Day 61 - Friday, July 23

A great day on the road - like Thursday - never guarantees the same result the next day…

After a nice stay in the town park of Steele City Nebraska, I was anxious to get on the road early with the anticipated heat wave. I fell asleep around 8pm and popped awake around 3:30am. Routine breakfast of coffee, yogurt parfait, changed into running clothes, taped 4 toes that have blisters and I was out the RV door at 4:30am with Lucky super charged to get back on the road with me.

Route 8 is the main road that goes northwest along the Little Blue River which was also the route many of the pioneers took on the Oregon and California Trails. Makes sense all the settlers needed water and thus generally followed a river. Out of Steele City I went by a pretty Baptist Church built in 1882 and with a full red moon over the top if felt like a special morning for Lucky and I.

Everywhere I have been in Nebraska so far has also been along the Union Pacific railway. Last night in Steele City we heard trains all night and this morningalong Route 8 there is train after train hauling what looks like coal.

Lucky and I travelled 12+ miles on Route 8 and passed through Endicott and met up with Chris in a larger town called Fairbury. I left Fairbury solo and went directly into miles and miles of corn following the railroad and Little Blue River. Sun was high, no wind, rookie mistake that I didn’t have enough water and 3 hours later on the dirt road I was totally dehydrated. Chris was waiting in the town of Alexandria and while we had cell signal, I was on roads the RV could not navigate. I death marched out of the fields at a snails pace after another few hours relieved to have survived a tough day.

Chris found a great spot to land at Alexandria State Park and we immediately began our post run routine of setup RV, shower, hydrate & rest and finish with a meal. Today Chris made beautiful Ahi Tuna steaks with teriyaki, ginger, garlic and scallions accompanied by perfectly cooked asparagus in butter. An hour later we dug into chips and salsa. Another hour later, big bowls of Vanilla Ice Cream with frozen chocolate chips.

With a good nights sleep I hope to fully recover for tomorrow’s long day with projected temp above 100.

I did not see one person all day and have a feeling this might be typical of Nebraska’s farm land.

All for today - thank you for your support!

Cheers,

David

The moon at 4:30am

Beautiful old chirch

Lucky leading the way

Trains along the road along the Little Blue River

The sunrise

On a dirt farm road you find….

One of the many deserted farm houses I travel by daily. I have come to learn that these are farms that have been bought out and the new farm owners that typically crop 2000+ acres would rather let the homes go on lived in rather than have the wrong renters

Welcome to Powell Nebraska!

A one room school house along the Oregon Trail in the middle of nowhere

That’s swaths of land that I run by I just dedicated Nebraska wildlif areas for hunting

You can buy this old bank building in Alexandria for $12,000 or make an offer!

Everyone relaxes after the day is done!