Day 4 Thur. Sept. 18, 2008

On my first day of riding alone, I took off about 7:40, still going southwest on Hwy 60. About 30 miles out I called Pam. She was still at the motel packing and reorganizing the van. Turns out that this is a big job every day. Pam caught up to me on the road and I sat on the back of the van, drinking ice cold water, eating a banana and a bar. The last part of today’s ride was not pleasant. Most truckers were cordial and veered away from me on the shoulder. However, there were a few who did not see my bicycle license to occupy the road and literally were about 6 inches from my left, unhealed, shoulder. In IA the little space left as shoulder for the roads is corrugated—a system for getting the attention of drivers who drift too close to the edge of the road. The rest of the highway shoulder is sometimes less than 24 inches. This test of fate rattled my nerves and I began to conjure up my best songs of courage: “Two Wheels on My Wagon” and ”Just Tagging Along.”

The plan was to ride to Winnebago, NE today, but going around Sioux City in the traffic was horrendous and no shoulder to ride on. Pam had gone on ahead, so I called her to come back to pick me up. As we entered NE on 75/77, the problem got even worse. There was more of the same—corrugated shoulder for 4 wheel drivers and 14” to 24” shoulders for 2 wheelers. Another factor was the strong wind. I had hoped for a little assistance, but the southwest wind came right at my face, challenging me all the way. My GPS had fallen off the bike twice and I had to scramble off my bike in order to save my GPS before someone ran it over. We decided to err on the side of safety and drive to Winnebago, NE. It is a small Indian Reservation and there were no hotels or motels. We kept driving south through towns so small they had no sleeping accommodations, either. We finally made it to Fremont, NE and stayed at the Wilderness Inn. Very nice place with very good food. A safe, comfortable ending to a long, harrowing day.