7/21-Finally! A Day Below 100!

In fact, it was significantly below 100! When I started this morning at 6:45 it was 67 degrees! Almost, dare I say, chilly! And it only got up to the mid 80s.

I got up at 5:30. That’s a little too early because it’s still dark this far west in the Central Time Zone (it also stays light pretty late making it hard to go to sleep). At the point when I took this sunrise photo, I already had most everything packed up. 

Today there were numerous towns, one about every 10 miles or less. 

Next town…Long Pine

Today was again playing the game of which side is better. Particularly if the gravel was red. For some reason, the red gravel is more thick than the grey gravel. On the grey sections, it was fast. Very few soft spots. The section to Long Pine was mostly red. 

I crossed Long Pine Creek on a long high trestle. 

Long Pine Creek comes from a nearby Spring. It supplies all the water to the town. 

On the trestle, I met Lena. She was out walking her two dogs. She said she moved to Long Pine because of all the trees. I told her I was from the Pacific Northwest, and I understood trees. 

This morning, I think because it was so much cooler, there were rabbits everywhere.

Run little bun bun run!

I also saw this example of Americana. 

The next town was Bassett. By then I was ready for a snack. I found the market, and got a chocolate milk, a banana, and a danish. I went back to the trail to eat it. 

Each town has two trail signs, one as you enter, and one as you leave. The mileage to the next town is reflected in the distance it takes to get from one end of town to the other end. 

Once again I saw another turtle on the trail. This one was a bit bigger. 

Howdy trail turtle!

The trail to Newport, the next town, was through wide open spaces. 

Notice the red gravel. Slower going!

In Newport, the route guide said to check out the Pool Hall. 

Always open!

With an actual pool table!

And snacks for trail users! I had a lemonade. 

The gravel from Newport to the next town of Stuart was back to fast grey gravel. So nice to be able to look around!

There wasn’t much to Stuart, so I cruised on through. Next up was Atkinson. This was a much bigger town. I was ready for some lunch. Guess what they had! A Subway! Something I’ve noticed about these Nebraska Subways is that they also have ice cream! I got a 6” sandwich and a bowl of ice cream. The ice cream was my favorite peanut butter and chocolate, but honestly, there were too many peanut butter pieces. Also, it was a lot of ice cream. I couldn’t finish it. 

There was one more town called Emmet before I got to my destination of O’Neill. 

In O’Neill I would be camping at Carney Park, which isn’t really close to any restaurants. I didn’t really want another restaurant meal anyway, since my lunch was so big. I just stopped at the Pump and Pantry, and picked up a snack. Then I made my way to the park. The tent camping is this little strip, but it works. 

The building is the shower/restroom. It’s a nice shady spot, that I think will stay shady. 

I did 67 miles today. That leaves me with 40 tomorrow, then 35 to Norfolk on Thursday. The forecast says rain tomorrow. Might have to dig my rain gear from the depths of my bags!