Day 34

We awoke to the smell of bacon this morning! The Evangelical Free Church of Alliance kindly provided us a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, egg casseroles, and toast. The ride dedication was for Kathy, Patty, and Brad from yesterday's combined portrait. These women who have battled cancer are so brave and have worked together to contribute back to their community. Together, these locals have formed a support group called Jane's Closet that provides rides for rural residents fighting cancer to get to cancer centers in cities, most of which are hours away by car.Today is known as the day we got a dozen flats, mostly due to "tree nails." People showed us great hospitality on today's 97-mile ride. (Not a century!) In Angora, the postmistress let us use her house for the bathroom and brought out some cookies. At Cenex gas station in Bridgeport, we were able to fill our coolers with ice water. Those were the only two towns we went by during today's ride, so there were few places to stay when the storm hit. Our groups were scattered throughout the route when we had to stop to avoid being pelted with rain and hail. All of our groups safely avoided the weather in locations including houses, horse trailers, and garages. A special thanks goes out to the Nebraskans who helped us today! We then used the van to shuttle riders back and forth to the stayover because the storm system was too big to wait it out. Nebraska showed us its most beautiful landscape today: craggy rocks jutting out of the rolling fields of wheat and cattle; constantly morphing clouds and sun; and glorious downhills into the expansive plains and plateaus. We like Nebraska a lot.Today's arrival in Kimball marked the halfway point of the ride, 2268 miles. We finally all were together at Kimball High School, where we had showers, washing machines, and a kitchen for making dinner and breakfast. Jeff called to get a donation of 4 pizzas from Java Blend. So in summary, not much happened today... It was totally boring and average. Enjoy the epic photo below!