Mike says, "Best day yet"

As you know by now, we spent a long and relaxing day yesterday in the
Holiday Inn Express in O'Neill, Ne, secure in the knowledge that the
bike with the flat tire would be picked up at 8 am this morning and
repaired quickly. Well, how do you think it worked? No call at 7
am, as promised. No flat bed at 8 am, as promised. Mike was on the
phone, and I was riding around in the freezing morning air trying to
find the elusive motorcycle repair shop. I was successful, only to
learn that he had used his last tube, the part needed by Mike, on a
Honda Gold Wing on Friday. I will not recount the frustrations with
Progressive road side service, but when I returned to the hotel, the
bike was being loaded onto a flat bed by the two nicest people in
O'Neill: Elaine & Butch. Then, the search for the tube began with
Elaine speed dialing everyone she knew. She is a woman who gets
things done! Long story short, in all of northern NE and southern
SD, the direction we were traveling, the only tube was 75 miles south
of us, along a route already traveled. So, in Butch & Elaine's pick
up, with Mike at the wheel, the two of us traveled back to Norfolk
(pronounced Norfork for those of you who don't speak Nebraskan) to
pick up the tube (150 miles). (As a side event, we saw Johnny
Carson's home & birthplace.) Butch brought the bike to Leon, the
third nicest guy in O'Neill, (see pictures), and he fixed the bike
for an embarrassingly small amount of money. Meantime, we are driving
around in the pickup, eating the best Mexican food I have had in
years, all through the kindness of Butch and Elaine. We left O'Neill
at 4 pm today, 2 hours short of a perfect 48.

We traveled another 100 miles NW to Valentine, NE. We stopped
along the way to hike a short distance to an incredible trestle
bridge over the Niobrara River. This is a foot bridge along the
Cowboy Trail, a hundreds of miles long recreation path built on the
old railroad bed that runs almost all the way from Omaha to here.
Butch & Elaine told us about it, of course.

The day has been long and challenging, but we have met people to help
us, nice people to give us advice and counsel, and state fire workers
who talked all about their feelings for this beautiful area in which
they live. So, this day was not about the bike and the tire, this
day was about the people we met, the real reason for this trip. We
love Nebraska!

Tomorrow, the Badlands, Wall Drug & Rushmore.