Today Franklin to Arapahoe Nebraska. WIDE OPEN SPACES! Think of the Dixie Chicks song- couldn’t download that but I got another Chicks song for my video- see the link below. We have WiFi today- staying at a Methodist Church in Arapahoe. Very nice of them – they are even cooking us dinner and making breakfast for us tomorrow morning! Great ride today- only 60 miles with favorable winds, not much up and down- we are really on the Great Plains now. Incredible views while riding- what a joy being out in the wide open like this- wow. We stopped at Alma for a coffee break 22 miles in. At the Dragonfly coffee house and bakery. Had a double espresso and a delicious caramel nut sticky bun freshly baked! The town is on a man-made lake- Harlon County Lake, which was built to control flooding of the Republican River. It wiped out the town here in 1935. The Indians had warned settlers of the “Big water”, they didn’t understand what it meant at the time so they built a town right there on the river because the soil was very fertile and good for farming. The Indians also called the river “the Manure River” because of all the buffalo pooping in it. This Republican River valley was home to one of the largest buffalo herds on the prairie. Alas- we haven’t seem a single buffalo yet. I understand maybe when we get to Wyoming we will see some herds.
Below are the RidewithGPS stats for today:
Biking across the USA with Mike 
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