Go East, Young Men (part 6)

July 6th took us out of the sandhills and into somewhat flatter terrain. I think we had a tailwind, too, so the miles came easy this day.

We had a system of trading off the lead, every 3 miles I think. The other would tuck in behind the leader and draft--takes less energy. A couple times when we were tired, we had arguments like "That was only two miles!" "No, that was 3!" blah blah blah. Pretty funny to think about now... our first training for future roommate (and later spousal) relationship management, perhaps???

In the above photo you can see one of the giant irrigation sprinkler apparatus thingies that stretched beyond the horizon, yet was on wheels and could be moved! We evidently thought it would be good to have a photo of one of us with corn up to our neck. Therefore you can also see a head in the center of the photo--mine, I believe.

'Nother story about the sprinklers: They have bigger sprayers mounted on the ends of them like big antiaircraft gun turrets or something. One time we spotted a sprayer that was aimed all wrong, dousing the road with water instead of the field. Feeling hot & sweaty, we celebrated this pending opportunity to cool off without even dismounting the bikes. Straight ahead bonzai!!!!!!!!!! into the fountain we rode... and then promptly noticed that this was not pristine water we'd been doused with. It was sorta stinky. We tried not to think about where it'd come from. Don't think it ruined our day, but I'm sure we were ready for a real shower later.

We zigzagged north and east. 14 miles to Bartlett. Up 7 and over 24 more to Elgin. 11 miles into Neligh for lunch and a nap on the grass. Not sure of the route after that, but I think it took us through Creighton and eventually to Bloomfield, Nebraska.

We never goofed around ever.

Here is an example of Dave not goofing around.

We surfed that tailwind another 50+ miles after lunch, taking advantage of it while we had it. It made for the longest day of the trip, 110 miles. Camped out under the Bloomfield town water tower, if I remember right...