BRAN Report: Day Four

A rainbow to start Day 4

With it having rained all night long Michael declared straight away that we were not chancing gravel due to the possibilities of bad roads. He was part of the BRAN braintrust that came up with the gravel routes, so I took a lot of stock from his statement. I would have been disappointed, but this meant I would get to ride roads that I had already ridden before. Roads I was on 31 years ago during the "Race Against Death Tour", which you can read all about by clicking the link. (There are two tours documented there.)

So, we ate a breakfast there in town and then headed out slowly, but this time it was just Jayme, Michael, and myself. Residents of Verdigre sent us off with a blessing as they said "we brought the rains" and we were welcome back anytime! Ha! Apparently it had not rained there for quite some time.

The day wouldn't be all that long and at 40 miles, it was only five miles less than the gravel route. 

We started out heading to Niobrara. This was where I met Jo back during my tour in '95 and she worked at a gas station there where we stopped for resupply. Much to my surprise, the building was still there. It was kind of a surreal feeling to look upon that place knowing I had been there once long ago. 

The day was cool-ish, overcast, but a bit breezy. Nothing terrible. We were enjoying the ride as much as possible being stuck out on the road. There was a bit of faffing around in Niobrara looking for a coffee shop but eventually we just rode onward. 

BRAN barns for Jason

The Niobrara River (Yes, the roads are pink here)

The convenience store in Niobrara I had been to 31 years before. 

After Niobrara things were pretty mundane. It was essentially a nice jaunt into Crofton, Nebraska. Michael and Jayme bailed on me and did the last gravel section after all. I did not consider it  because I had the paved route called up on my gps unit and I did not want to suffer issues when trying to shuffle back to the gravel route again. 

So, I rode into Crofton all alone on pavement. It was hilly! Fortunately the wind was not a factor. I was able to bomb the downhills and the Black Mountain Cycles MCD was stable and felt great.  

One of the final hills was a long one, much like the climbs are out this way, and I was able to hit 46.8mph, my fastest recorded speed on the trip. That was fun, actually, and not scary at all. The lack of winds probably attributed to this. 

Crofton was reached and there was an option to go North to Yankton, South Dakota and back to bag a century (100 miles) , but I was not interested especially after the day before and having been so hot. By the way, it wasn't much cooler by this point in the day either. Instead of doing the loop, I stopped at a big convenience store and grabbed something to eat quick before heading into town and to find who knows what. 

A rider munching on a burger and Fritos there told me to make sure I stopped at Crofton's "Welcome Tent" at the bottom of the hill in town and try out the milk. I thought this was a curious welcome to town, and so I checked this out. Turns out this was in the park where we were to camp as well, so this worked out just fine. 

A little something I had in the park at Crofton. This town had a great set up for us!

 The milk, as it turns out, was from Burbach's Dairy, a local farm where dairy products come out of and are distributed to many Eastern Nebraska grocers for resale. The samples in Crofton were excellent. These were regular milk, chocolate milk, orange milk, and cotton candy flavored milk. I had the orange and cotton candy flavors. Highly recommended! I'll have more to say about Burbach's tomorrow. 

I grabbed a brat and Fritos with some macaroni salad at one of the booths set up in the park and ate. Then I saw Jayme and started talking with him about the day and what we were going to do for the evening meal. We were standing by a towering cottonwood tree and the band stand was near by. There was a guitar player singing songs and a large crowd of folks were sitting in the shade enjoying the afternoon. Just then, Jayme jumped around and stifled an outburst, "What the....?"

It was raining ducks in the park at Crofton!

 A tiny duckling fell to the ground with a thud besides two others, I assumed these had also fallen to the ground. We barely had time to vocalize our disbelief when another fell, and another! Someone nearby said these were wood ducks. Where was Momma Duck?! What the heck is going on here! 

Eventually nine ducks were on the ground in two groups. One heading down the hill and the other getting closer to the tree trunk of the tree they jumped ship from. The crowd nearby was aghast and worry grew that these two groups of ducklings would be permanently separated. However; the ducklings were whistling and tweeting which was picked up on by the downhill traveling group which then made a wide arc back to join the other siblings of theirs. 

The last I saw the ducklings were all in one group, Momma Duck was spotted flying anxiously around the park, and a county conservation officer had been called. Hopefully the raining ducks of Crofton were safely reunited with Momma Duck! 

Spaghetti dinner was what was for supper that evening. I also found out we were supposed to visit the dairy farm of the Burbach's the following day. I was excited to see the cows! The tent was set up by a drainage ditch in the park which kind of separated the tent city into two parts. Fortunately no serious rains were forecast for the evening, or I'd have been more wary of the ditch than I was. 

While Crofton had an excellent set up and a wonderful welcome for the riders, there was one thing I found which was rather strange. There was no potable water for the riders in the park at all. Crofton citizens placed water coolers full of plastic water bottles near the park rest rooms for anyone to take. An okay solution, I guess, considering the circumstances, but I'd rather avoid plastic water bottles if at all possible.  Unfortunately, Crofton was not the only place where plastic bottles of water were offered like candy to riders.