Premeditated Meeting

Lincoln is 280 miles from Wichita in Kansas.

A long way to ride a 200cc scooter.

Especially without a tachometer.

But that is exactly what Jim, who writes the blog “Premeditated Scootin'” did on Thursday to come and have a premeditated meeting with me in Lincoln. Wow – he rode 280 miles on his scooter. We met in the afternoon and sat chatting for a while before (what else!) going for a ride on our bikes together.

I didn’t know Lincoln at all and Jim had been there just once before, so we hatched a plan of what to see and we set off. Here is Jim on his trusty steed....

The plan failed straight away as our visit to the Speed Museum was thwarted as it was closed. They only do tours and only at 2pm. Plan number 2 saw us riding to the Nebraska State Capitol Building which is inscribed by an honourable motto “Political Society Exists For The Sake Of Noble Living”. Well, I wonder how many of my readers might believe that applies today? Certainly not back in the UK! The building however was magnificent....

There is of course a statue of President Lincoln nearby, after whom I assume the city is named....

Opposite the Capitol building was a small church, that I thought looked German or Austrian in its style. Jim and I ventured inside to see if we could find out more about its origins, but that didn’t assist, so we decided it would be best to Google it later. I didn’t used to like the verb “to Google” but it is growing on me as you hear it more and more....

We parked the bikes near the Nebraska University and took a walk around the campus. This water feature looked cool and inviting, but it wasn’t – the water was warm....

The campus had a good feeling....

This is a stunning fraternity building. Jim told me a fraternity building is like a house that a small number of students live in and that these are normally more expensive than regular dorms and that such houses are meant to encourage an environment where students make friends for life. My only previous experience of fraternity houses was from watching the movie “Animal House” (one of my favourites!). The fraternity houses in Lincoln were right next to the main university buildings. I would have enjoyed living in this building....

Here is another....

I liked this shadow which was being made from a parking meter. It reminded me of a certain Mr M. Mouse!....

We ate in a restaurant that specialises in noodles. Part way through the meal we remembered that Bobscoot likes taking pictures of food, so we took these pictures just for him....

Jim posed amongst some street art...

We rode to Holmes Park and our bikes got to know each other....

I noticed something odd on Jim’s bike....

The logo makes it seem this could be a small Harley-Davidson!....

We then rode across the city to Pioneers Park that Jim could remember from his previous visit. Here is one of the statues in one of the entrances. There were buffalo in the park, but too far away to see well....

What we did see was two spectacular cars being photographed by their owners. I joined in....

The light coloured car is a Chevy Impala. Nice!

We then saw something odd. A plane flew over....

If you look closely you might recognise the plane....

It seemed to be on some sort of training flight as it repeatedly circled and did a “touch and go” landing at the airport, or at least many “fly arounds”. I captured one of its approaches on my P&S camera....



It looks like the end of the road for our bikes....

After we returned to the hotel we parked the bikes and went for a beer in a huge bar where we were the only customers! I had a really great time meeting and spending time with Jim. He is really good company and I am really grateful he spent a lot of time riding all that way to meet me. Jim, you are a real star and I hope you got back safely.

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The next both Jim and I had long rides ahead of us, so we grabbed a quick breakfast, took a few photos and said our goodbyes. Here is Jim with his bike packed up, ready to go....

My ride for the day took me across Nebraska from Lincoln to Hyannis, which is 317 miles of mainly straight roads, or two roads to be more accurate. I did smile as I was on my gps / sat nav the instruction to turn left in 211 miles!

I had heard that Nebraska is not the most interesting state and I can see why people say this, but it is not as bad as people make out – ok, there are not many towns along the road, but I was surprised by the beauty of the ride – I certainly didn’t expect the sand hills that make the landscape interesting and it was good to see grass and cattle instead of corn! I am certainly glad that I chose to ride through Nebraska.

I crossed the Platte River soon into my ride....

I saw a great many trains travelling east alongside the road as I went to the west. These trains ran about every 15 minutes and were carrying coal. I found out later that the coal is mined in Wyoming but I am not sure where. What I do know is these trains are vast – there were some stationary trains and I was able to measure their length with my trip counter. Most were 1.4 miles long and one was 1.7 miles. I cannot begin to imagine what all of this coal is used for. I played a silly game with the train drivers as I rode along. I tried to get them to blow their train whistles (horns?) by waving at them – most obliged which in my own silly way, I was quite pleased with! In the bar that evening I asked some locals about the trains and was told that at peak, there is a train every 7 minutes! Wow.

However, the train whistles became something of a curse, as I tried to sleep in the hotel in Hyannis. As the trains went passed the hotel they blew those whistles as a warning to anyone on the nearby railroad crossing that they were approaching. This happened about every 15 minutes all night and I am typing this at 4.30 in the morning because I cannot sleep due to the trains! 15 minutes is just enough to fall asleep to then be woken again by the next train.

Watch this and you will see what I mean....It was filmed at 4.30 in the morning, so it is meant to be a little dark....



For some reason, when I told Jackie my wife about the trains this morning, she couldn’t stop laughing! Now there’s sympathy for you!

This is a typical scene on the road through Nebraska. Very straight with the sand hills to the side....

I passed another milestone as I crossed another time zone. I am now on Mountain Time!