Minden, Nebraska

This morning we left McCook, and now we are cooking in Minden. It is hot – in the high 90’s. For those 15 folks who joined the tour in Denver it’s been quite a week. Today was the 4th day in a row of 145+ kms, plus high heat. At least there was no headwind today. I’m currently sitting in a coffee house in Minden, sipping a Pepsi, because there’s free wireless available here. The place is full of other cyclists as well. Although we have a satellite system with us on tour, it only works off and on and is very frustrating, so we usually check in every town to see if there’s wireless available somewhere. A couple of nights ago Len Riemersma and I simply toured the town with computers on until we got a signal somewhere. We ended up sitting on a curb on Wray’s main street in order to get our blogs done.

As for the ride today, I left by 6:30 this morning in order to beat the worst of the heat and I was in by 1:15. The route was fairly level except for a stretch of 48 kms that was just a series of one hill after another. But that added some variety to an otherwise dull landscape. Below is one of the few pictures I took today, the sun rising over highway 34 just out of McCook.

One of the nice things about the route today was the number of small towns along the way. That made the whole trip a little shorter, and also provided plenty of places to get cold drinks along the way. Each of these towns could be seen from far away, because they all had huge grain elevators, such as the one in Minden pictured below.

Diane is at the swimming pool at the moment; and she also visited a local art gallery that had lots of three dimensional art and weaving, right up her alley. The air conditioning made it very attractive too. I decided just to shower. Afterwards I was interviewed on camera by a local TV station, and then I hopped on Bill Den Harders’s Harley and we met quite a few others at a local lounge to enjoy a couple of cold beers. Pictured below is an obviously very tired and hot Dick Kastelein about to enjoy a Coors Light. Take one look at him and you get an idea of the temperatures we’re dealing with!

Yesterday we arrived at the midpoint of the Sea to Sea tour time wise. We have cycled for 27 days, and we have 27 days left (26 after today). Mileage wise we will reach the halfway point early tomorrow morning. It’s hard to believe. What a strange way to spend the summer. Over a burger and Coke in Holdrege today we were speculating about how we’d get back home in September and wonder where the summer had gone. It will feel like we missed summer in the usual sense, and just skipped from spring to fall.

Apart from a few minor falls, we are grateful that the last couple of days have not seen any more major injuries. It’s hard to see people have to leave the tour, and safety has become a priority more than ever. The #1 issue we continue to deal with is the heat. We drink like fish (water and Gatorade mostly), and use lots of sun screen. So far there has been no heat stroke, and no sickness. We thank God for that!

Today’s stats:

Distance: 157.38 kms
Average speed: 26.1 kph
Maximum speed: 50.0 kph
Time in saddle: 6.00.42
# of flat tires on tour: 6