051: Day 63: June 10, 2021: Stuart to Ainsworth NE: 41 miles today and 2159.5 in total.

The Squirrel came out to say goodbye this morning. We had a lovely evening at the Sisters' House B&B. Marcie and David left before us but we were able to play hopscotch along the way today. 

A shot of the Bank, the Grain Silo and the water tank of Stuart.

Quite a lot of metal scrap we saw along the trail.

This is a poor photo, but today we saw quite a number of snakes. This one was ready to strike as I cycled past.

We saw a couple of these benches in today's section of the trail. The people resting here will surely enjoy the shade.

The Cowboy Trail continued to interest us. We enjoyed the view of the young corn on the one side of the trail and

the field of grass on the other side with the forest on both sides of the trail. These shady sections are a real boon for us and the wildlife that live here.

I added a couple of pictures to show the beauty of this flatland. 

The geology has changed over the last day or so. We are now in a sandy area - the locals kept on referring to the Sandhills of Nebraska - with the clayey soils of Ohio and Iowa long gone. We are certain that all planted crops have to be irrigated regularly in this part of the USA.

The first town we came to was Newton where we passed this dilapidated barn where even some goods were allowed to rot away. 

And we found Marcie and David at the Newton Pool Hall. We had to stop

for Christine wanted to show that she is still the champ. 🥰🥰🥰🥰  This is actually an honesty shop with drinks, cold water, candies, etc and a till with cash where you can pay for what you took. 

We passed this small cutting and noted that this is a very old sand dune.

The surroundings continued to be beautiful.

We saw quite a lot of free-grazing cattle. Seems that we have, for now, passed the feedlot area.

The marshes that suddenly appeared are lovely interludes in the grass plains. 

By this time, although we did not know it yet, we had our first puncture on the trailer.

Soon afterwards we stopped and I tried repairing the tube under this shady spot. 

There were too many holes with this one thorn causing about four of them. I replaced the tube and left the repairs for the evening.

White thistles

with these yellow flowers hiding in tall grass and 

the Yacca showing its flowers.

The hills were getting more pronounced and we liked the different colors on these.

We decided to turn into Bassett for something to eat and passed this old gas station before we reached 

the Bassett Lodge. And here we had lunch with Marcie and David again. We said our trail goodbyes here, as they stayed over and we still had about twenty miles to go. Thanks, David for sharing one of your patches. We shall keep it as our blessing until we meet again. 

The wind picked up strongly.

We liked the sign but did not like the detour, a gravel road going uphill straight into the wind. And to make matters worse, the gravel was very sandy, making cycling horrible and pushing even worse. We were glad when we came to the top of the hill and saw that the road turned 90 degrees to the right directly to the next town, Long Pine.

I liked the decorations on the closed section of the trail. For us it was the end of the detour.  

These small towns all have a story to tell. Christine and I were talking about this as well. If you want to follow up on the history, you would probably spend at least a day in each of them. I add this historical marker here. We just could not imagine 5 passenger trains per day for visitors and holidy makers to this area.

Just outside Long Pine we came to this 115 foot high steel trestle across the Long Pine Creek. The approach is really dramatic and  

the views into the valley even more so.

I had to take this photo of two Longhorn cattle 115 feet down. 

Just look at the wind pushing Christine

and the trees

and the flags. I was happy because I saw the water tower of Ainsworth and I knew we would soon be at the hotel. There was a thunder storm system coming and we decided a hotel room would be better than a tent.

The trail is paved through town.

We went to Big John for dinner. We had the option of Subway and other fastfood places you see across the USA and decided to go for the Mom and Pop cafe. The food was good.

I spent the whole evening trying to repair the punctures but there is one larger pucture that keeps getting the better of me. We shall be looking for more patches and Greenslime as we move on today. As an extra precaution I took off the other trailer tyre and removed three broken off thorns from the thread. I am certain I prevented more punctures further on our travels.