Bike Ride Report - Pre RAGBRAI - Omaha to Blair, NE

Good morning from Blair, Nebraska!

We're sitting here in our room in the Econo Lodge, where Jim is reading us articles about cow chip throwing contests from the Omaha paper. I'm sitting here thinking Warren Buffett is probably reading the same article right now.



I wore my new crocs to the airport, and they still made me take off my shoes to go through security. So once again I decided I wouldn't put my shoes back on again until someone told me to. The only person who noticed I was barefoot was some old lady who was prattling on about how she loves to fly. I think she was mentally disabled.

Here's the scene at BWI waiting for my flight.



Here I am waiting for my bags in Omaha.



I got the trike all put together and ready to go in 90 minutes, which was an all time record. Last time it took me three hours.



It was all for naught. Jim and Laura took a really early flight, and while they were waiting for me, they went out for lunch at a nearby diner and took a nap in the park. Since they took a 6:00 flight, they only got an hour of sleep the night before.

Then Laura got a flat, and destroyed all here spare inner tubes before realizing that her tire was no good. So we had to find a bike shop in hilly, hilly Omaha.



Two hours and 1000 feet of climb later, we were ready to roll. It was 6:00 and 20 miles to Blair. We stopped for a Gatorade break in Fort Calhoun, which was also a stopping point for the Lewis and Clark expedition. The mural on the wall thoughtfully includes one of the dogs they had to eat later on in Washington state.



By the time we got in to Blair, it was almost dark, and by the time we got cleaned up and ready for dinner, the Chinese place next door was closed, and our favorite Mexican place was closed. But he old guy at the Econo Lodge desk tipped us off to the dining find: the Main Street Bar and Grill. They are still frying up $12.00 ribeyes at 10:00 pm. Score!



IMPORTANT WARNING: I have learned critical information about wearing crocs. We were hiking in to town for dinner and there were all these crickets hopping along the sidewalk. It seems this is a dangerous situation for croc-wearers, because the crickets can hop in the holes in the sides of the crocs, and then you squish them under your feet and you discover you are walking along on squished crickets, which is gross.

ROADKILL OF THE DAY:
Opossum, Armadillo

Here's the MotionBased page with the route and statistics:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3371745