Hot Springs, South Dakota to Chadron, Nebraska Sunday, August 8, 2021
Decision made, it was time to get going. Another scorcher today. I left as early as I could, left the last trace of the Black Hills behind and re-entered the rolling prairie. I passed a sign that symbolized my difficult choice.
and found comfort, as I often do, in the words of fellow Vermonter Robert Frost. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken
Rolling prairie. Now I see where the term “prairie schooner” came from, it felt like I was crossing oceans of grass. The monotony was mitigated by a long phone call with Sarah, during which I crossed into Nebraska. I didn’t want to risk dropping the call to take a photo of the welcome sign, but it mentioned that Nebraska was the home of Arbor Day. This without a tree in sight. You can’t make this stuff up.
It was 99° when I rolled into Chadron, just before three. Chadron has the only Warmshowers host in the Nebraska panhandle, but you can’t camp in heat like this, so I opted for a nice motel. They had a fitness center with the first scale I’ve seen in weeks, and my sorrow was bucked up by seeing I had lost 40 pounds. Of course this was before eating anything or fully rehydrating, so I guess it was the opposite of a thumb on the scale.
I went over to see the Warmshowers hosts anyway, since Steve and Cheryl had cycled around the world. Their lovely home was naturally cool without air conditioning
…a real oasis as they gave me food and drink, local route advice, and we shared stories of our love of the open road. They met while cycling through Salzburg, Austria, which brought to mind a favorite movie Before Sunrise. We could’ve talked for hours, but it was Cheryl‘s birthday, so I left them to celebrate.
The 3 mile detour to visit them gave me another little bonus: my odometer rolled over to 5000 miles, or five large as Tony Soprano would say. What a long strange trip it’s been.
Distance 57 miles, 5,002 total. Time 7 hours with stops. Elevation gain 1,587 feet
©️ 2021 Scott Luria
The Ends of the Earth 