Total miles – 2,208.
Woke up pleased to fid that my hangover had been banished by sleep so I leapt out of bed like a child on Christmas morning (I didnt) and made my way down to breakfast (another omelette). After eating and packing I hung around in the lobby for a bit and had a chat with the very friendly front desk/valet staff.
The weather was decidedly grey and drizzly today and the forcast said there were storms on the way so I zipped the liner back into my jacket,slipped on my scooterworks hoodie and donned my waterproof trousers before bidding fair well to the lovely Deco hotel in Omaha and pointing myself west in my epic 8 hour quest across Nebraska.
The first leg of my journey took me out of Omaha and into the countryside along route something or other. The scenery was much the same as it had been in Iowa and similar to Pennsylvania. Green farm land and not much else.
I had been warned that Nebraska was doing to be very dull but to honest I didnt mind the empty roads and open countryside and the cooler weather meant that I wasnt being cooked alive inside my jacket. The first few hours flew by until I was finally reunited with my good old friend US-30 which I would be sitting on for the rest of the day.
I am getting into a habit of stopping for 5 or so minutes every hour just to break the journey up slightly and before I knew it I was a good couple of hundred miles into my journey and my sat nav was telling me I only had an hour to go. Now this seemed a little too soon and the last time I had this feeling I ended up crossing in to another time zone and having to ride an extra hour. So during one of my five minute breaks (I wont tell you what I do during these breaks because my mum is reading) I checked online to see if I would be crossing into another time zone today. Yep,yep I would be so that hour remaining then became two hours !
Out on highway 30 the weather eventually cleared up and I had to pull over to remove the lining from my jacket. I was trying to get a photo of the mirage like heat haze on the road that looks like a flood until you get up close but it didnt come out in the photo (not the stuff on the right,thats an actual puddle).
As you can see the scenery is nearly identical to the first photo except for the big puddle the telegraph pole and the blue sky.
I sat in route 30 for hour after hour with the throttle wide open (I need some kind of cruise control my hand hurts) and my scooter didnt miss a beat. I am not going to talk about reliability just yet because I dont want to curse it and brake down every day for the rest of the journey but lets just say I am impressed.
I rode past this farm and there were cows for as far as the eye could see. I think there were a bit camera shy because they all stampeded to the other side of the field when I started taking photos.
Fake Franco considered chasing them but then realised he cant because he is not a real dog. In fact he didn’t think that at all because he doesn’t have a brain,I thought that and then pretended that it was him that thought it and not me. I thought it.
At one point while entering a town a cop car started flashing its lights and sirens behind me and I thought I was in for a hefty fine and possibly a couple of bullet wounds but instead it sped past and pulled over the pick up in front of me,I must admit I laughed at him a bit as I rode past.
We headed along trusty US-30 through the countryside unil we eventually reached Big Springs and the motel 6. Now I know what those of you in the know are thinking. Yes Big Springs is in Nebraska but only just. The reason for this is that I couldnt find a hotel anywhere close to the Colorado/Nebraska border so this place had to do.
I am about to head to the diner to get some food,have a bath and then go to bed. Tomorrow I cross the border into Colorado and ride 180 miles to Fort Collins. Its a national holiday in America tomorrow so I will be having a lazy day and then heading to Unique Rides on Tuesday to get my oil changed again and my tyres rotated (front to back/back to front) as highway 30 has devoured the rear tyre quicker than I devoured my omelette this morning.
Night !
Oh,P.S I got a new sticker,it was given to me by the chef at the restaurant I told you about yesterday where the lady gave me the stamps. If you are ever in Omaha (which you probably wont be) go there !
Rollin on tens. 