Biking: 77 miles
This is a pretty intense week of riding for us. Most days we’ll be covering more than 70 miles. But, we’re getting stronger as we go, so the 70 miles that wiped us out in the first week don’t feel quite as difficult now.
Today we took off from Norfolk and rode to Fremont, which is just northeast of Omaha, NE. In fact, Brian took our dog Oreo to the groomer in Omaha today, and he stopped by the bike shop to get the tire on my road bike fixed. That’s how he spends his free time these days.
We had originally planned a biking route that included a lot of climbing, but last night we decided to make a switch and ride a highway – Route 275 – because it drops us straight into Fremont. The one catch, Google is telling us there is construction on the highway, and one segment is 12 miles long. While there is a shoulder, the highway has a lot of truck traffic. Google recommends we take another route.
We decided to go for it anyway. The highway reduces our ride by five miles and about 2000 feet of climbing.
When we passed the construction site, we could see that the road is being expanded, and a new road is under construction. I rode past the access to the new road and continued onto the shoulder of the busy highway. A few minutes later, I look back and I see Anita and Mark waving to me from the new road.
Oh boy, I know how this goes. My adventurous friends are about to get us into trouble. I’m sure the cops will be here soon to chase us back to the highway. We rode maybe half mile, and here comes a construction supervisor.
But, turns out, he was just letting us know that wet cement was being poured ahead, so he recommended we ride to that point, move out onto the highway to skip the section of the road, and then continue on this new (closed) road for the rest of the 12 miles. Ummm…ok. So, we had the road all to ourselves. Amazing.
It was a long day in the saddle, but we had a tailwind for the last 15 miles or so. That was a welcome relief from the crosswind.
Tomorrow we head from Fremont, through Omaha, to Malvern, Iowa. This will be our first day riding in Iowa.
RWGPS for today:
Keep the Wheels Turning 
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