Trip update - Alma to Cheyenne

Left Alma at 9 am and stopped for breakfast in McCook NE about 10:30. Clear sky, no wind, started at 75 deg now about 80.

As I was driving on highway 34/6 across southern Nebraska I was amazed at the scale of the farming there. I passed numerous massive John Deere combines going down the road and in the fields, I saw many of those large irrigation systems, massive grain elevators, and trains with grain cars sitting or running down the rails. That was farming on an industrial scale! I could see why the mid-west is called the breadbasket of the nation but I haven't seen anything on that scale in Kansas. 

One interesting thing was a huge rainstorm that I dodged. I was riding up rt 85 from Greeley to Cheyenne and I saw some dark clouds in front of me. As I rode closer they got darker and darker, then I started seeing a lot of lightening. I stopped in a gas station and decided to put on my rain gear. Another bike pulled into the gas station and up to the pump across from me. I asked them if they had come through that rain (DOH! dumb question - they were dry!). They were locals and had just left someplace close by heading south. But the guy explained that I could catch a highway just south of me and ride it to the west and try to get around the storm. Well that seemed like a good idea as it looked like it was a little lighter to the west.

So I left and went south not a mile and found highway 14 west out of the town of Ault. I could see the storm continuing to build to my north just a few miles away. Suddenly I felt the air temperature drop drastically and the wind picked up. Then it turned into a driving, gusting wind rushing out of the storms, blowing clouds of dust and crap (plastic bags, paper, all kinds of stuff). Not only was it a challenge to fight the direct crosswinds on the bike but all the blowing stuff was pretty disorienting. 

But it passed in a couple of miles and I got on I-25 and headed north. By then the storms had passed by and I had a clear ride for the remaining 30 miles or so. 

I got to Cheyenne about 6 and stopped at the "AB Campground" after 407 miles for the day. Felt great, good weather and temps, fairly light day of riding but not very exciting scenery in western Nebraska.

Here is a map of my route for the day.