1030 AM start and nice riding on Hwy 26 eastbound out of Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. The bluff btw is a prominent geological feature nearby the town site, prolly discovered by Scott!






Not far down the road is Chimney Rock, a unique geological feature almost 300' high that was once an active volcano. Over the years, and I mean eons, the softer outer skin of the volcano eroded away leaving only the harder lava behind. There is a pointy thing on the top that from a distance looks like a sculpture of some kind, even briefly looking like a Christ statue like the one in Sao Paulo, but closer up you realize it is, in fact, just a pointy thing. It is officially a lava spire.






Trying to abide by my own rules of avoiding Interstates at all costs I took Hwy 30 that parallels I80 from Ogallala to Gothenburg where I stopped to look at an original Pony Express shack. It is a way station where riders would stop for a snack, a pee and fresh horses. No napping allowed here, not then or now! I shot my bike in front of it as a modern update! Sadly when you read the inscription on the rock you find that it was moved from its original site and restored there which kinda makes it a rip-off in my books. Still I was there so I shot some video for your enjoyment:






There was a frustrating amount of farm traffic (I understand, a nation's gotta eat!) on the secondary road so I capitulated and hopped on the Interstate, I80. They have a very generous 80 MPH speed limit but seriously you gotta do 95+ to stay competitive or you'll get run over by grandma's in mini vans. Even in construction sites, of which thankfully there were few, the speed limit is 65 MPH.

Interstates have few pro's;

• There are a lot of gas stations, restaurants, attractions, etc
• You get where you are going in a galldern hurry

But many cons;

• You get where you are going in a galldern hurry
• You have to focus so ******* the road there is no sight seeing
• They are typically boringly straight
• Competition is fierce
• You gotta keep the hammer down all the time
• Nebraska Interstates are pre cast concrete so there is an expansion bump every 30' or so, gets tiring in a hurry
  

Every town's gotta have their little claim to fame and just west of Kearney there is the Archway Monument. Designed by a Walt Disney team, the Archway spans more than 300 feet over Interstate 80 and weighs nearly 1,500-tons. Opened in 2000 it attracted nearly half a million visitors in its first 2 years, which was way below projections. It lost money and had to refinance, and still hasn't paid for itself. My questions is; how optimistic were your visitor projections? It is a friggin arch fer chrissakes!! Its not the Hanging Gardens of Babylon!!

My GoPro lens treats it like a piece of taffy as we drive underneath it in the following video.



You don't get anything for free so I knew the time would come to 'Pay the Piper' for the past 3 days of favourable winds, and today was that day. There was a brutal headwind blowing straight down the Interstate (there is blessing in that, coulda been a crosswind!). It was at least 25 mph, enough to hold flags full out. Add that into having to stay competitive with the mini vans and semi's all doing 95 and it made for a hard, character building day. Naturally there is a lot of buffeting, but it is actually the wind pressing my helmet into the top of my head that I find the hardest. I lean forward on my gas tank, duck down and curse myself for not liking windshields!

I saw this on a semi I passed, first time I ever saw a wing on a trailer! Makes sense, anything to trim off some drag, and save a little fuel. Might work better at increasing fuel economy if he wasn't doing 85 into a head wind though! Video is at 50% slow motion.






My awesome goldfish-like memory served me well again; at my last stop I had looked up which interstate exchange would put me on the right road for my travels south tomorrow (Hwy 77). Whilst riding through Lincoln, NE I had it in my mind that it was Hwy 75, so my turn off came and went and I just kept riding, eventually going about 15 miles before I determined I would never see Hwy 75, plus I was low on fuel. Turned around, took a 77 turn off and ended up where I needed to be. Sadly no trifecta today, but I ordered a pizza, had a couple of beers, had a soak in the pool (bad order of events, I know) and called it an early night.

Talk soon!