Check out time for the Golden Hotel was 11 but I ended up getting going a little earlier than that this time. After talking to the owner about the hotel for awhile and getting the cart all situated for the journey I walked the half mile to the edge of town for a lunch of Mickey D's.
I arrived into Orchard and found myself with a tough decision to make. I started the day intending to run to Royal, a small town 6 miles down the road, but at a bathroom stop in Orchard I found the city park to have free showers. I was feeling extremely good, probably the best I've felt after 24 miles this entire trip. I could have probably done 50 miles today without much trouble. But.........a shower.........hmmm. I stopped at the gas station convenience store to ask what Royal had waiting for me but no one there really knew. Short day and shower it would be. Tomorrow to Osmond would be 35 miles instead of the anticipated 29.
Still kind of early in the day, I took a quick nap before a shower. Being halfway presentable for the town of 379, I ventured out for a quick walking tour. The really tall Lutheran and Methodist churches were dwarfed by the grain elevators-pretty typical of Nebraska towns. I found myself in the Lunch Box, the local cafe, where I enjoyed two cheeseburger specials and a milkshake.
Getting back to the park, I situated myself under the picnic shelter for the night. This was a rather large one and I figured I wouldn't need a tent for additional coverage. Brushing my teeth on the railroad tracks, I saw perhaps the most apocolyptic storm of this whole trip several miles to the east. This storm covered the whole eastern sky and completely blocked out the sunset behind it. As I put my head down to sleep the winds of foreshadowing of a storm picked up.
Within minutes I was in the heart of the storm and started to panic a little bit. Not setting up a tent was a horrible mistake as the gale force winds not only pushed the rain into me, but also the runoff from the roof. The continuous cracks of lightning whose thunder was less than a second away made me fear setting up a tent. I did the next best thing of grabbing the rain fly and wrapping myself and my stuff in it to stay a little drier.
The storm passed about a half hour later but me and my stuff were completely soaked. I set up the tent and marinated in the dampness for the rest of the night. I was much better prepared for the one smaller storm that followed soon after.
I arrived into Orchard and found myself with a tough decision to make. I started the day intending to run to Royal, a small town 6 miles down the road, but at a bathroom stop in Orchard I found the city park to have free showers. I was feeling extremely good, probably the best I've felt after 24 miles this entire trip. I could have probably done 50 miles today without much trouble. But.........a shower.........hmmm. I stopped at the gas station convenience store to ask what Royal had waiting for me but no one there really knew. Short day and shower it would be. Tomorrow to Osmond would be 35 miles instead of the anticipated 29.
Still kind of early in the day, I took a quick nap before a shower. Being halfway presentable for the town of 379, I ventured out for a quick walking tour. The really tall Lutheran and Methodist churches were dwarfed by the grain elevators-pretty typical of Nebraska towns. I found myself in the Lunch Box, the local cafe, where I enjoyed two cheeseburger specials and a milkshake.
Getting back to the park, I situated myself under the picnic shelter for the night. This was a rather large one and I figured I wouldn't need a tent for additional coverage. Brushing my teeth on the railroad tracks, I saw perhaps the most apocolyptic storm of this whole trip several miles to the east. This storm covered the whole eastern sky and completely blocked out the sunset behind it. As I put my head down to sleep the winds of foreshadowing of a storm picked up.
Within minutes I was in the heart of the storm and started to panic a little bit. Not setting up a tent was a horrible mistake as the gale force winds not only pushed the rain into me, but also the runoff from the roof. The continuous cracks of lightning whose thunder was less than a second away made me fear setting up a tent. I did the next best thing of grabbing the rain fly and wrapping myself and my stuff in it to stay a little drier.
The storm passed about a half hour later but me and my stuff were completely soaked. I set up the tent and marinated in the dampness for the rest of the night. I was much better prepared for the one smaller storm that followed soon after.
The rolling hills after the junction to Omaha
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