I’m having trouble finding time to blog and check mail. iPhone has been spotty as hell out here and wifi can be hard to come by.
We started off at meeting Kyle at 9am on Monday morning. A little later than expected because Kyle’s inbound flight to home on Sunday was delayed. He also needed to see if he could pick up some brake pads for his dad’s RT. Apparently he’s in McFall, MO with no rear brakes.
We met Kyle in Eaton and headed west. We got to Hannibal, MO, just west of Illinois around 6pm. Most of the day and the ride was enjoyable. But toward the evening it was in the low 90’s and we were toast. So we started looking for a hotel.
We ended up at the Hannibal inn. Think of it as a the Holidome that was in Sharonville for years. This place got a new owner recently and is in the process of being revived. Still it’s vintage 70’s with a good size indoor pool. Rates were super cheap. $59 for a double, $49 for a single, though they allowed Kyle to have the double room next to us for the same price. The pool was a tad suspect. Most hotel pools are very over clorinated. If you got within two blocks of the Holidome you could smell the pool. No so here, and the water was a tad green. We didn’t care we were tired and hot and needed to cool off. So if I end up with ebolla I know where it came from.
Tuesday morning we set off to pick up Kyle Sr. in McFall and hopefully deal with his brakes. We located a set of pads in Sioux City, IA, and it was somewhat on our way. We weren’t sure if we’d make it before they closed so we prepaid for them and asked them to put them outside where we could find them. We ended up there with 15 minutes to spare.
Now where too? We’re on our way over to the Badlands National park, but aren’t going to make it tonight. Kyle Sr’s range is about 500 miles a day and I’m fine with that. So we look out about 100 miles and locate O’Neill, NE on the way. That’s where we’ll stay tonight.
The ride into O’Neill was spectacular. Route 20 wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. IT was mostly straight but at least it was rolling. We picked that direction because O’Neill was at least 2000 feet above sea-level.
Riding through Nebraska on 20 was sweet. To the north it was beautiful, blue skys, rolling crops as far as you could see. To the south was a wonderful thunderstorm, and we were right in between. The two hour ride peaked at 95 degrees and sank as low as 66 degrees. We got sprinkled on a bit but never really rained on. We beat the storm to O’Neil where we couldn’t find a room. Seems every construction crew in the area is staying in this town.
We stopped and had Chinese for dinner. It was somewhat suspect. But was right next door to the Historic Golden Hotel. Very much like the Golden lamb. They however didn’t have room for us either. Only 2 single rooms, one mini room (which is where I’m writing this from now). But they offered a cot for $10 extra to get 4 of us in these three rooms. We decided to pass, but if the rains rolled in while we were eating we’d reconsider.
While at dinner the manager called over to the Chinese restraunt the manager of the Golden hotel called to let us know he had rooms for all four of us. One of which was an very small single. It had a sink but the bathroom for this room was down the hall. I volunteered to sleep in this room. I’ve seen jail cells that are larger.
(photos soon when I get a decent connection).
After unpacking into the hotel we visited ‘The Office’ the neighborhood bar for a couple brewskies. An interesting place to say the least. After two beers we hit it.