We had arranged to meet Mike’s friend Sally, and Alex, who we met in Dawson City, in Nashville, Tennessee in 10 days time, so we set out on a leisurely journey across Kansas with only a slightly detour to the Pioneer Village in Midden Nebraska.
The roads from Colorado to Kansas are long and straight, so from a riding perspective the roads are not very interesting. Fortunately we had the rain and strong cross winds to relieve us of the boredom.
With my relative inexperience of riding bikes I found the cross winds quite a challenge and coupled with the lead to my MP3 player breaking and the high wind causing the Autocom unit to have constant open channel, I wasn’t having a good time!
We stopped for the night in a place called Youma, Colorado which was a taste of all the towns to come in this leg of the trip, purely geared for arable crops and hunters!
We had an un eventful night and set off the next day again in the rain. The ride to Midden was only a short hop and we were in town fairly early. The town was very small apart from a number of huge grain storage buildings beside the railway that ran almost straight through the centre of town. We had a quick tour of the town and apart from a square near the centre of town that looked very similar to the one in the Back to the Future film. There was not much here including only one run down looking Motel so we decided to head further north to Kearney which was much larger and had a selection of places to stay.
Before we booked into a Motel we had a quick burger. Whilst in there we started chatting to a group of guys who had just returned from Mount Rushmore and what a great time they had up there. Given we had some time on our hands before we were due in Tennessee we thought we might be able to make it up there as well. Like all decisions its better to leave it until the next day so we slept on the idea.
The rain finally stopped the next day so we headed for the Pioneer Village. Pioneer Village was created by a guy called Harold Warp who from what we can understand invented and manufactured flexi glass in the US.
His idea was to collect as much about American life from the earliest settler to the current day. This included everything from cars and buildings to dentistry and cutlery !
The number of artefacts was very impressive and the place was fairly well laid out. We learnt a lot about the evolution of American consumerism and that Harold Warp was not the most modest of men, as the place was littered with plaques of his wise words!
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One of many old Fords... Ahh, Like being back in Essex without the white socks...
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Reconditioned Trail Wagon
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609252.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Midden old School House
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609284.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Old Shop from Midden
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609314.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Pony Express Lodge...
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609059.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Some items haven't aged too well...
Later that day, back in Kearney we finally decided to change plans and head north to South Dakota….
John
The roads from Colorado to Kansas are long and straight, so from a riding perspective the roads are not very interesting. Fortunately we had the rain and strong cross winds to relieve us of the boredom.
With my relative inexperience of riding bikes I found the cross winds quite a challenge and coupled with the lead to my MP3 player breaking and the high wind causing the Autocom unit to have constant open channel, I wasn’t having a good time!
We stopped for the night in a place called Youma, Colorado which was a taste of all the towns to come in this leg of the trip, purely geared for arable crops and hunters!
We had an un eventful night and set off the next day again in the rain. The ride to Midden was only a short hop and we were in town fairly early. The town was very small apart from a number of huge grain storage buildings beside the railway that ran almost straight through the centre of town. We had a quick tour of the town and apart from a square near the centre of town that looked very similar to the one in the Back to the Future film. There was not much here including only one run down looking Motel so we decided to head further north to Kearney which was much larger and had a selection of places to stay.
Before we booked into a Motel we had a quick burger. Whilst in there we started chatting to a group of guys who had just returned from Mount Rushmore and what a great time they had up there. Given we had some time on our hands before we were due in Tennessee we thought we might be able to make it up there as well. Like all decisions its better to leave it until the next day so we slept on the idea.
The rain finally stopped the next day so we headed for the Pioneer Village. Pioneer Village was created by a guy called Harold Warp who from what we can understand invented and manufactured flexi glass in the US.
His idea was to collect as much about American life from the earliest settler to the current day. This included everything from cars and buildings to dentistry and cutlery !
The number of artefacts was very impressive and the place was fairly well laid out. We learnt a lot about the evolution of American consumerism and that Harold Warp was not the most modest of men, as the place was littered with plaques of his wise words!
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609092.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
One of many old Fords... Ahh, Like being back in Essex without the white socks...
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609222.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Reconditioned Trail Wagon
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609252.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Midden old School House
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609284.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Old Shop from Midden
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609314.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Pony Express Lodge...
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/124609059.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Some items haven't aged too well...
Later that day, back in Kearney we finally decided to change plans and head north to South Dakota….
John
