Toodling on the 4th

4th of July Ride:

When - 8:00 am

Meeting place - Zestos (Wilderness Perk) - 14th and Pine Lake

Destination - Cortland Bar and Grill for toast and beer (if they're open)

Pace - Tooooodlin'

Gravy, Jendeluxe, Adrian? and I are in.  Anybody else?

New Bike and Rides

I will be getting my new Cross Check on Saturday afternoon - anybody want to go with me on it's maiden voyage? We could go out the Jamaica trail, or ride out to Eagle for nachos.


Sunday-Thursday next week I will be teaching at UN-L from 8 am to 8 pm, so no group rides for me. I am interested in doing a July 4 morning ride, however. Last year Kew, Nicol, Jendeluxe, and I rode out to Cortland for breakfast and had a blast. I would be happy to duplicate that ride for those who don't want to go to Seward. Let me know if interested.

TdN - Days 4 and 5

On day 4 we rode from Ponca to West Point - the longest ride of the tour at about 76 miles. Fortunately, there was little wind and there were a good number of places to stop on the way - we took a short break in Allen, stopped in Wakefield at a gas station while Bruce and Alisa visited with a former colleague of Alisa's, rode past the Wayne chicken, and grabbed a beer in Wisner.

Allen rest stop.

Cyclists riding down the hill into Allen.

After almost reeling in the pink train on the way into Beemer (a race in which only one side knew they were racing), we stopped for lunch at the Hay Barn. This lady had to prepare everybody's food in full view of the bar. I think we made her very nervous.

There was not much to do in West Point but set up camp and go to the banquet. Here are pics from the banquet.

Several of us began calling this the "Dead Presidents Tour". There was one guy with a ponytail who looked just like George Washington, and the guy in the red shirt with his legs crossed below looked just like Ben Franklin.

Yes, I know Ben Franklin was not a president, and you can't tell he looks like Ben Franklin because there is a cup in front of his face. Just go with it and trust me, give him a kite and a thunderstorm, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

We woke up on the morning of day 5 to the sound of rain and David R. singing "The hills are alive, with the sound of whining". Because I only brought my cell phone along for pics, and it spent most of the day in a baggie in my jersey pocket, so the only pic I have from the last day is from the rest stop about 20 miles in during a break in the rain.

Thus ends the 2009 TdN posts.

TdN - Day 3 in Ponca

We ended up in Ponca at the end of day 3. There was a nice ice cream shop in the back of a pharmacy, and a bar around the corner. They put on a nice dinner for us in the park, complete with a band which looked pretty young.

Bar in Ponca.



They had some nice cars parked in a lot outside the bar.


Dinner in the park. Like every other catered meal this week,
it was hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and beans.

The drummer looked like he was about 10 years old.

After dinner, they offered hayrack rides up to Ponca state park.
This is a beautiful park with big hills and a nice view of the river.

Karen and Bob on the way to the park.


My cousin Brian and his son Matt on their first tour.


Doug W. at the overlook.


Park ranger giving a talk on the history surrounding the river.

TdN Days 2 and 3

I didn't take that many pictures on the road on days 2 and 3, so I'll combine those and then put more pics from Ponca in the next post. Day 2 was Tilden to Bloomfield, day 3 was from Bloomfield to Ponca.

We started the day on a flat road, heading north. After about
30 miles, Bill, David, Alisa, and Bruce headed further north
to get in a century for Bill's birthday.

Daniel hammering up a hill. I have a fun story about riding
with Daniel and his father I'll share in person. If I put everything
in the blog, then I won't have anything left to tell folks

on the next ride :)


Some of the rest stops were quite interesting. In Hartington
there was supposed to be a brunch in a park - but when
we got there they weren't even close to being ready.
Sometimes the towns don't really believe Susan when she
tells them how early we will arrive.Since the brunch wasn't ready,
this lady and kids garnered a huge crowd for homemade
cookies and lemonade.


At some point early on day 3, Bruce, Alisa and I passed a large tent in
a field to our left. I thought it was for an afternoon wedding, but
Bruce saw a wine tasting sign, so we turned around and sampled
some Nebraska wine at 9:30 in the morning.



At another stop in St. James, some farm ladies have grouped together
to form a community market place in an old building to help keep
the community alive. We got there too early to be ready for lunch,
but it was fun to look around.


The pie stop in Maskell on day 3 was also a highlight.


At the end of day 3, Bruce, Alisa and I stopped in Newcastle for
a great lunch. It was clean and good :) From here into Ponca,
we rode through a steady drizzle - about 12 miles of
being completely soaked.

TdN Day 1

Rich starts us off with instructions.

On the road Platte Center to Tilden.  Only bad part of 

the  ride - I put a 1 inch slash in a brand new rear

tire when I ran over a piece of metal on the shoulder

of the highway.  Had to boot it with a $20 bill (all I had on me)

in order to finish the ride.

We camped in Tilden on a field by the pool. The
pool temperature was about 78 degrees - shocking when
you first jump in, but great once you got acclimated.

The Broom Babes performing in Tilden - kind of like
a small town version of Stomp.

We were hit by three severe thunderstorms in Tilden.
The first one came at around 9:30 p.m. with quarter to
golf ball sized hail and heavy rain. Fortunately, the
sheriff evacuated us from the campgrounds.
The second storm came around 10:30 and featured
a tornado warning but no touchdown. This third came at
4:30 a.m. with 60 mph winds while we were in our tents. It was
quite the wake up call.

Tour de Nebraska 2009

Ride reports:

Day 1 - Platte City to Tilden - 66 miles, mostly flat with a slight tailwind, 19.1 mph average speed. Extremely easy day. Rode most of the day with Bill G., John M., and Daniel R. (who is David R.'s son), but occasionally joined up with others as well.

Day 2 - Tilden to Bloomfield - 65 miles, flat until the last twelve miles. Started with a tailwind, then a slight crosswind. The last 12 miles were rollers on steroids - think the same slope (or a little steeper) as the hill outside of Denton, but twice as high. 18.2 mph avg. Easy day except for the hills at the end of the ride. Bill G., Bruce and Alisa, and David R. added 35 more miles on this day to do a century on Bill's birthday. I decided to stick to the planned route, so I let them go after about 30 miles and rode the rest of the way with John and Daniel, among others.

Day 3 - Bloomfield to Ponca - 67 miles, rolling hills the whole way - not quite as big as day 2, but lots of hills. Nice weather until after we stopped for lunch - steady rain for the last 12 miles. Average speed 17.6 mph. Rode with David R., Bruce and Alisa, Daniel R., and Bill G. most of the day.

Day 4 - Ponca to West Point - 76 miles, big rolling hills for about 60 miles, then a nice flat stretch to finish. Very light headwind all day. 16.9 mph avg. Only bad stretch was an 8 mile section of really rough shoulder towards the end of the ride. Otherwise, it was an easier day than expected. Rode with Alisa, Bruce, Daniel, and Bill all day.

Day 5 - West Point to Platte Center - 62 miles, rolling hills and a steady mist for the first 40 miles, then a long gradual incline with a few risers into a moderate headwind for the last 22 miles. Average speed was 16.2 mph. That last stretch was the toughest of the week because of deep expansion cracks about every 30 yards or so - 20+ miles of constant bumps at the end of a five day ride is not good for the butt. Rode for a while with the same folks, but Alisa and Bill were struggling with the hills early, so we all kind of broke up and rode our own pace. We regrouped in Madison and did the last 22 miles in a paceline with Dave, Daniel, Alisa, and Bruce, until I fell off at about mile 60 so I could stand up over every expansion crack without slowing down the line.

Pics to come soon.