An early 5:00am start was necessary to attempt missing the forecasted rain. Downtown Gordon was very, very quiet when I left this morning. Quite the opposite from the buzz it was yesterday when I rode into town. There was little traffic for the first three hours. I anticipated there wouldn't be as much traffic due to the holiday; however I didn't think it would be this scarce. Fewer than 15 cars passed by during the first three hours. Much like other parts of Nebraska, livestock were abundant across the rolling green hills that US-20 ran in between. The tiny towns along the way seemed to be tucked behind these rolling hills and only came into sight after a slight bend in the highway gave way to a straight stretch of road. Also, much like other parts of Nebraska, there was one gas station along today's 92 mile route, and it was around the halfway point of the ride today (Cody, NE). I had packed extra food and fluids today, in the event that the station was closed for the holiday. I was glad to find it was open. After taking a break, I resumed riding eastward. I noticed a storm building to the south. Its wall cloud wasn't the most intimidating nor ominous one, but it was worth noting. After all, almost all wall clouds are when you're riding a bicycle miles and miles away from civilization! Over the course of an hour, the wall cloud to the south began to build, but its development was modest at best. Not long after this, I stopped to swap water bottles, and this was when I noticed another wall cloud: no fewer than 12 miles immediately behind me. This second wall cloud didn't appear to have rain behind it, but I was wondering what impact it might have on the original storm to the south. No more than 30 minutes later, the storm and second wall cloud had begun to converge and head north toward US-20. For the next 30 minutes, I pedaled hard in an effort to outrun the rain. My efforts were successful until I was 12 miles away from Valentine. A light rain fell and then became moderate after a few minutes. Rain doesn't bother me, but lightning does when I'm outdoors on a steel bicycle. At first lightning was only periodic, occurring once every 120 seconds or so, and it appeared to be the cloud-to-cloud variety. Eventually, cloud-to-ground lightning did appear, but it was all miles ahead of me. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to getting off the road and indoors. Today was the day that my mom was going to meet me out on tour. I am grateful that she reserved a hotel ahead of time, so I checked in and cleaned up while she was still in route to Valentine. She arrived around 6:00pm, and at first it was a little unreal, because I had gotten used to seeing no one I knew day after day after day! We went to Pizza Hut for dinner, as it was one of the few eateries open. It seemed like all of the other local restaurants were closed in observance of the 4th of July. The fireworks began shortly after sunset, and, fortunately, they were visible from just outside of the hotel room. This variety of fireworks was much more pleasant than the hours of racket from the night before, which made for a good conclusion for this 4th of July.
