The road out of White Cloud reopened over night and I had an early start, probably the earliest so far. It was chilly and a little fresh, so great for cycling and so didn’t take long to cross into Nebraska. My first impression of Nebraska was that it was a quite bleak, but that was only because you were greeted by flood plains and rugged fields. That all change by the time you reached Falls City and everything was back to crop farming, a bit like Kansas.
Fall City was the first (and only) town I came across, it was a wealthy looking place with large banks, a few stores, and a modern Library and Arts Centre. My first stop was Subway for one of their $5 foot long subs and then I tried to use the library but found that it was shut.
Between Fall City and Brownville I stopped off at Nemada’s Only Stop, a small store by the side of the road, and had a turkey sandwich. A few of the farmers were talking about the flooding, the damage their crops suffered, and how the only way to cover costs was through insurance, which keeps increasing every year. As somebody from the city, you forget about these things.
At the planning stage I looked forward to the Steamboat Trace, a 22 mile bike and hiking trail from Brownville to Nebraska City. But was informed at various places that it was covered in mud and silt, so was in two mind whether or not to use it.
As I stood at the entrance weighing up the situation a car pulled up. “I’m here to help!” said the driver, and he advised me not to use the trail. Merlin then offered to put me up for the night at his house, so after consulting the maps and realizing that I wouldn’t get very far I accepted his kind invitation.
Once the bike was in the car, we drove to his house. Along the way he showed me a bluebird nest he had by the side of the road, and opened it up to reveal four small hatched birds – Merlin has many of these nests in the area and keeps count of their numbers.
A short distance down the road and over a few loess hills (they’re very steep and rolling!) we reached his house, a cottage with a well and a very large garden, and was introduced to his wife, Darlene, who was cooking Merlin’s dinner. I think she was surprised to see that Merlin had brought a complete stranger home!
Darlene and Merlin are keen cyclists, and through the course of the years cycled across thirteen different states on their bikes, so they knew what it was like to be on the road. Medals and trophies hung from walls and were a strong reminder of past achievements – especially Darlene’s running trophies, a great 10K champion runner.
Distance so far: 3336.51Km
N40.44227W095.70247
Washington DC to Seattle 2008 