Gordon, Nebraska to Valentine, Nebraska

June 25th, 2016

The wind came through last night and blew the heat away We woke up to a cool morning and smoke in the air from a fire in Sundance, Wyoming.

The wind was blowing it away to the south so Bill won’t have to breathe it today. He left at 6:45 this morning to get miles in early and I followed about an hour and a half later. About 3 miles down the road I noticed the truck was down to 1/8 of a tank of gas. Turning around in the road was a slow process with a camper behind you, but there was no traffic and the mission was accomplished! LOL! I drove back to the Sinclair station in Gordon. There was a big dirt area to the right of it for  semi’s to turn around in, so I parked there and puzzled out how I was going to get in by the pumps. With a big swing, I managed to get in place and fill the tank. Now the tricky part…getting out. A few people left the convenience store parking lot in front and the person on the left moved too so I said a quick prayer and slowly went around all the pumps and parked vehicles, straight back into the big dirt area, turned around and…out! Woo! Hoo! I drove close to 30 miles before catching up to Bill. The wind is all over the place today and he was feeling it. He rested for a few minutes, refilled his water and was on his way. The next stop was Cody, another 24 miles away. Along the way, I saw quite a few cyclists going in the opposite direction. I would toot and wave and wondered what they were involved in. When I pulled in to Cody,

there were quite a few of them outside the local watering hole. So I overcame my shyness and hopped out of the truck and walked on over, cards in hand. As we talked, I found out they were doing the Tour De Nebraska. I snapped a picture and they were on their way once more.

I hope Bill gets to talk with them on his way here. Its 10:21 and only 71 degrees with a cool wind; what a relief from yesterday’s heat. Bill rolled up about an hour later and told me how he had met Rich Rodenburg, the head of the ride and told him what we doing...

(after an amusing conversation that you can read about on our Facebook page.) He invited us to have a burger with some of the cyclists and we shared stories and it was nice to sit and have conversation. We met Fred and Eunice (aka Susie :)) and heard about their history and their involvement with cycling.

We’ve even been invited to their banquet tonight in Valentine by a lovely lady who is married to a police officer! I asked if I needed to wear a dress and they all laughed and said, “This is Nebraska, jeans and t-shirts!” Good, I don’t think I could find my pantyhose in the camper anyway. LOL! They wouldn’t let us pay for our lunch and we were humbled by their kindness. We traveled on to the little town of Kilgore where I’m sitting on a little dirt road. I can see quite a ways down the road here so Bill should be able to spot me. After a fast refill, he took off and I drove on to Crookstone. I love how the old buildings look and took a few pictures of them and also some equipment.

Small town America is struggling for sure. People are hanging on hoping for better times. We are on the last leg of today’s journey at last. 11 more miles to Valentine and we are done. When we arrived, we went over to the Fairgrounds where the cyclists were having their banquet. There were hundreds of bicycles outside so we knew we were in the right place.

The friends we had met at lunch found us and invited us to sit with them. We had been looking for them, but didn’t see them since there were about 400 people there.

We enjoyed the company, the meal, and watching their awards ceremony. Rich Rodenburg then invited Bill up to say a few words and he told them what we were doing.

We had met two police officers so gave them patches and coins and thanked them for their service. Bill then surprised Rich by giving him a coin also. Since the T-shirts were marked down to half price, we went over to buy a couple. Bill was going out to get some cash out of his bicycle bag when a man stopped him and said he wanted to buy the shirts for us.

He told us he was also a police officer and appreciated what we were doing. We got choked up a little and thanked him and also thanked him for what he does as a police officer. On the way back to the truck, we saw a Trek bicycle that looked just like the one Bill had 27 years ago! We reminisced for a few minutes and I got a picture of it.

Then it was back to the Wacky West Campground for cool showers and rest. Sunday we’ll be catching up the blog, Facebook page, pictures, and doing cleaning and laundry. Back on the road on Monday! Thank-you for reading.

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