Day 28: Pancake power; midway point on the horizon

Day 28
Destination: Merriman, Neb.
Sunday’s mileage: 51. Total: 1,580

The day dawned with a quick walk to the Rushville American Legion Hall for its weekly Sunday breakfast. For $7, we enjoyed eggs, bacon, pancakes, fruit, coffee and orange juice.

We lucked into a room here, thanks to a cancellation. The place does pretty steady trade because they do things with a personal touch.

Then it was back to the Nebraskaland Motel (established 1941 as a motel/gas station: if you booked a room, you’d get a free tank of gas and an oil change in the early days). It’s an interesting little place; family-owned, locally connected, reasonably priced. We actually booked a second night, so when I shoved off this morning, I was planning to ride easy today — maybe 30 miles — and then have Melody come pick me up so we could stay in air conditioning the rest of the day. With triple-digit temps, it was the right call.

So I shoved off and started pedaling. I was feeling a little sore — saddle sore, if you really must know — and I wasn’t sure how far I wanted to go. But as has been my custom on this trip, I just soldiered on. By the time I had called Melody and she had come to get me, I was 51 miles down the road and more than happy to be done. A sidenote: at 1,580 miles, I’ll surpass the midway point sometime Monday. I expect the journey to cover about 3,200 total miles so I’ll be more than halfway there by the end of the day. I find that hard to believe, but I have been chugging along. It’s a testament to grinding.

Anyway, after hooking up the bike, we headed back to the Nebraskaland, stopping for a quick bite (and a piece of pumpkin pie that was NOT worthy of a picture). At that restaurant, Melody stumbled across a disturbing bit of “commentary” that she wrote about at our website 55andalive. Check it out. It provides a disturbing look at the kind of hate that lives out in the open in some parts of this country.