June 22, 2010 – Storms Spared Us, Nebraska is Uneventful Yet Aromatic, Another Steve McQueen Reference, Iowa is Full of Steak

Only light rain overnight after some threatening looking skies at sunset. No rain today at all. Hot but great weather for the extremely uneventful yet sometimes aromatic ride from Ogallala, NE through to Lincoln, NE and sweeping north to a town just south of Omaha, NE called Papillion...not Papillon like the Steve McQueen movie (while he rode no motorcycle in that, he did protect Dustin Hoffman from those who would do him harm, smoked a cigar with a leper, ate insects and escaped from Devil's Island on a raft made of coconuts, all of which is plenty adventurous and bears a striking resemblance to much of this trip).

Following the visit to Papillion, we zipped north on 84th Street into Omaha and its rush hour traffic. Not as bad as the DC Capitol Beltway, but busy. Continued ENE past the town of Chautauqua (re: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance--though the Chautauqua movement started in NY) and east some more on I-80 to the town of Atlantic, where we made camp for the night and dined on freshly-shot steak. So they told us. During a Chautauqua.

Here's today's route:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=U.S.+30+%26+E+1st+St,+Ogallala,+Keith,+Nebraska+69153&daddr=210+W+6th+St,+Papillion,+Sarpy,+Nebraska+68046+to:omaha,+ne+to:atlantic,+ia&geocode=FSaIcwIdZgjw-SkjaBwHgcJ2hzGv-PC357RYgw%3BFfITdAIdSnpG-ikRuyQ84IqThzHVyaMMek1gIg%3BFXZ8dQId5ipH-int_Ay1yI2ThzEEtjeuT01CRg%3B&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=41.157978,-95.652466&sspn=0.776487,1.234589&ie=UTF8&z=7