Day 63 - ending near Agate, NE - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

July 16, 2023

Day 63 - ending near Agate, NE

Day 63 - Scottsbluff, NE to Agate, NE

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Up at 4:20am this morning. Moved the bike over to an empty RV spot to charge its accessories battery. Worked on report. Stopped and packed at 6:50am. I didn't get the report done, but needed to get going. I was back and forth about going to Rise N Shine in Gering, or to Walmart in Scottsbluff, to take advantage of their wifi. Some of the decisions I make are made at the very last moment, and this is one of them. I didn't want to lose so much time getting started. Mitchell ahead on my route has a restaurant, so I'll eat breakfast there, and deal with report uploads later.

Today's destination is Pavement Ends Campground near Agate, Nebraska. The GPT has routing west out of Scottsbluff, first on NE-92 then north and west on gravel roads to Mitchell. After that it's NE-29 north to Agate.

I left Riverside Campground at 8:22am. Wind was from the west today; not really too much of a problem. It was hazy this morning. I saw on my weather forecast app that was due to smoke. It was pleasant morning riding, even on the gravel roads. I crossed over the North Platte River twice on my way to Mitchell.

At 10:34am, I arrived at Redz Bar & Grill in Mitchell. They were still serving breakfast. That made me happy. I was even more happy when I found out they have fast wifi here also. I got one report loaded, then loaded the pictures for the next day. The text for that day wasn't ready yet. Noon arrived before I was out of town: 12.8 miles this morning.

After a stop at Texaco GT Mart for Gatorade and Clif bars, I was back on highway NE-29 at 12:11pm for my ride north. The highway has no shoulder but there wasn't much traffic. And the pavement's in good shape. I turned on my radio and listened to a country music station as I went. At 12:45pm, I crossed into Sioux County. At 2:10pm, I stopped at a pull-off for a break. I walked up the side road a ways, which was on a bluff, where I was able to take a picture from up high of where I'd been.

Later, at 3:20pm, I took another break in the shade of a cottonwood tree that was on the other side of the road. I had to turn the bike pointing in the wrong direction to get it to stay upright. So many people stop when I'm taking breaks or even when I'm riding to ask if I'm doing OK. This happened here also. They're all willing to help if needed.

I'd be leaving NE-29 to get to Pavement Ends Campground, which is on River Road. But before River Road is a downhill to the Niobrara River. This area has history, which is explained well at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, also on River Road. I made the turn right onto River road at 5:25pm. The visitor center for Agate Fossil Beds was closed, but I was able to read some outside display boards they have at road pull-offs.

I was just about to the campground when I passed a snake in the road. I went back to see if it was alive. Yes, definitely. A rattlesnake. It curled up for me and rattled its tail. Every once in a while it would stick out its black forked tongue. I kept shooting pictures hoping to get one with its tongue out. I'm thinking now that's like trying to get a photo of lightning. Not likely to happen.

I'd noticed lately that my phone's camera has been displaying a number in the upper left corner, and it's been counting down with every picture I take. I thought that was some software upgrade and I didn't know what it meant. I now know what it means. The display is the number of pictures left that I can take with the phone before the memory is full. I was quite distressed at this, having given no thought that this phone would ever run out of memory. I've taken over 18,000 photos so far on this trip. Now I couldn't take any more without dumping some of the old ones. I deleted a few so I could get pictures for the rest of the evening, then moved on as my subject crawled into the grass.

I arrived at the campground at 6:16pm. No one was here, but there are good self check-in instructions. Sites for tents don't have electricity. I wanted electricity and was wondering if it would be OK to set up at an RV site. I was going to call the campground owner to ask about this when I realized I had no cell signal. A walk to the top of a nearby hill didn't help. So I went ahead and set up at RV site #7. The only question I had now was, do I owe $15 or $35. I'll have to call the campground on down the road when I do have a signal.

I unpacked the bike enough to get to my lunch bag to eat supper at 6:56pm. Then I got the tent set up. Next I should have been working on reports, but I was too distressed about the phone's memory issue. A lot of the pictures on the phone are duplicates I don't need, but it would take too much time to sort them out now. All this thinking about different things I could do was getting me nowhere, so I just went to bed. Maybe a simple solution will come to me in the morning.

Jeff

Spent: $19.74 plus $5 (breakfast) + $11.37 (Gatorade, Clif Bars) + $15 (campsite) = $51.11

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 2,566 miles (4,130 km)

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Mike AylingPhotos - Android phones encourage users to load their pics to the Google "CLOUD". IMNSOH opinion the less of my data that Google has the better. I am sure that Apple would have a similar offering.
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9 months ago

Jeff TeelTo Mike AylingMike,
I feel the same way about data in the Cloud, but this seemed like the best solution since I didn't plan ahead.
Jeff
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9 months ago