Happy Fourth of July! This is the day we celebrate our Independence and salute the flag of our country. Before the blog, we want to say thanks to all the military who continue to serve our country. Many of you are our friends and we follow your stories online.
(This photo was taken at Sioux Falls Park in Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Early morning sun makes for great pictures, and Sioux Falls offered some beautiful photo ops. The city park is built around the–you guessed it–falls on the Sioux River. The cascading water gurgled with early morning delight as Cindy captured the glorious ascetics on digital “film.” While enjoying the view we wondered what it would look like in winter, with snow covering the flowing river. We'll probably never know firsthand. The kickstand was up and we were on our way out of South Dakota by 8:30.
Today's task was to zig zag the state borders and catch welcome signs along the way. Inquisitive chipmunks entertained us at the Minnesota rest stop. They were obviously well fed by the tourists; if we had something to offer we would have experienced an onslaught of chipmunks, probably more than desired. A couple of them came up and sniffed my boot while begging for food. So cute!
Iowa hasn't changed much since our last ride a year ago, except where corn once grew, beans now take its place–at least that's how we recall it. Cindy posted some fun photos to Facebook to play a game with friends in order to stay awake and pass the time. Today was unique in that we had a strong signal from a Christian radio station for most of the day that also kept us company.
Nebraska! We finally made it. For those of you following our tour last year, or even if you weren't, you may remember the Missouri River was flooded all the way down the Nebraska/Iowa border. Due to the road closings, we could not traverse into the Cornhusker state. Evidence of the floods remain, detouring us on one occasion due to a bridge still being unpassable. Otherwise, it seems the Missouri is back to “normal.” Nebraska looks much like Iowa: farmland, cow pastures, good smells, bad smells, corn, corn, and more corn, but somewhat more undulating.
We passed through several small towns. One town was named “Homer” and its welcome sign beaconed, “Welcome to Homer, Little but Lively.” Another nice diversion for a photo op occurred in a town that surprised us with a “U” (Uehling, population 230), right on our path. Many of the towns we passed on 77 in Nebraska have a population of less than 1,000, and most were lucky to have a flashing yellow light in the center of town.
We forgot about the holiday and went by the Harley store, which of course was closed. It turned out to be another great photo spot, however, with a couple of rustic wagons on the grounds.
The large American flag waving overhead was a poignant reminder of the purpose of the day. One of the things we love is that each Harley store has its own unique flavor, and the Frontier shop in Lincoln Nebraska is no different. We only wish we could have visited the inside of the store. At least there were no unsightly cars (or people) to distract from the clicking of Cindy's camera.
A shorter ride today of 250 miles brought us to our destination in Lincoln early enough to wash some clothes and relax a bit. Unfortunately the hotel doesn't have a guest laundry, so that task will have to wait one more day. Washing clothes is always a challenge on a trip like this, and our sink has turned into a wash basin on more than one occasion.
A quick trip to Wal-mart for drinks and dinner to eat later. We will forego the fireworks, as they don't start until ten o'clock, and we will be sawing Zs by then. Riding early makes us sleepy.
Thus ends our day in the cornfields.
Daily Stats: About 3650 miles on two wheels to date. This trip is much longer than we anticipated, and we will top well over the 4000 mark by the time it is over. Our ABC list now includes Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Uehling.
Tomorrow: on to Kansas and Missouri. We anticipate 5 ABC points: Kansas, Missouri, Yate's Crossing, Xenia, and Joplin.
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Happy 4th!