May 13 2007
Today I got up and tried to get moving. Why is that almost always next to impossible?
Ginny drops by as she has a check for the hotel and needs the bill before she can pay it. She is much more of a morning person than I am so she is there way before I am ready to leave.
I had hoped to go to church, but instead end up missing it. The hotel had put me on the side of the building that was in the sun and my brains seemed somewhat scrambled as I tried to load up my bike. When I went to back out of the parking space, I realized that my load wasn’t as balanced as I like so I drove around the building to find some shade.
Then I pulled the front bag off my bike, repacked it and tried a slight test drive. I had missed church, but was still near Barnes and Noble. I thought about heading on over, but realized that the whole day might pass if I started another book.
Instead, I drop by J. Rocks house to give her the t-shirt and some CDs. We sit and talk for a while, then I climb on my bike and head over to Kearney which is pronounced Car.Knee. Nebraska is an interesting state in that there are many places where the name of the town isn’t spelled the way that you say it.
The ride was nice except for the wind. I don’t think that I had much wear on anything except the sides and edge of my tires. I decided to take the back roads, Routes 34 and 30 into Kearney.
When I check in there is a gift basket waiting for me to help me feel welcome. I dig in as it is mother’s day and I want to return to Skeeter Barnes to eat dinner. Wanting to avoid the crowd, I call to find out what hours they are open.
The Ramada Inn has a laundry machine, but it is not in my building and I seem to be exhausted. I wash out some of my clothes so I will look decent tomorrow; put them in front of the heater and head on out to eat.
The food was great, but as I ate it, all I could think about was about how food is harvested in our country. I keep getting told that there is nothing to see when you take the back roads, but there is; rural America is out there. If you look, riding on almost any rural highway will really show the decaying of America.
Towns where the local gas station is also the local restaurant. The stores where many shop are in the bigger towns and even when there is a small store, it is filled with junk food; very little of the food available has any nutritional value. There are the requisite Little Debbie’s, Hostess, Hershey, etc, but little more. The cleaning supplies are targeted to those driving through. It can even be tough to pick up a staple like Duct Tape.
Denni and I once talked about a town in our community where the only sit down restaurant available was a McDonalds and how it impacted the community. If you wanted to eat out, you had to drive to another town to get food with any “food value” whatsoever.
I get to bed as early as I can get to sleep as I need to get up and pack up before I can head over to the college. Sometimes I can negotiate a late check out that doesn’t cost the sponsoring organization any money, but this hotel had a big sign that stated, anyone staying over for a late check out would be charged $20, but anyone who was still in their room after 1 would be charged the full room rate.
I debate about picking up the $20 charge so I won’t get sweaty, but decide that I can’t make it back before one, so I give up on the idea and decide to go to bed.
Happy trails, Marty
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