Today I did a 400-foot climb. Not what you would expect in Nebraska, right? Well, it took me 71 miles to do this climb. It was such a gradual climb that I didn’t even notice that it was happening. After the ride when I looked at my ride data, I could see it.

Here’s a photo of the ride elevation profile. Click on the image to view a larger version.

I didn’t do an entry yesterday because it was a very busy day. I did live radio interviews for KEXL and US92 (official call letters are KUSO) and an interview with a reporter from the Norfolk Daily News. Prior to my 30 minute presentation at the kick-off event for the Norfolk American Diabetes Association Walk for Life, I did 30 minutes or so of “meet and greet” with the kick-off event attendees and taped an interview for KTIV TV, the NBC affiliate in Sioux City, Iowa. In the midst of all that, we still managed to stop by the Elkhorn Valley Museum to see the Johnny Carson Exhibit. Norfolk is Johnny Carson’s hometown.

After the event was over, I was exhausted! But, I managed to stay awake long enough to catch the piece on KTIV TV. We were one of the lead stories!

As busy and exhausting as the day was, it was overall a fun event. When I do these events and I come away feeling like I had some fun, met some new friends, and spread the word about living well with diabetes, the experience is more energizing than it is draining.

So, I left Norfolk this morning feeling pretty good about the long, difficult miles ahead. I expected, even hoped, that heading west out of Norfolk would be the same hilly terrain as I experienced coming into Norfolk from the east. I was hoping it was hilly because the more hills I can do now, the better prepared I will be for the difficult riding through the Rocky Mountains. Those mountains are only a couple weeks away now.

But, as it turned out, Norfolk to O’Neill was essentially flat riding. A 400-foot climb over the course of 71 miles isn’t even noticable.

We’ve decided to make a change to our route from here to Bowman, North Dakota. Our original route involved some north and south zigzaging. We found a new route that we think will be a bit more fun because it goes through the Black Hills. It’s also about 75 miles shorter.

Here’s our original route:

(Click on the image to view a larger version.)

And here’s our new route:

(Click on the image to view a larger version.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 7:00 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.