aurora, ne.... sand traps

Today was supposed to be an easy day, but it didn't end up that way.
I thought I'd travel to Aurora, NE, about 60 miles from Kearney.
That's "as the crow flies". Since highway 30 was getting much too
busy for me, I thought I'd try out the back roads.

I started off heading south into a stiff headwind. After about 10
miles, I looked for the road on my map that I was planning to take.
It was dirt, which wasn't so bad. But after about a mile, it turned
into sand. Deep sand. I tried to ride my bike but to no avail. I
had to walk. This repeated itself the entire morning, as I got lost
and tired trying to pedal through sand roads. Finally I looked at the
clock and it was 2pm and I was still 40 miles from Aurora. Once I
found pavement, I pedaled as fast as I could, trying to get to town
before nightfall. It didn't happen. I ended up getting to town about
an hour after dark. Riding at night isn't very reassuring even though
my bike is wrapped in reflective tape and lit up like a Christmas
tree. There are just too many old ladies in Buicks out there.
Seriously, half the cars out here are 1996 Buick Roadmasters driven by
old folks.

I can't overemphasize the importance of Husker football here. There
are Husker banners on all the houses and cars. I tuned into the
pregame show at about 2pm. The game didn't start until 7. I guess
there's enough abou the Huskers to talk about for five hours. When I
checked into my hotel, there was a sweet old lady sitting behind the
desk. As I walked in, she began screaming at the television "NO!!!
GOD DAMN IT!!!". Oklahoma had just scored on the Huskers.

I was hungry enough to eat a horse, and luckily there's a Runza across
the street from my motel. I had heard about Runza, and was eager to
order everything on the menu. It's German fast food, very filling. I
got a Runza mushroom/cheese/beef sandwich, a cherry Coke, fries, a
bowl of chili, French onion dip, and a sundae. I just can't eat
enough.

Lincoln is 75 miles from here, but I think I'm going to take it a
little easy and split it up. I need a bit of a rest. No more
gravel/sand roads, I hope.