07.23.2023 - chabron, ne

slept in the city park in harrison, ne.  nice park with swimming pool, pavilion, lush grass, shade trees. after dinner and beers at the local bar,  the matt tighe longhorn saloon & grill, i rode 4 blocks back to the park and crawled into bed.  sprinklers, aaarg!  "rv's and tents welcome", electric and water hookups.  but not a thing about sprinklers.  minimal disruption though, mostly interupted sleep at 3:30 in the morning.  fortunately, the tent wasn't set near any heads.  had to make a small shift in tent location, lost about an hour of sleep.

up and gone by 7 , sleepy little village on a sunday morning.

i was now officially in nebraska, but guess what? the landscape hadn't changed much over night.  rolling hills, the grass range land slowly giving over to more organized and cultivated range.  waiting on the cornfields.

the shoulder on u.s. 20 deteriorated, though.  nothing like the tha-thunk, tha-thunk, tha-thunk of riding over expansion caused cracks in the pavement, nothing a sore butt likes to feel more.  i actually prefer riding out in the traffic lane and dealing with the cars.  drivers in nebraska are exrtremely polite about it.  trucks and cars.

but then a funny thing happened.  the southeast fell away while the road rose.  the valley to the south showing sections of pine forest and ravines.  then a scenic overlook of the road winding and dropping down to the valley.  the hills being eroded away leaving pale, sandstone cliffs.  down into the green valley, with cliffs all along the north side.  cliffs the cheyanne used with limited success to try and escape the us cavalry who had imprisoned them and were returning them to the reservation.  chief dull knife didn't have much luck.

this is nebraska?  this area is called the pine ridge region, located between the white river and niobrara rivers.

 

fort robinson is a remnant, decommisioned in the 50's, now a state park.  much larger, much nicer than ft. fetterman.  i'm told the buffalo soldiers were stationed here, but i didn't see anything about them in the historical pictures displayed in the restaurant.  they housed and trained a lot of cavalry here.

there's now a regional playhouse located here, as well.  by coincidence my warmshower hosts were going to see 'joseph and the amazing technocolor dreamcoat' there latter that afternoon.

i get one of my standard big breakfasts at the restaurant in an old barracks building, sit on the veranda, walk a small part of the grounds.

then heaad out again.

25 mi later, chadron appears in the valley

i stop at the subway to drink my fill of iced tea, then go down to the just love coffee house for a smoothie.

then down the street looking for my warmshower hosts' house.  while waiting for them to return from the play, i set up the tent in the backyard, wash my clothes and hang them out to dry, and visit with the dog.

cheryl and steve, who for some reason i failed to take a photo of, are relly nice people.  i want to call them old hippies, but suzi tells me that, being 63, they're not old enough to be counted as hippies.  cheryl is from vermont, steve from a farm in nebraska north of lincoln.  they met on a bicycle tour and the rest is history.  when they finally settled, they came back to nebraska where she's a school teacher, he's a carpenter.  their house is a bit of a renovatiion project.  had a great dinner, conversation and generally a good time overall.