My wife and I are going to hear the Waterboys in concert in Minneapolis Wednesday. So naturally I figure I’ll burn up some time off and ride my bike toward the Twin Cities.
The Trek 1120, fully loaded for a generally northeasterly journey.Riding at the crack of dawn Saturday, with Venus over Holmes Lake, Lincoln.Pedaling toward sunrise, MOPAC Trail.Your pilot for this trip across the prairie.
i took off at 6 a.m. Saturday and spent most of the day on the road, maybe half of it on gravel. I won’t get all the way to Minneapolis; my wife is coming up Tuesday, and she’ll pick me up along the way, however far I get north and east from Lincoln. That way, I can sleep all Tuesday night and recover so I can enjoy Wednesday night’s concert.
Sunrise, Eagle, NENorth from Elmwood……toward WabashSunshine all day long, ensuring I always have at least one companion.Dirt! More, please!These big crows think the people bridge over the Platte River downstream from South Bend is a great place to congregate.Platte sandbar under the bridgeThe crows have good sense.
MOPAC Trail north toward Springfield, NE.
The MOPAC stops abruptly at the south edge of the Omaha metroplex. Beth, a 60-ish retired physical therapist from Papillion, came zooming up from behind me near that end on her lighter, sleeker Trek Boone. She was out on her regular Saturday morning 30–40-mile ride. When I asked where I could pick up another trail toward downtown, Beth said, follow me! Like a good physical therapist, she paced me hard through Bellevue and led me to a creek trail a mile from her house. Fist bump, and on I went.
Beth wore me out! Time for a shade break on Cedar Island Road, a nice strip iof gravel not yet swallowed up and blacktopped by the Omaha–Bellevue metro.Maybe we should do all of our thinking and resting beneath trees.Look up through the brown branches and the leaves persistently green with ten days of summer to go. Look up through life to the clear crystal blue.
After rest and snack and H2O, I rode on north, into the city, up 24th through a Mexican street festival, across to 13th and up to downtown, hand signals, strong eye contact, bouncing curbs, dodging construction, river ahead…
Hey! The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge—“Baby Bob”, someone on the Iowa side called it. How fine it is to cross the Missouri where cars and trucks cannot!
The problem with this route is that I put in about 80 miles before hitting the Loess Hills. I tell you, at 1 p.m., sun high, temps breaking 90, I could use less hills.
But hills mean vistas, and I found this vista at the top of Monument Road, where the Lewis and Clark monument looks over the Missouri River, Eppley Airfield, downtown Omaha, and Council Bluffs.The monument itself, showing explorers Lewis and Clark following President Jefferson’s orders to talk with the locals, learn from them, and set the stage for generations of coexistence in peace and diversity.
September, from the Latin for “sumac turns bright red”.
Even with the wind behind me, I had hard riding for the last couple hours over the rolling hills and past terraced fields of rustling corn.I know, the picture is a bit fuzzy…I sat with this caterpillar in the shade of a 12-inch-diameter fencepost and looked out across the Iowa prairie.
Pony Express?I got to Neola and decided I’d had enough for Saturday. I had Squirt and ice cream in town, then went out to pitch my tent at Arrowhead campground in the Pottawattamie County park. The geese highly recommend it.
The wind died down, no storms came up. It was a good night for sleeping outside and recharging for another big day on two wheels, bicycling across Iowa.
After rest and snack and H2O, I rode on north, into the city, up 24th through a Mexican street festival, across to 13th and up to downtown, hand signals, strong eye contact, bouncing curbs, dodging construction, river ahead…
The wind died down, no storms came up. It was a good night for sleeping outside and recharging for another big day on two wheels, bicycling across Iowa.
Great photos. Thanks for sharing, Cory.