Back to Nebraska riding. There are several contrasts between the ride today and my last days cycling in North Dakota and South Dakota. The most immediate one was that the road (US 34) was much busier than US 83 – particularly the first 23 miles between Lincoln and Seward. With the exception of two miles, I had a good shoulder which helped.

I am back to mostly soy beans and corn. No sunflowers today and I don’t remember open pastures. A few cattle but not as many. While I haven’t cycled any, the gravel roads I pass seem to have OK surfaces. I’ve seen several pivot sprinklers but it doesn’t seem like they are absolutely necessary since I also see fields without – though some might be irrigated underneath.

Today had a moderate wind from the SSW. Mostly a cross wind, though my last four miles were more directly into the wind.

Early morning starting out. This road was obnoxious because the shoulder was dirt, the lane was narrow and separated from the other side. So it was tough to ride on concrete and have cars pass. You don’t see it in the photo but one of the large employers must have had a shift start since there were lots of cars that wanted to pass.

Soon enough I was on US 34. A few miles of four lane road and then two lane road the rest of the day.

Until mile 17, it was rolling terrain with many trees. However at this point it flattened out and became more open.

Surprisingly tall tower by those silos.

This was just before Seward where they had a display of state flags.

Downtown Seward has a sign pointing to Seward Alaska at 3446 miles away.

Grocery stop, good place to get some fruit.

If you look closely at the letters, you’ll find ones that otherwise are good nesting sites have wire mesh blocking them. There seems to be a gap in the mesh for “A”.

I saw some fields like this one with mostly dried and shriveled corn stalks. Not sure, but as if they suffered hail damage and then were allowed to dry out.

Also saw a few installations like this. Propane powered pump?

A lunch stop in Utica, just before the York county line. These signs were premature but what they had just done was spread loose gravel across the road, oiled the main road and then swept off the excess gravel including from the shoulder. The last three miles before the turn off to Yale, had not yet been swept. So there was a lot of gravel on the shoulder. Fortunately not too much traffic so I could cycle in the travel lane without gravel and move over after checking my mirror.

Downtown York. Motels are south of town close to the interstate, so I cycled south first to York and then to my motel. Overall, a good day cycling and not particularly hot. Forecast says next two days with reasonable temperatures and perhaps some strong cross-winds. Hopefully that lets me get even further west to drier areas as forecast is for a hot weekend.