midwest ride ep.1

 four reasons for this bike ride.

1. I wanted to see how long I could live on my bike.

2. I wanted to visit Steve in Lincoln.

3. I wanted to see a couple of the #stayFlared demos while reducing my carbon footprint.

4. I wanted to see my home state from the seat of my bike, from a slower perspective.

parked the van in Wichita for the month and headed out June 1st.

this was my intended route

riding the back roads of Kansas

Sandy, the first cat sighting of the trip

a motley crue at the junkyard

camp #1 at Marion Reservoir where I took a swim

twilight at Marion Reservoir

groovy cat mail box... was hoping to see this cat, but no luck

swimming in Enterprise, KS

the tiny town of Detroit, KS

is he a great Pyrenese? well, he came out to visit with me on a back road

camp # 2 in a cemetery - a windy night....

terrific Kansas sunset from the cemetery

next morning I rolled through Tampa, KS

not a lot of hope in Hope, KS

ducked into this barn to avoid my 1st rain shower

rad mural in Green, KS

the citizens of Green took me in and had me sleep in the community center

saw some gorgeous old churches out in the middle of nowhere

crossing the Little Blue river

lots of rainfall had this and most rivers in the area quite swollen

Pony Express historical marker close to Nebraska

nice tribute

after a terrible night sleeping in a public bathroom, I made it across the border into Nebraska

that's a flooded field creating a new river

I had to ride through 6inches of water rolling across the highway

thank goodness there was a highway worker slowing vehicles down

This guy informed me that the BIG BLUE river in Beatrice was rising and that the east bridge into town was already closed from high water... This had me change my course to aim for the south bridge into Beatrice. I hustled to make it across that bridge to meet up with Steve who was riding down from Lincoln to meet me.