As good a night I had yesterday, today’s was not so great. I was camping at Warnock Lake in Atchison: streetlight in the camping area and I somehow managed to site the tent so it was right in my eyes replete with a barking dog until 3 am which earplugs only somewhat dampened, So I tossed and turned and tried to block it out, but didn’t get much sleep. The good part of all that was, about 5:30 am, I heard two owls hooting to each other In a call and response. That was cool and actually very soothing and I fell asleep listening to it.
I woke up around 6:30 and started to break up camp, but had to wait for the sun to dry things off, and didn’t get out of there till 8:30. I went to McDonald’s for coffee and for their free internet to try to deal with my credit card problems. Not going to get into it but let’s just say, offshore service groups leave a lot to be desired. We’ll see tomorrow if everything straightened out.
I had high hopes of splitting the distance to Lincoln Nebraska in half today, but only had 46 in by 2pm, so I readjusted my route and headed for Falls City NE. On the way this morning, I had a 4 mi on gravel road, and was sitting at the side of a paved road trying to figure out what route I was going to get to get me to Nebraska, when one of those road angels, a guy and a pickup truck on his way home from work at 11:00 a.m., stopped and asked if I had figured it out. I said no and he gave me some really great routing advice, where all the hard surface roads were, and options if I wanted to take the highway or back roads that will give me to the same place. I opted for the highways, and they weren’t bad; mostly good shoulders and not a lot of traffic. The grades were also better than the side roads, and I made much better progress.
I stopped in another McDonald’s at Hiawatha Kansas. I know, I know. I probably hadn’t eaten at McDonald’s in 15 years, but free Wi-Fi and dollar soft drinks and coffee and are quite a bargain, and they are freaking everywhere, even these small towns in Nebraska and Kansas. I supplemented my peanut butter and banana wrap with oatmeal, apples and raisins and cranberries.
I was pretty tired by that time, but I decided to continue on to Falls City. There’s a city park here that allows camping and it’s $5 a night with showers and facilities. I’m currently at the Would Eye bar, having a couple of beers and popcorn. I’m going to go to the grocery store across the street to get a real dinner (salad!) and then head back to the campground and set up. There’s a nice shelter there and I’ll probably will just set up inside it, charge all the devices and hopefully get started a little earlier tomorrow.
All in all a good day and I finished with around 62 miles. 100 miles left to Lincoln, and I’ll try to split that evenly, but will definitely make it by Saturday with plenty of time to explore Lincoln and then get on the train at midnight to head to Denver.
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