After last night’s rainout, I was off and riding before 7:30 this morning to do a 25 mile loop from Harrah’s Casino Hotel where I was staying, across the Bob Kerry Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge into Omaha, around and through Omaha, back across the Route 275 bridge into Iowa, around Lake Menawa and then back to Harrah’s.
There was fog along the Missouri River when I began and the
bridge was shrouded in white as you can see from the pictures. The clear shot was one I took after the end
of the ride when the fog had cleared.
After crossing the bridge and beginning the loop through Omaha, the roadside part of the trail crosses a bridge and comes out at the Ameritrade Field where the College World Series is being played . (That’s why I stayed in Council Bluffs on the Iowa side of the river. Omaha hotels were VERY expensive.)
Across the street the Union Pacific railroad’s VIP/Public Relations train was parked. I’m not sure, but it may have been used to bring VIP’s to the College World Series.
I began while riding through the west side of Omaha to notice an annoying problem. I had prepared a course for today’s ride to load into my Garmin and also printed a cue sheet from that digital course. However, there were places where the cue sheet was missing a turn between two other turns, and the same thing happened a couple times on the Garmin course. So I got an extra mile or so from bypassing places I was supposed to turn at. I didn’t get too far in the wrong way since my Garmin usually advised me “off course” shortly after missing a turn.
After passing through Omaha I crossed the Route 275 bridge
which has a separate bicycle lane. I
noticed some glass on that lane and a few miles later spent quite some time
finding the glass in the tire which went flat.
I finally found it, put in a new tube and made it the rest of the way
without any further problems.
On the Iowa side of the river I looked forward to the ride around Lake Menawa which on the map looked like it would be very scenic. Not quite! The path around the lake was separated from the water by trees and further distance than it appeared. About the only view of the lake was one small section on the east side,complete with lily pads, where you could see the opposite side of the lake and a few tall Omaha buildings in the distance.
What was supposed to be a 25 mile ride ended up being almost
30 because of the problems with the directions, and a two mile extra ride to
the Bob Kerrey bridge to get a clear shot after completing the loop. Then it was back a mile to Harrah's, put the bike in the car, take a shower, check out, and back into the car for the trip back to Maryland with a stop to see my cousin Debbie in Ohio. I'm sure my friend Guy, who told me about the "World's Largest Truck Stop" in Wolcott, Iowa, will be disappointed that I didn't stop there tonight, stopping instead at the Pilot Truck Stop across the street because they have an Arby's and that's what I felt like for dinner as I drove!
This two state ride on the last day of June has brought my total states ridden to 45. Originally I wanted to complete all 50 states by my 70th birthday, which was last August. But the Covid-19 Pandemic put that on hold. Now I’m just five states away, and I have plans to complete the last five in August on a three week road trip around the west that will bring me (and my bike) to North Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. After I get back to Maryland I’ll preview that trip in the next blog post.
Have a good 4th of July everyone!
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