“THRIFT + PERSISTENCE = SUCCESS” – Slogan of the World’s Largest Ball of Sisal Twine
Welcome to Nebraska! We love few things more than crossing state lines. While Kansas was surprisingly cool (for the first 3 days at least…) we were hoping that our travels into Nebraska would bring us cooler weather and perhaps some change of scenery. Neither of those things happened, unfortunately. Nebraska is just as hot, and arguably hotter than it was in Kansas and the corn phenomenon continues as well. Oh well…I guess this is why we are all anticipating Colorado so much!
Much of our rides look like this these days!
Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely sights to see on today’s ride. Our first stop was roughly 20 miles into the ride where we found the “World’s Largest Ball of Sisal Twine” - a stop needed for Bike & Builders years to come. The ball was in fact huge. It was started in 1953 and as a visitor you can purchase twine to add to the giant ball to do your part. We were unfortunately a bit too early (7:30 am) for the “visitors center” (someone’s house) to be open, so we were unable to contribute…maybe next time!
Our next momentous stop was at our halfway mile marker of the trip – 2,071.5 miles!!!! We once again, chalked, celebrated than moved along our way!
Shortly thereafter, we bike to Lebanon, Nebraska to visit the geographic center of the United States of America. While neat to see, it was kind of a let down of a stop. It was pretty much just a flagpole with a plaque and a weird 4 pew chapel? Anyway, we made a party of it as best we could and hung out at the geographic center for a few hours.
Thom, Megan, Emily and I at the geographic center!
The very "official" geographic center sign...
We arrived in the SMALL town of Red Cloud and unpacked the trailer in the Red Cloud community center. We explored around a bit (the downtown was a single street with about 4 blocks on it…) Red Cloud is the hometown of author Willa Cather who wrote a number of books taking place during the westward expansion. We visited her house and the Willa Cather museum. I didn’t end up getting a book (I’ve had to send home 3 books already due to my bin being over capacity…) but I did find this quote that I absolutely love:
“”I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. I feel as if this tree knows everything I ever think of when I sit here. When I come back to it, I never have to remind it of anything; I just begin where I left off.”
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