Tuesday 17th July

I had my nicest awakening of the trip, so far, when Kev woke me with a coffee. It was good coffee, too, supplied in our little suite. We packed our stuff and went down to the garage to check our bikes. Kev's leak is definitely the gearbox mainshaft seal and not the primary. Having topped his gearbox up, we topped up our engine oil, loaded the bikes and set off for breakfast. I was really surprised when Kev led the way across the lights outside the hotel, went about 30 yards up the road and parked. When I asked what was going on, he said he'd seen a cafe across the road so thought we might as well try it.












We went in and it was like a bakery. I asked if they did like breakfast stuff and the guy said that they didn't. He said he'd had some pigs-in-blankets earlier, but sold out. We had cinnamon bums and coffee, thinking it was a bit weird they called themselves a cafe when they didn't even do a breakfast sandwich. When we looked back from our bikes, parked across the road, we saw that the cafe was next door and we'd gone to the bakery. Twats! It didn't matter, tho', because the cafe wasn't even open!









We hit the road, our intention being to get to Alliance, NE, to see 'Car Henge', a. sculpture designed to replicate Stone Henge, but using scrap cars instead of stones. See how cultured we are? It was uncomfortably hot , again, on the road so we needed to keep stopping to re-hydrate.. At one point, Kevin had run onto reserve and was worried, as the miles ticked by without us seeing a gas station, that he'd run out of fuel. I think this happened because, when it's his turn to buy gas, he only half fills his bike so that it is always almost empty when it's my turn to pay. He's as cunning as a fox, that one.He was saved when we came across 'That Stop', in Windmill County. We ate a healthy lunch of fried, crumbed steak strips and tots, Tuesday's special, with a side of cheese-stuffed, crumbed and fried Jalapenos.





















Back on our travels, we still had to stop again, before reaching Alliance, for more cold drinks. We eventually made it to Alliance.and had a look at 'Car Henge', which I think was done by the same guy who did the Cadillac Farm, but I'm not sure and certainly can't be arsed to look it up, at the moment. As it happens, it did nothing for me - just another blot on the landscape, but perhaps I should have found out more about it before going. Whatever!































It was still baking hot when we returned to town to look for the tourist office, for information about accommodation, but it appeared to have disappeared.. Kev asked in some telecom office and we were directed further up Route 2, where there were few motels,including an OK one opposite a 'Git n Split', whatever that is. Anyway, Rainbow Lodge was a good-priced, clean, Mexican-run motel, with a Mexican restaurant on site. Seeing as we'd be eating Mexican, we bought a pack of Corona to drink after we'd eaten.















Despite the hombre's insistence that wifi was good, it was shite and the only place that had usable signal was a bench ouitside the office. While we were sitting there, messing with our phones, a Canadian couple pulled in; he on an 03 Tour Glide, she on an 03 Road King, in matching black.. They looked cool on their bikes and had stopped there because they'd seen our bikes (decked in washing) and thought that meant it would be an OK place, Bwahahaha!













After we all ate in the 'Villa', we had a few beers and chewed the fat for a bit. We were too shy to ask their names, but they were nice enough people. They were on their way home from touring in The Rockies and South Dakota and, on flat land, were doing real mile munching days. We all went back to our cabins quite early, but I still stayed up really late trying, unsuccessfully, to do some blogging. I did finish uploading a few pics tho' and got them on the blog site.

I turned in at about half two.
Tuesday's route