Burke, SD to Niobrara,
NE
77 miles
"Nebraska: A great place to visit if you want to see strange and unusual animals, some of which you may eat." [from a Nebraska state advertisement comparing Nebraska with Africa]
Today was the last day of week 4. We left South Dakota and entered Nebraska, where we had a great second breakfast. It got hot and shade was at a premium. Dave Wallace, who rode part of the trip last year, joined us for the remainder of this year's trip.
Tomorrow we rest.
Typical scene early in the ride, still in South Dakota:
We left South Dakota and entered Nebraska (Mike Weston, Win Westervelt,
Sandra White, and Rob Christian):
Nebraska is wetter and less flat than I imagined:
Rob and I had a second breakfast in Butte, NE at the Butte Cafe (Win
had an early lunch instead, while Mark Bazerman and Sandra had snacks).
To give you some idea of the amount of food we are eating, earlier in the
morning I had a bowl of leftover rice (with cinnamon), a bowl of Grape
Nuts, a yogurt, a bagel with cream cheese, and a banana. Two or three hours
later when we stopped in Butte I had an omelet. This is more than usual
but not surprising. Note that Rob also had an omelet, plus two large
pancakes, which he said might have been the best he has ever eaten. We
talked with the locals, one of whom was named Marge. The long sign near
the ceiling is a humorous description of the price of coffee, depending
on how long you hang around (if you pay for all day, it says to the right
of where this picture cuts off, you get a hour to go home for lunch):
I really don't remember what I was trying to capture in this shot:
There were more trees than I expected:
I believe this is the Ponca Creek, which we crossed four times today:
While it may be hard to read, this town has 6 residents. The next town
down the road had 59 residents and two bars (one on each side of the road,
which by the way was highway 12):
Nebraska is way wetter than I expected, and these marshes actually
got substantially more pronounced a mile further down the road:
The camp area looks like it has trees, but all the mature trees are
behind the site and on a very steep bank, making them useless for afternoon
shade. The tarp is for shade and not rain:
