Today was a day punctuated with punctures, pauses, and problems. It was foggy when the guys were getting ready to leave this morning from our campsite.
Phil checked his tires and he had another flat that had to be repaired before they took off. 
We were meeting them in town at the Railroad Park to see the old station site. 
Construction of Nebraska’s Cowboy Rail Line began in 1869 and was completed in 1886. Service on this line ended in 1992. This is now part of the Cowboy “rails to trails” system which began in 1996. Trains serving this area brought settlers and helped develop the farming in the area. 
Between 1854 and 1929, nearly 200,000 children from overcrowded East Coast cities (mainly New York and Boston) were loaded onto trains and sent west to farming communities. Many of the children were orphans, but some were children of ill parents or parents too poor to take care of them any longer. The children were paraded around in front of the towns people who picked them for various reasons. Older boys who could work on farms or infants were most often selected. Some were adopted, but many were taken in as unpaid laborers and treated poorly. Families were often separated, and many siblings never saw each other again or even knew what happened to their siblings. Many of the families in the area are descendants of the orphans who arrived on those trains.
From Atkinson, the guys headed on down the trail to our first stop east of O’Neill. Marcia and I waited and waited … Phil had another flat tire and they had to stop to fix that. On top of everything else – it was raining – and raining. When they got to the RVs, we hunkered down. I cranked up the generator and took the hair dryer to Tobey’s jacket and pants to get them dried out a little! We watched the weather radar on the phone and when it looked like they would have a break, they took off again.
As they came into the town of O’Neill, they saw a tanker train being filled with ethanol so they stopped to watch. It sounded like it was pretty cool to see.
We were planning our next stop near Inman and before they arrived, another round of showers came in! With all of the delays, we decided to make this our lunch stop (it was supposed to be the 10 am stop!). They were tired from the wind and rain and took a break!
By 1:30, the sky had cleared, the temperature was rising, and it was time to get moving. 
They had some stretches of soft sandy gravel which made riding more difficult.
Phil wanted us to see some of the cattle they spotted as they went along. The cows often said “hello mooo” to the guys as they went by.
We had another stop at Ewing about ten miles down the road. Marcia and I walked all around the little town while we waited for them. The painting on the side of this building was great.
It seemed like it was taking FOREVER for them to get there. I checked my “follow me” locator on my phone and it revealed that they were less than half a mile away for more than 15 minutes. A quick phone call let us know that Tobey had a flat tire they were repairing. Unlike Phil’s flats, it wasn’t a slow leak from a sandbur, but a quick “whoosh” from a rock puncture. A few minutes later, they rolled in!
The sun and heat after such a soggy morning were taking a toll! Iced tea tasted good to cool them off before the last nine miles into Clearwater. 
After riding 51.8 miles today they arrived where we are camped at the Catholic Church parking lot (with permission) at 5pm!
We played our last game of Skip-Bo after dinner tonight and Tobey FINALLY won a game! He was pretty happy about that. It has been a good trip so far, but tomorrow will be our last day of riding together with Phil and Marcia.
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