The day started great. We had a fine breakfast in Guernsey with Meriwether. Then we visited Register Cliff and Oregon Trail ruts just outside of Guernsey. Immigrants following the Oregon Trail inscribed their names into the face of Register Cliff. We loaded our bikes, said goodby to Meriwether, and started pedaling east.
Life was OK at first. We faced a slight headwind but were not in a rush and the scenery was interesting.
As soon as we entered NE things took a turn for the worse. Louis and I rode through loose sand to pose for our pictures next to the "Welcome to NE" sign. Louis crashed. One mile later Louis' front tire flatted. After the change, we noticed that his front tire was flat, requiring a second replacement of tubes. About that time the headwind picked up, the terrain flattened, and every pedal stroke felt like I was pushing through mayonnaise. A short time later the stem to one of Louis's replacement tubes failed, requiring our third replacement. 100 yards later we noticed that the replacement was defective and replaced it. After a few miles of pushing against the headwinds my rear tire flatted. We repaired it and noticed that my tires contained about 25 stickers from thorns folks out here call goatheads. They look like what folks in VA call sand spurs. We pulled out the stickers and marveled that I did not flat more or sooner. I decided to buy Continental Gatorskins forever. The purchase of a set was a small splurge before I began the trip. Now the expense looks like a great investment. A few miles down the road I noticed that my sleeping pads were missing. I don't know whether they blew away, blew off my bike, or I simply forgot to put them back on my bike. Upon arrival in Scottsbluff we found fewer options for food and lodging than we expected and that most food options closed on or before 9.
We rode 69.45 miles at an average sped of 12.0 mph. My maximum was 24.3 mph.
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