First Stromsburg, Then the World

I'm willing to say this trial was a success. I made it the nearly 70 miles to Stromsburg in a day, with everything holding up well, camped through the night, and then came home the next day.  ...Granted, in part because of a leg injury explained below, and because it seemed silly not to, I did go out to eat with my parents when they came to Seward to take my grandma out for an early Mother's Day dinner and then got a ride home with them, instead of biking the last 30 miles of the trip. But about 70 miles one day and 40 the next still isn't bad in my book. And with plenty of daylight and a downhill course, that last 30 miles wouldn't have been hard if I'd wanted to do it.

...Now, all that said, it certainly wasn't a perfect success by any means. To list off foolish mistakes and incidents:

1. my left leg was sore almost the entire time (not the right, only the left). I think it actually had nothing to do with biking, and more to do with potentially hurting myself earlier in the week when I lifted a massive cement birdbath by myself (a stupid decision which also got my other leg fairly scraped up when I had to set it down in a hurry). I'm fairly sure now my leg was injured from the start...and I still chose to stupidly bike over 100 miles on it, because as established, I'm a determined, prideful, fool. ...Good news though, my right leg still felt great after that distance.

2. I idiotically forgot, again, to apply sunscreen... Yeah, got a little burned. Problem with sunburn is that I seldom feel it while it's happening, only that night when it's hurting and making it hard to sleep. I have to remember that the kind of sun that wouldn't necessarily burn you in a normal few hours of exposure, WILL burn you when you're out in it all day.

3. I need a new, better, less falling apart bike seat cover. My rear demands comfort.

4. My phone service is not nearly as good as I hoped. ...But then, you say, whose is? I guess I'm just left hoping it gets better at some point out west, and not worse.

5. I underestimated just quite how boring mile after mile of Nebraska landscape, with no trees (and thus no shade or windbreak), no rivers, no interesting buildings, no sights at all to see except endless fields of maize (and at this time of year, just scraps of maize), really, truly is. Until I reach the sandhills, I think my journey is going to be more than a little tedious. As a friend told me, though, that's part of the nature of any adventure, and I ought to just suck it up.

All in all though, it went well. Buckley Park is Stromsburg is great. Anyone who is ever in this region of the world, I highly recommend it. First of all, it's free, only asks for donations. While it's mostly an RV campground (I was the only person with a tent), I'm certain no one cared about me tenting there. I'm fairly sure it provides electrical and water for the RVs. It has a bathroom that even has flush toilets. And the campground even has a nice main park by it with playground, volleyball setup, waterslide, baseball diamond, basketball court, the whole works. It's a damn nice park for a small town. Here's pictures:

Nice right? I don't think I possibly could have asked for more in a campground, especially not a free one.

Well, given a week to heal up my leg and sunburn, I think I should be ready for the real thing. Crazy, stupid, west coast adventure, here I come!