the grey of the skies and listening to the low rumbles. Laurel called home to her mother while we waited, to wish her a happy birthday and also to have her monitor the radar. It seemed that there was a system headed through, then a gap possibly followed by another system to come later. This was literally the only rain on the whole map, just where we were. I remembered telling my family, due to my penchant for rainy whether, that in order to track me they could just look at the weather radar. So it was!
The rain slowed, and the skies brightened again. This encouraged us that we could make it the 6 miles to spalding. The road there was again so rolling, both of us were very apprehensive of causing an accident. There was not a lot of traffic, but there could be multiple vehicles at once.
We had hoped to meet an anti-keystone organizer named Jane Kleeb in Spalding at about 3:00. Jane Kleeb began Bold Nebraska, an organization opposing the keystone XL pipeline. Herself and many landowners in Nebraska have worked immensely hard to stop the pipeline and are largely responsible for preventing its construction thus far through Nebraska. They have also managed to get the route changed from its proposed route directly through the sand hills. I have so much respect for their work, and feel so inspired by her dedication, experience and expertise. I contacted her during one of our last days in Kansas, and wish I had contacted her sooner. She wasn't able to meet us in Spalding due to her schedule that day, unfortunately, but we made tentative plans to meet in O'Neil the next day.
Because of the rain it was now surprisingly cool, almost chilly, and I thought something warm like hot chocolate would be a good break before we tried our last 20 miles to Ericson. Originally, I had hoped planned to stop in Spalding for the night and we would camp there, putting our mileage for the day in the upper 70s. However, Laurel was able to get in touch with her aunt previously, who happens to have a cabin in Ericson which fit well with our route, except that it would bump us up to 93 miles. Reaching spalding, our legs felt up to it, but the skies had other plans.
Spalding is a very small, and we didn't see many options for hot chocolate. Stopping into an icecream shop we had thought was closed, they suggested Kealy's bar and cafe across from the gas station. When we entered, there was a bar, tables, and some older men (some in cowboy hats) around a round table playing cards. There was a middle aged woman behind the counter, speaking to a cop whose prim uniform and friendly but competent demeanor reminded me strongly of Andy Griffith. We spoke with the cop, Jim, about our ride and nervousness for lack of shoulder, as well as some of the other men at tables. We ordered some fried food, as it was now about 3:30 and approaching 4. While we ate, it seems a new system of storms brewed. The waitress/owner showed us the radar on her phone, and we discussed what we should do. A man who we had spoken with, Dwight, who told us he had seen us on the road near York, urged against trying to bike before the storm. It was already drizzling outside. The waitress also seemed very apprehensive about us attempting to bike in the rain. If we were caught on the roads in the storm, there would be no visibility for one thing, but the storm itself could become dangerous. Weather out her is unpredictable. Dwight gave us his phone number in case we ran into trouble and offered to drive us the last 20 miles through the storm and after he left we continued to discuss. I felt it would be far too unsafe to risk biking in such weather. We could stay and camp in Spalding, but more severe weather was predicted for the night. We could play our luck against the skies, but this also seemed very unsafe. The waitress, Darleena, came back as offered to call her husband, who has a pickup, to drive us. Hoping that Laurel would not consider this to be "cheating" by not biking the final section, I laid out my thoughts. I felt tense, because I knew what I felt was the best decision for me-- accepting her offer for a ride -- but didn't know what Laurel might think. We decided, fortunately I feel, to accept the waitress's very kind offer. While we waited for her husband to finish some work and drive over, a group of old men and women gathered around another round table. Some of them asked us about our bikes, and we tried to explain to them that we had biked from Houston and were now strategizing what to do. This we had to repeat a few times, to a few different ladies and gentlemen at the table. It was quite a classic moment. One hard of hearing lady responded "Hastings?" (A town in Nebraska farther south), after we said Houston. An older man across from her said "No, HOUSTON." "Hastings?" "Houston." This went on, even as we were heard out the door. ("they biked in?" "They biked from Houston!?"). The waitress told us her husband would pull up to the corner. He recently had surgery and was somewhat frail as a result, so I did the hefting into the bed of the truck. I've gotten stronger, I can tell, because I was fairly easily able to lift our loaded down bikes! It was raining now, and we were all a little wet. I don't care so much about wet riding (though I don't like it) but just unsafe things like lightning. As we were loading up the bikes, the policeman pulled back up with his phone. I believe he had come back to find us, having seen the bad weather and not wishing us to ride in it . He said there was too much lightning, and probably thought we were a touch crazy. He was likely relieved to find we had relented and accepted a ride.
The husband, also older, was very kind and talked to us as he drove. He was really a pleasure to talk to. He even showed us where a horse farm was located, near to Ericson, in case we wanted to visit it in the morning. As we drove, it seemed we were just on the border of the rain, and there was even some sun! This made me feel that perhaps we could have biked it -- but I had to remind myself, we would likely have been caught right in it as it would take us longer on bikes. We told him about why we were biking the pipeline, and coincidentally right along 91 into Ericson there is a leveled, fenced area that was to be a power station before the proposed pipeline route was changed to farther east in order to avoid more of the sand hills. In fact, we were in the sand hills now! With the rain and the late afternoon sun glinting off of them, like so many grassy and multiform waves, they were stunning. Ah, so these were the sand hills, all around us.
He knew the area very well, and had no trouble locating the cabin next to Lake Ericson (more wet land appearing to me), which we might have struggled to find. We thanked him heartily, and he told us no trouble, just Nebraska hospitality.
Laurels aunts neighbor Sue had just arrived home and came to check on us. We put our stuff away, and she invited us over the watch the storm roll in and watch the weather on her little tv. She had a very darling chubby black lab named Teddy. She fed us apples and popcorn, and we talked together for some time about the ride and how it had been going, all sorts of things. A very lovely lady! I was tired by close to 8, and so we went back to Laurel's aunts cozy cabin -- very nice by the way, though furnished with perhaps a few too many animal skins for my taste -- showered and went to bed. More storms rolled in about 11pm, with flickers of lightning, but nothing serious.