Today's report from my Ride for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Nebraska
Started at 5:45 am in McCook and finished at 4:30 pm in Arapahoe.
Covered 128 miles, 14.0 mph ave speed, 35.8 - max speed
The "Hurt/Help" Wind Scale is my way of saying "this is how much the wind hurt/helped me over the course of the day". It can Hurt me up to a -5, or help me up to a +5.
Started at 5:45 am in McCook and finished at 4:30 pm in Arapahoe.
Covered 128 miles, 14.0 mph ave speed, 35.8 - max speed
Riding time - 9 hrs, 8 minutes
Wind - really wasn't any today. Kind of odd...
"Hurt/Help" Wind scale - +0.0.
"Hurt/Help" Wind scale - +0.0.
The "Hurt/Help" Wind Scale is my way of saying "this is how much the wind hurt/helped me over the course of the day". It can Hurt me up to a -5, or help me up to a +5.
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| beautiful morning!!! |
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| north of McCook |
It was absolutely beautiful today, no wind at all. Once I left McCook, anytime I would stop I could hear pheasants crowing all around me, cattle, just all the morning sounds from every direction. It was so peaceful!
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| WW II hangers on the horizon |
What do Alliance, Ainsworth, Scottsbluff, McCook, Kearney, Grand Island, Harvard, Bruning, Fairmont, Lincoln and Scribner all have in common? They were all the sites of Army Air Bases in WW II.
See the following links for some great WW II history! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_World_War_II_army_airfields http://www.nebraskaaircrash.com/aaf.html
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| One of several corn and wheat fields shredded by hail a few days ago. Sad sight! |
Nebraska state Highway 18 is 39 miles long from Curtis to highway 283. The west 15 miles or so is gravel! There are only two state highways that are gravel and this is one of them. So, I had to ride on gravel for about 1 1/2 hours of my ride today. Having navigated the longest gravel highway in Nebraska is a dubious distinction for someone on a road bike with 700X23 size tires!
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| What!?!? This is a highway?? |
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| Yup! There's the Hwy 18 sign. |
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| Mike kissing the pavement! I was VERY glad to see it again!! |
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| Lexington in the distance from the top of the hill on the south side of town. |
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| The Chapel by Lake Johnson |
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| Kerry Scott and Mike |
We had two unexpected meetings today. The first was Kerry Scott. He works for the Nebraska Department of Roads (with my brother Rick) and was a classmate/friend with another brother, Greg. He also joined Rick, me and another guy in cycling around Lake McConaughy many years ago. He was just out checking Hwy 18, saw us, knew it was me and what I was doing, so stopped to visit. Cool! Thank you for your donation Kerry!
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| Mark Bales and mike |
The other visitor was Mark Bales from Grand Island. He "installs and maintains" pacemakers and was working out in this part of the state. He knew about where we would be and was able to find us. He had a gift bag for me: 2 Gatorades and a bottle of water! Greatly appreciated!!! Thanks Mark.
Thank-yous for today:
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| Emily, Mike and Mary |
First of all, thank yous go to Mary Shirkey and Emily Lashley for organizing the wonderful pancake feed last night in McCook! Thank you to the Boy Scouts and their leaders who made the pancakes, served them and then cleaned up. And finally thank you to all the generous people who came and ate. The total raised for MAW was $1862!!!!! Super night!
Thanks also go to my support driver today, Jennifer Blake from the Grand Island area, and to my host home person, Janice Breinig (Jennifer's mother). Thank you for your help!
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| Jennifer, Janice and Rico |
Bible verses dealing with Jesus and “wishes”. A WISH…
To warn Peter goes unheeded – Matthew 26:69-75
Quote of the Day:
“Cycling to work is an important issue for business – the more who do it, the more our communities will support it. Healthy and green, cycling is worthy of the support of every business in the land.” - Sir Digby Jones
Closing thoughts for the day:
Very long day today. Thankfully tomorrow will not be so far. Plus, Nancy Norwood, from Kearney, is getting a group together to meet me in Axtell and ride with me into Kearney. That will be a LOT of fun! Riding in a group is a blast. Looking forward to meeting whomever can make it. (-:) See you all tomorrow night.
Forecast for the next day:
Wind out of the SE around 15 mph, chance of thunderstorms, sometimes sunny, other times cloudy, mid to upper 70s for the high. Decent day.
Route/Towns for the next day:
June 24 - Arapahoe to Beaver City to Stamford to Orleans to Alma to Holdrege to
Funk to Axtell to Kearney
