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August 13th, 2012 | Nebraska

Halfway there…!!

We have covered a little over 2 500 km since leaving Cochrane and the last four days have been amazing…!!

I am busy with a detailed post about today’s ride from Keystone in South Dakota, to Ainsworth in Nebraska…!!

The Big Fella and I popped in to see Mount Rushmore… The hammer and chisel I was carrying was confiscated by security…

Halfway across the USA…!! It’s a mere 3000 km to Washington DC, which I aim to cover in the next four or five days…

I wondered what had upset them…!!

Although I only covered 500 km today, I had some of the most amazing experiences with people I met along the way…

They include the prematurely retired logger, who lived in a tepee somewhere close by; the lady who stopped to see if I was OK, out in the middle of nowhere, while I was contemplating the scenery around me; and the couple I met in Martin, who were touring around on a custom-built Honda Goldwing and sidecar, and pulling a trailer behind it all…!!

180 000 km on the clock, and Patricia’s ribbon does a dance in the Big Fella’s honour… He just asks for more fuel….again…!!

The Big Fella celebrated a birthday a short distance from Wounded Knee, a place that I wanted to visit and which had a very special effect on me…

It brought back memories of a book I had read on the subject, a long time ago… It was entitled, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”…

A movie with the same title was made to illustrate the massacre on unarmed Sioux men, women and children at the hands of the US Cavalry in 1890…

The words “Bury my heart at Wounded Knee, were supposedly originally uttered by Chief Big Foot, after hearing of the massacre… He lay dying of pneumonia in a tent nearby while the atrocity was taking place…

I left another small piece of myself out there today…

We made a detour to visit Wounded Knee… I felt something in the air around me as I read the account of the massacre that took place here…

The next few days will see us riding through the mid-west, a place I am told will be the longest and most boring stretch of countryside that I might ever ride in…!!

Indeed…!!

Time will tell… I have always managed to entertain myself when these supposedly boring parts of the world need to be crossed…

Crossing the Libyan Desert and the Nullabhor Desert in Australia, and Ruta 3 from Rio Gallegos to Buenos Aires come to mind… Also the Atacama Desert in Chile and Southern Peru…

I usually hand things over to the Big Fella and Gi-Gi, and let my mind wander…

I listen to the music blasting through my earphones; write posts in my head that have often disappeared from my brain by the time I sit down to write them; I run through the plans I have made for the next few rides, remind myself of the places I want to see along those routes…

I think about my future, and the life I will soon begin with Patricia once this is all over; or just go into a trance until I need to make a turn, or am being asked to make a u-turn by an exasperated Gi-Gi, because we have blasted past a waypoint that I had previously set…

I am therefore very seldom bored…!!

GB

Ainsworth, Nebraska.

PS. A very big and happy birthday to my youngest daughter Robyn, who celebrated her 19th birthday today… Hope you had a wonderful day…!! Thought about you often…

7 comments to Halfway there…!!

  • Mark Behr

    There are so many attrocities that we, as mankind, have committed in the name of “progress”. We have a great deal to be accountable for and even more to answer to. We are really fortunate that we have a God who loves all, forgives all, restores all and allows us, in Mercy, to live in His Grace.Great post!

  • Carolina Correa from Chile

    Thanks for letting me enjoy your adventures, I wish you the best always. Take care, there is less way to go ………..

  • Mark Piff

    Yes the fun states, it’s the only place in America where if your dog runs away it won’t matter you can usually see it for the next three days!! Great to chat with you last night! Godspeed!!
    Mark “The Bear”

    Maybe I should change the name of the bike to Bear Then we could be Mark and The Bear???

    Fuck Google!
    Ask Ronnie!

  • Patricia

    Awesome darling…I am riding on your wings..xoxo

  • P. Know that they are beating strongly to get me to you… R.

  • Hey Bear….!! And the fact that it has been to the Arctic means you could call it the Polar Bear…!! Ha…!! R.

  • Carolina de Chile…!! It is my pleasure to be able to give you a window to my world… Glad you are enjoying it all…!! There is much more to come…!! I just need some time to fill in all the blanks…!! R.

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