The green hills of Nebraska (14 July)

Who would have thought that Nebraska is so green and so hilly?! Certainly not Emil and I. We had pictured long, flat brown plains and were delighted to meet a completely different geography. Emil found a nice byway named the "Outlaw Trail" and each little town along the way exhibited some claim to fame having to do with Lewis and Clark, or other historical figures. For us it meant good roads, little traffic and lovely landscapes to cycle through.

Emil began his ride in Newcastle. Here you see one of the many historical markers that border the byway. I drove on to a Casino managed by Native Americans and started from there. (I had actually wanted to begin my ride at the Nobriara State Park, but part of the road was flooded).

As usual, with perfect Steiner timing, Emil caught up with me just beyond the point where I had turned around to go back to the car. After freshening up a bit, we continued towards our day's goal of Valentine (about 230 miles in all). We stopped for a bite to eat at the Country Inn - from the farm to the fork. The decor was so cute and full of loving detail, I just had to take a picture.
After lunch we were ready to take on the rest of the Nebraska byway and were continually surprised by the beauty of the scenery. Green hills, forests, beautifully cultured corn fields, black angus cattle (earlier I had caused an actual stampede when some cows and calves resting under a tree near the road spied me and my bicycle and tore off over the green slopes. Am I so scary??)

Finally, however, the hills gave way to the vast plains we had been expecting and the scenery took on a new character: wave after wave of grasslands. In the photo below you can see this fascinating transition.

The Nobriara River forms a border bertween the hills and the grasslands

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