When I emerged from my tent in the morning the fellow on the motorcycle who was also camping in the park had left. I had a leisurely breakfast of fruit and hit the road about 9 a.m. Just for a change I had a headwind as I cycled NE towards Grand Island. These winds were definitely sapping my enthusiasm, however, I consoled myself that when I turned east towards Lincoln.

I circumvented the town and at the Stuhr Museum turned east onto Highway 34. This is a huge pioneer's museum covering about 250 acres with over 100 buildings. I decided to give it a miss since I'd already visited a number of smaller museums.

One of the advantages of the route I've selected is that it parallels the Interstate highway. Most of the truck traffic took the Interstate, as do many of the cars, so there was comparatively little traffic. I had taken for granted in many respects this absence of truck traffic so it was a bit of a shock to the system to be on 34 which seemed to be a truck bypass for Grand Island. Still, like all unpleasant things in life I was soon out of town again and the trucks disappeared.

A couple of four letter words came to mind as I road east. Wind, flat and corn. First the wind. It was from the north so was fortunately not a pure headwind, but it sill made the going hard. After about 8 hours of this even the most optimistic or hard headed cyclist begins to get a bit fed up. At least as a compensation the land was flat. In this part of Nebraska you can see towns about 5-10 km away through their water towers and so at least it gives you something to aim for. Finally corn. The crops are corn, corn and then for a change, corn. Corn to the left of me. Corn to the right of me. Corn ahead of me and corn behind me. It was quite tranquil in some respects to see these fields of corn swaying in the breeze, occasionally with a train passing in the distance.

I had lunch at Aurora and chose Pizza Hut where I enjoyed the salad bar. Pizza again … but my other option was McDonalds which for obvious reasons was less desirable. After lunch it was on to York where I had a kip in the sun beside the road for 20 minutes. Refreshed, I continued onwards towards Seward.

There was a sudden change in the terrain just before Seward. It was really dramatic. Until I entered the town I had nothing but flat terrain. I enter Seward and have a small hill to climb. After dinner in town I find that from then on I am in hills. These serve to reduce the impact of the wind and were a pleasant change from the last few days.

Seward was a small town of about 5000 people but was marked as the ‘4^th July City’ for Nebraska. This is because for over 100 yeas the city has had special celebrations and it has reached the stage where it is seen as the place to be. There was a list of activities which ran two A3 pages so they sure aren’t overmarketing themselves. Pity that I’m a week early, then again, it may be a good thing as I don’t particularly like crowds.