Sun Sep 10, 2017 - Councel Bluffs, IA to McCook, NE

It was all Nebraska all day. This is a really big state. Some time ago I came from west to east across northern Nebraska which was pretty much barren so I was expecting the same today going across southern Nebraska. Not so. It was corn, soy and sorghum all the way across (We are almost at the Colorado border tonight).
We started with black clouds this morning, so on with the rain gear, just in case, and immediately got lost due to the GPS not knowing about all the closed roads due to construction. We even headed east back across the Missouri River at one point, but turned around, ignored the GPS and just drove west. We ended up on a no-name road headed west and hit Rt 50 going north/south and went south. It was very rolling around Council Bluffs, probably due to the last who knows how many centuries of the Missouri River meandering. So rolling hills means no crops and some beef cows grazing and a little hay.

But once we got south west a bit, it flattened out again and the crops came back.
We saw lots of hawks sitting on power poles looking for a little snack and lots of raccoons (corn field = raccoon smorgasbord). I saw a condor yesterday having a raccoon buffet.

Buying fuel is really confusing out here. You can buy non-ethanol, 5% or 10% ethanol and some of the pumps have multiple hoses so you have to pick the right hose. Just don't pick the green diesel hose.
It hit the mid 90's today and we really felt it when we stopped. Oh yeah, it stopped raining mid-morning and the rest of the day was sunny.
It is actually very meditative out here and I listened to music most of the day. The headphone/radio worked fine but the cross wind (from the south) was brutal and pushed us all over the road. In addition, the cross wind made so much noise all we could hear on the headsets was wind noise. So meditate, or listen to Miranda Lambert.
Oddly I never got bored with the day after 300+ miles. We stopped for coffee a couple times which breaks it up, and our butts are getting hardened up nicely.
We ended the day in McCook which is half way between Lincoln NE and Denver so there is a rail yard and crews work out of here. The hotel is a local one with the rooms inside of a hanger sized room, kinda weird, but kinda cool. Like having an indoor park with rooms around the outside.

Dinner at the local popular restaurant where they have floor to ceiling cookie jars on every wall, each one different. The waitress said they had 1500 in all, including the ones in the basement. A hobby the owners started years ago and it kinda got out of control.