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| Platte River, upstream view, near Omaha |
Today the sun is back and so I expected the weather to be warmer than yesterday. It was, as the temp topped out at around 87. Just a couple of views today. By mid afternoon I made it to the hamlet of Manley, NE. About 100 people the town reminded me of Arlington, WI. The main business was a grain elevator, and a post office and bar in addition.
The scenic highlight of the day was definitely crossing the Platte River near Omaha. The bike map route avoids Omaha completely. Since I wanted to see Boystown, I took a different route, and got to cross the Platte River this way. The Platte is a huge river. It looks wider than the Misssouri here, but I believe it is very shallow, so the Missouri carries a lot more water.
Sticking to the highways today, I had a great day and made 62 miles, and finished in Omaha. My northerly gain in miles today is an awesome 42 miles. I am keeping track of my northerly miles now, because they are the ticket to eventually cooler weather. I reserved a Days Inn for three nights, which advertised a outdoor pool, which I planned to use!
The Days Inn was a disappointment;I should’ve suspected since the daily rate was low. The hotel is in the Miracle Hills area, which looks like it is in some decline. An entire mall next to the hotel appears to be empty. The pool at the hotel was closed during the duration of my stay. I can also tell about the quality of the hotel internet by the difficulty in entering my journal entries. Pictures load slowly, and the mechanics of the blogger page become very touchy.
Omaha was generally disappointing. Of course lots of traffic, so you want to get a benefit for taking that on. Boystown was closed. Luckily I called ahead, so I didn’t make the trip from the hotel. The Union Pacific Railroad Museum is also closed. Positive cases of the virus are surging across the nation, so places are not likely to be opening either. The highlight of the Omaha stay was the Wheatfields Eatery and Bakery. I found that place while in Omaha several years ago for a curling event. It was only a couple of miles from the hotel. The food is excellent and the bakery selection is amazing. I ate their twice and brought home a dessert.
Answer to Math Question No. 1 (July 5). Mark averages 8 mph on flat roads. But he comes to a one mile uphill followed by a one mile downhill. He slows down to 4 mph on the uphill. How fast does he have to travel downhill to keep his average of 8 mph. The answer is it’s not possible, or you could say infinity mph. It takes Mark 15 minutes to go 2 miles on the level ground. However, it also takes him 15 minutes to get to the top of the one mile hill, which leaves him no time left to get to the bottom of the hill. This is a partial explanation of why flat and level trails are usually the fastest.
Math Question 2: This one might be easier. You may have noticed I am keeping track of my northerly miles each day now. I am using the latitude and longitude of my ending places each day to calculate how many of the miles were in the north direction. In order to do this calculation I need to know how many miles are contained in one degree of latitude. Another way to ask the question is if I start at 40 degrees north latitude, and travel to 41 degrees north latitude, how much further north is that? I use the assumption that the circumference of the earth is 25,000 miles.
Platte River, downstream view
In response to today’s math, which Dean and I tried to solve together, we think approximately 69.4 miles.
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