September 2, 2017
to Ainsworth: Hay-zy day
After yesterday’s rain today is a cloudless morning. We roll-out and head west. In Basset, we stop at the gas station/convenience store for cold drinks and fix ourselves a sandwich. The landscape is changing today, far fewer cornfields and lots of hay. It also feels more humid today and the skies are hazy. We wonder if this is smoke from the fires out west. Montana is burning.
The wind helps us out again today though; we ride a nice pace and get to Ainsworth early. The City Park on the east side has a camping area, but we select one of the large picnic shelters to put our tent in. There are restrooms but sadly no showers. As we laze away the afternoon we meet a colorful local figure: James walks up in bright “mountain dew” pants and tells us all we want to hear about his plans to wrestle control of the world away from Big Business through water owned by the people and has a site: www.sandhillsrainmaker.org
The crux is the huge aquafer Nebraska sits on top of. He wants to bottle and sell water all around the country. Somehow though it seems that Coca-Cola and Pepsi have already though of that idea…….He is a nice guy though and even shows us his “rotating” pet turtle that he keeps in his car. Every time he sees another one on the road the last one gets replaced. He seems to take very good care of them, feeding it grasshoppers and grass.
At dinnertime we walk to the Pizza Hut just outside the park for a pretty decent pizza and salad bar. Rachel has missed salads. Next door is a steakhouse/bar where we enjoy excellent Nebraska brewed Brown Ale and the first half of the University of Nebraska’s Corn Huskers season opener. It is dark before we make our way back to our campsite.
Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 38,678 km (24,019 miles)
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