From June 18-22, I rode in Tour de Nebraska, a 200-person, 5-day, 300-mile tour that started in St. Paul, NE and stopped in 4 small towns along the way, ending back in St. Paul. St. Paul was the biggest town, at just under 3000. Having never done a camping bike tour before, and having not slept in a tent for 15 years, I wasn’t sure I had packed the right gear for camping, and I wasn’t sure that living in a tent was for me. I knew that eating vegan in rural Nebraska was going to be a challenge. But what the heck.
St. Paul is 45 minutes from my sister and BIL’s house. My BIL dropped me off at the high school at 6:30, and after breakfast and a few opening announcements, we hit the road about 7:45 on Wednesday morning, heading 60 miles up the road to Burwell, NE. Burwell is known for its rodeo. I stopped at a restaurant about 10 miles from Burwell, where I had a black bean wrap and a piece of peach pie that were out of this world. So far, so good. But in the last 10 miles, there was road construction and rain, which meant riding on muddy sections that turned my bike into what appeared to be a mountain bike. It was filthy. Here’s a picture of me on the first day.
Attachment 6375
We camped on a treeless field that was very hot. I set up my tent and blew up my air mattress, cleaned and lubed my bike (that took an hour) and finally found the shower. After reading my book in my hot tent for a couple of hours, I walked to town and ate a nice plate of spaghetti with marinara (I chose not to partake of the other food choices—a “pitchfork barbeque” or a BBQ beef sandwich at the fair.) Surprisingly, I slept very well despite a fierce thunderstorm overnight.
The next morning, thanks to my earplugs, I woke up late and was the last person out of the camp. I left about 7:30, but I passed a few people so I wasn’t the last one for long. The ride was again 60 miles, but there were no towns in between and there were only two rest stops. The ride was rolling hills into Atkinson in Nebraska’s Sandhills, but was generally uphill into a strong headwind. It kicked everyone’s butt. The second rest stop was at Shirley’s house, which was a big church-like place at the top of a hill that you could see for miles. It was like a magnet drawing us down the road. I got into camp around 2:30.
We stayed in a park this night, and the rest of the nights. Setting up camp got easier. Eating got harder. My only choices during the rest of the trip were Subway veggie sandwiches, salad/baked potato meals, or peanut butter and jelly (which I had brought with me).
As hard as the second day was, the third day was easy. Tailwind, flat, 60 miles. Neligh welcomed us with decorated storefronts, water at the visitors center, and pie at the Senior Center. It won the “best host town” contest.
The fourth day we traveled 66 miles to Genoa, where we had our trip banquet. On the way, we stopped in tiny St. Edward, where they had a fantastic pie stop at the library. There was a wicked thunderstorm about 4:30 or so, which I rode out in my tent. I thought I'd blow away.
At the banquet, prizes were awarded to people who had gone out of their way to help others. It was nice, except the vegetarian option was nothing close to vegan, so I had to go to a restaurant and have a salad and baked potato, then come back for the awards. It would have been nice to have been able to stay and talk to the people at the table. I sat with several very interesting older women, all of whom have biked across the country, some several times.
The last day was a very hilly 54 miles. I got up early and was on the road by 6:30, and was back in St. Paul by 11:30. After a welcome shower at the high school, my sister and BIL and I went for a delicious lunch with lots of tofu. Finally, protein!
Overall impressions:
--Setting up and tearing down camp every day is a big pain.
--Sleeping in a tent is ok if you have a comfortable air mattress. However, the next time I will probably opt to stay in motels.
--Earplugs are essential. But they keep you from hearing the hustle and bustle in the morning, so find some other way to wake up (I never did).
--The LLBean bathroom organizer caddy is very handy.
--The waterproof bags from Whole Foods are perfect for hauling bathroom stuff and clothes to and from the showers.
--Take a decent tent—several people broke the poles setting up their Walmart tents.
--Eating vegan in rural Nebraska is verrrry difficult. Not enough protein sources, and PB&J gets old when you eat it 3 times a day.
--On a small tour like this one, people do it year after year and know each other. It seems a bit cliquish and hard for a fairly introverted person to break into. I think the next time it would be easier, because by the end I was meeting people.
--Bring your camera and cell phone battery chargers. My camera died the first day, despite having charged the battery.
--A massage at the end of the day is worth every penny.
--Bib shorts are fantastic! So comfortable!
--DeSoto cool wings from TE work! No sunburn, and they really do keep you cool.
--Sometimes you get lucky--I had to pay $80 to ship my bike out on the airplane, but they didn't charge me on the way back.
