Notes From The Tent: (But It Is Not A Tent!)

 Today was Day 5, Crofton to Wayne Nebraska. I’m writing to you dear readers from the comfortable cabin in Pork Belly Adventures trailer converted to a “bunk house” of sorts. There are five of these trailers being pulled across Nebraska and each has four spaces which can sleep up to four individuals each.

And they have AIR CONDITIONING! 

A few of the BRAN staff got to access one bunkhouse when a client could not use the whole week  Those BRAN guys offered me a chance to try it out tonight  Yes. It is better than being in a tent! 

Now, on to other things  Today’s ride was unique for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was an entirely gravel route which went through a couple small villages. There was pavement there, of course, but the vast majority of the roads were gravel. 

Secondly, the scenery changed from the big, rolling prairie vistas to the big, rolling row crop vistas! This looks like the Nebraska I know from gravel events  

I guess it was also a day to mark for visiting a dairy farm and massive Northwest winds which pushed us Southward to Wayne  

The dairy farm capped off a dreary, wet, morning of 23 miles where we got rained on for about twenty minutes. It is a family dairy farm belonging to the Burbach family. They let us sample their milk choices and tour their little processing plant. Plus we got to see baby cows! 

Then a cold front came through while we were there at the farm and the skies cleared out. The big Northwest winds which pushed took over and we were sailing down the roads. Well, until the roads pointed up, and down, and up, and rinse and repeat! 

The “grid” of gravel roads was coming back as we went further South. The gravel was very loose, small, like playground gravel, and it was hard to find “The Good Line”. 

We stopped in a town named Coleridge and we ate at Rodeos Bar and Grill which was excellent  

Then we rolled on. There was a minimum maintenance road on route with an out of commission bridge over a small creek  There a man met us on an ATV vehicle named Steve who told us a bit of the history of the immediate area. You don’t get adventure and history like this riding pavement. It was cool  

The rest of the afternoon was a big stretch South into Wayne over roller after roller. Nearly 50 miles again today  

I met my brother from another mother, MG and we hooked up with Jacquie Phelan and ate at a local Mexican restaurant. The conversation was deep and varied  

Tomorrow is another 55 miles. A day of mostly gravel from Wayne to a town named Oakland  It should be a good one, but you never know until you get out there  

More soon