Stage 14 Report: Cornhusker Criterium

Friday, June 9, 2017
Start: Concordia, KS
Finish: Broken Bow, NE
Total Bike Mileage: 107.6mi
Cumulative Bike Mileage: 1216.7

A pleasant sleep at the Concordia Holiday Inn express. Enjoyed the usual breakfast offerings and shuttled 18 mi north to the put-in town of Belleville, KS. Nice little central Main St on a sunny comfortable start for the day, Mike and I started cycling while, on a tip from a local passing by, Happy Api gathered up a few slices of peach and blueberry pie for take-out for us down the road.

We cycled north along Rt81 then turned left and headed west along Fir Rd for a long stretch of about 20 miles of one of the most scenic country roads to date; fields of corn, wheat and soy stretched for miles on either side, the fields periodically punctuated by small streams or rivers. An aviary of colorful songbirds flitted around and over our heads enlivened by the fresh air and natural morning light highlighting everything in our path. This road was for crop lovers. Few livestock on this stretch and so I teared as I hummed a verse of our native song, America The Beautiful, originally a poem from 1895 written by Katharine Lee Bates and music composed by Samuel Ward. There are times in each of our lives when, despite any of our differences in race, or color, or ethnicity, or religion, we are one great people of the United States of America. I cried because I was seeing with my own eyes how beautiful our land truly is, how productive we are, and how caring each of us can be as demonstrated time and again along our cycling journey. This trip is transforming me, instilling such great pride in our shared homeland. Yes, I had been proud to be an American before we embarked. But now unfolding before my eyes, transfixed on the horizon, were indeed those spacious skies and amber waves of grain in the morning light above the fruited plain. The images of Fir Rd will remain forever when I will hear and sing our homeland's song. God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood...

The Blaze Brothers moved onward. Silence, awe, beauty, oneness.

We turned north onto Lamm St, passed through the town of Webber, and raced each other to the KS-NE border crossing over the river bridge like only two punchy cowboy buddies can do. Farewell Kansas! How many beautiful memories we will keep as Nebraska was now in its infancy before us. We entered the town of Superior, NE; met Happy Api and then shuttled our way further north along a busy highway to Grand Island, NE. Stopped for lunch at The Noodle House on North Broadwell Ave for some delicious Vietnamese Pho, the owner describing his immigration to the USA as a teenager. Only about twenty Vietnamese families live in Grand Island and yet he has opened a successful and delicious restaurant to bring Vietnamese cuisine and culture to Nebraska. I was hungry and devoured this steaming delicious bowl of pho soup! As best as I have ever tasted elsewhere! If ever in Grand Island, NE go and enjoy.

Full bellied, we cycled onward to begin a long journey on the NE-2 Sandhill Scenic Highway that would extend us westward for the next two days a few hundred miles from Grand Island to northwestern Nebraska.

I had been reading and dreaming about this upcoming section for the past six months ever since I happened upon it researching and mapping our cross country trek. I also knew that the highway followed the railroad for its entire length. Images of the wild west and bandits and outlaws and new waves of immigrants and cattle cars and the heart of middle American prosperity and old fashioned hard work values - weren't these what were all symbolized in a train's steady march across the plains?!

And so we battled 20-25 mph easterly winds, laughing heartedly at their desire to break us and yet our will to journey westward would no be perturbed. No winds, don't pick a fight with these Blaze Brothers! You will bend the Prairie grasses but not our strong frames held sturdy and upright into the stiff gusts.

And the trains! Who doesn't love endless box-car trains, the screeching of metal against tracks, the massive hulk of the engineer's engine plodding through the countryside. As they approached us I exhorted the conductor to blow his horn and ring that bell and so he did, time and again. I was a six year old playing with my toy train set in the Nebraska Sandhills! Folks, it just doesn't get any better than that. If you love trains then you've got to come here and see for yourself.

On this afternoon 80 mile ride we were inside a dried-up ancient ocean. The Sandhills area of Nebraska and southern South Dakota are essentially Prairie-grass covered sand dunes, ponds and rivers, remnants of an ancient ocean that once covered these parts, and the area stretches for over 20,000 square miles; sandy soil precludes easy agricultural cultivation and so the area is generally used for cattle ranches with over 500,000 beef cattle raised here, grazing on the Prairie grasses. We smelled and waved to plenty of cows of all colors and shapes and sizes, always enamored by their curiosity as they stare at us en masse.

Hundreds of migrating bird species utilize this region, known as the "Central Flyway," feeding and replenishing pit-stops as birds head south in winter and north in summer each year. It is their skyway highway flyway. And these are beautiful birds! We admire them (who cannot?) but they need our help to survive and prosper in this ecologically fragile zone. If I've interested the reader then I would suggest Googling The Nature Conservancy to see how much effort this nonprofit is involved and how we can all help conserve this land and its biodiverse habitat. And come to Nebraska to visit this beautiful region. A drive or bicycle journey will invigorate your spirit!

The evening light approached and the Sandhills transformed into shades of golden browns, greens and yellows. Another painter's palate of hues mixed with the glistening coats of cattle and horses, many protecting and nursing their young.

The last train blew its whistle on our cajoling command. The Cornhusker Cycling Criterium, the last cycle vs train race, was finished for the day. We arrived at the town of Broken Bow, weary but unbroken today by the eastern headwinds. We found our hotel, the Cobblestone Inn, were greeted by the pervasive manured aroma from a massive cattle feed-lot (see Stage 14), showered and headed for dinner at the Arrow Hotel restaurant.

A nice central square, Broken Bow has that western swagger to it. Dinner was a treat as we splurged on some heartland steaks for the three of us weary travelers. Chantilly, our college-age waitress working at the Arrow for her summer job, reflected on her aspirations to be a cattle rancher someday. We could see her eyes lit with that kind of passion of a youthful dreamer as she told her story.

We enjoyed dinner conversation and returned to our hotel humming the catchy country song, "Chantilly Lace," rendition by Jerry Lee Lewis - "a wiggle and a walk... that's what I like!" - for some needed rest after a long windy day. I dozed off laughing as a child would the hundredth time he heard that train whistle blowing. "I've been working on the railroad all the live long day, I've been working on the railroad just to pass the time away... Dinah, blow your horn......" Zzzzzz.
And good night moon!
And a wiggle and a walk......THAT's what I like!

Bikeoo

Amber waves of grain

Train whistles blow on command, through

Sandhills prairie land

Indexes

Weather: (9)
Winds but beautiful sunny day

Terrain: (9)
Rolling hills through the first day of the Sandhills

Scenic: (9.5)
Gorgeous farmland in the morning tide and intro to Sandhills in the afternoon, nice mix

Endurance: (9.5)
I beat the wind challenge today

Wildlife and Roadkill:
W-rabbit, songbirds
R-raccoons, rabbit

Medical Report:
M-butt
D-butt

Bike Report:
No issues

Still Having Fun: (11)