Day 42: Feels great being back on a bike. No better cure for the Keystone XL blues. Ron and I had a great time riding together for about 30 miles on the Homestead Trail, an awesome crushed lime bike trail, then he headed back to Lincoln to deal with some things and I continued on solo. Gorgeous sunny fall day. Had more hawk encounters, many up close and personal, than I could count this afternoon. Well over a dozen. I think Hawk Nation is pleased to see me back on the road. I was certainly happy to see them.
While carb-loading up at a Mexican restaurant in Beatrice, dialed up the Beatrice Daily Sun, which sent out a reporter to meet met me there for an interview. Then continued south towards the Nebraska/Kansas border. While pedaling, dialed up my buddy Ryan Van Duzer to say hi and see how his cross-country ride with his friend Nick was going (caught him on his bike near Austin). Really happy to cross the Kansas border – 3 states down and 3 to go.
Covered 80 miles in about 8 hours today, rolling into Marysville just as it was getting dark. The last 15 were some of the toughest miles I’ve ever pedaled. My legs had forgotten what hard work was like during our 11 day layover in Lincoln. Then as I was checking into my motel room, I met Margaret McIntyre and you’re not going to believe this: her family just delivered a pre-Thanksgiving dinner (homemade lasagna, two kinds of pie and cold beer) to my motel room. WOW. They then invited me over for breakfast and to join their family for a Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, but I really need to make Manhattan while the weather is still good. Anyone who doesn’t think there are nice people left in the world needs to get out on a bike. They’re everywhere!
Here’s an article covering some of what went down at the Capitol yesterday. It mentions our “Kool-Aid” distribution to Nebraska’s Governor and Senators: http://tinyurl.com/7bgtbtp.