USNA 1973 Ride-2-Remember

Day 31, 3 September: Valentine to Ainsworth, NE

Today begins with yet another gorgeous sunrise. After sleeping in one and a half hours later than the previous day, and following a motel continental breakfast we are on our way for a relatively short yet unpredictable ride.

For the first time, we spend the entire ride on an off-road bike path. The Cowboy Trail is a rail trail that will eventually run across all of Nebraska, but for now the most usable portion extends from Valentine, NE to Norfolk, NE… about 170 miles or three full days of bike riding. It feels good to get off of the busy East/West Route 20, which in addition to high-speed traffic includes shoulders with annoying and poorly maintained expansion joints that make passing over them with a bike similar to the feel of car hitting a pothole every 15 yards. The shoulder is wide enough and safe… two critical criteria, yet annoying with expansion joints, and for today we eliminate that annoyance.

Often the elimination of one annoyance beckons another to take its place. The Cowboy Trail is wide, well maintained, completely off-road, scenic, and safe… but, the downside is the consistency of the trail, which in many areas translates to soft spots of collected pebbles and sand that at times feels like riding on a beach at high tide. Some of these patches are big enough to throw a rider. We all have close calls, but manage to stay up on our mounts. It is a tiring 47 miles, but we make good time nonetheless, finishing in just a tad over four hours.

Jumping onto the Cowboy Trail feels like a transition. For the past few weeks the towns we passed through have been dependent upon ranchers, and the land we passed by owned by the same. Until yesterday we were in the Pacific and Mountain time zones and everything felt like we were in the West. Now, however, we’re in the Plains, a new time zone, and soon to shift from ranching to farming. The Cowboy Trail will take us to the edge of this country’s breadbasket and out of cowboy territory.

Standing in line at a Labor Day/Sunday buffet following our first day on the Cowboy Trail from Valentine to Ainsworth, the gentleman in front of Sally – having noticed our Navy riding gear, begins asking about our ride. Sally enthusiastically offers an overview as he and his wife listen. When Sally finishes, I offer the tidbit that Ainsworth is the halfway point of our trek across America. Without skipping a beat the woman remarks, “I didn’t know Ainsworth was halfway to anything!” Now she knows it is.

Lastly, there’s nothing “halfway” about the hospitality afforded the Ride-2-Remember Team by Bill Montgomery’s Washington D.C. friend Blair Fernau and Blair’s brother, Brett, an Ainsworth resident. Blair has generously covered four motel rooms for two nights for the team. Brett treated the team to a Sunday buffet and has arranged for a number of activities, to include relaxing at a nearby cabin this afternoon and attending the county fair and rodeo, as well as transportation. Super generous and a wonderful way to celebrate the halfway point of the Ride-2-Remember.

Doug Leland