Top photo was taken in Johnstown as we stopped for a late lunch. According to the proprietor of the L Bow Room, the town was named for John Berry who passed through the area while participating in the Chadron to Chicago horse race, liked the area and came back and settled in.
The middle photo is of the pool hall in another of the little towns we passed through. There was supposed to be a restaurant there but it had closed down, along with most everything else in town. The pool hall is just big enough to have a table and a bit of room to walk around it. The door is open and there are snacks available. It's strictly on the honor system. Pay for what you use and keep the place clean. Amazing, actually, but good to see.
The bottom photo is in O'Neill, the Irish Capitol of Nebraska. Those are my two saddle pals sitting next to the Blarney Stone. If you were to contemplate riding the Cowboy Trail, a bike like the one pictured would be a decent choice. The fat tire bike seemed to float over all the loose gravel without much difficulty. If I had known the condition of the trail prior to starting, I'd have considered riding my mountain bike, or maybe even buying a new one. The two of us who have toured together quite a bit both were running the same tires on our bikes - Schwalbe Marathons in 700 x 32. We did ride quite a bit of the distance on the road due to the conditions and the time constraints and on the road we had an advantage over the fat bike, but the other guy is a stud and he handled it like a boss.
The idea was to average 50 miles a day. Even with the late start on our first day we got in 46 miles, but we did have to put in some road miles. We hit right around 50 the second day and we knocked out a metric century plus on the third day. A metric century being 62 miles/100 kilometers. The last day was about 35 +/-. The wind was an issue on a couple of the days and the heat was also a concern, getting up into the nineties. The prevailing winds are west to east but we never had a tail wind. We did get lucky and dodged some serious rain clouds. The sky was thundering and there was lighting off in the distance on the third day but we stayed ahead of it and the clouds kept the temperature down for us.
I had some trouble with my bike. The old Raleigh has Suntour Power Shifters on the downtube. The one for the back derailleur broke the spring inside it for the ratchet mechanism but we got it rigged as a friction shifter and it worked just fine. A little nerve wracking initially, however. But that's how bicycle touring goes. I did learn that my cycling specific multi-tool doesn't have a Phillips head screwdriver on it. The straight blade isn't much to brag about either. Menard's sells a screwdriver with both straight and Phillips that is pretty compact. I think I might have a small one that takes 1/4" hex bits out in the shop that would work well also. I'll have to see about that. I also need to adjust the tension on the saddle. The top has sagged down and created a pressure point that is most uncomfortable. I'll oil up the leather and tighten up the adjustment screw a little at a time and see what I end up with. I already bought a replacement shifter off eBay that should be here by the end of the week. I need to pick up a roll of handle bar tape as well. I put a leather wrap on the bars a couple of years ago but the leather has shrunken badly and the stitching came apart while on the trail. The leather looked really good when it was new but I'll go back to regular cork tape.
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