The next morning I am again up early but its due to the cold and not by choice. I get myself cleaned up and go into the kitchen area to do a few things on the laptop.

My new found friends, Dave, Sonia, Teddy and Stan are also up and getting themselves sorted as they are leaving to head home back to Colorado Springs. Now these guys have been a joy to be around the last few days. Teddy is a crazy psycho (in a nice way) German chick that rides Harleys; Stan is a gentle giant and ex-armed forces, Dave is ex-armed forces and now employed to help veterans back into ‘normal’ life.

Now I need to spend a bit more time describing Sonia. All I can say is what a unique person that I have had the greatest of pleasures meeting. Sonia is a nurse who works in a Military Hospital. She had a boy who was born with a heart defect and required a heart transplant at 5 months – during the operation there was an issue and he suffered a permanent disability. She cared for her boy for 19yrs before he passed away only in recent times due to a kidney disease. Also I should mention that the father of the child left her when they found out about the disability as he didn’t want a child like that. Dave comes into her life and he basically makes the sun shine again for her.

Now I started feeling sorry for her and no way did she want that! She told me it was a blessing to have her boy for as long as they did given they nearly lost him at the start. She also describes his personality and how much fun he was. I have had a lot of jobs over the years where parents have lost their child and they have all been the most heart wrenching difficult ones to do.

Sonia is what I call a rough diamond. She has tats, rides a Harley but has one of the biggest and kindest hearts that I have come across. Dave and her are a great couple and I look forward to catching up with them in Colorado Springs. Bloody inspirational and gives some real perspective on life.

So I bum around for a while until my tent gets dried out from the overnight dew and I pack up. It was nice to get going and there were still plenty of Harleys around me to give me a headache;

I get far enough down the road that the Harley traffic goes back to normal. I stop at a one horse town, Pringle, and have lunch. To my surprise they had wi-fi! I have no idea what the bicycle sculpture is all about but I do know that I wish it was Friday!

I get back on Fred and get only about 15klms further down the road and the heavens open up with a thunderstorm – I managed to only get half drowned and ride thru it to Hot Springs;

Just as I am coming into the township another heavy downpour starts so Fred and I take shelter under the local Safeway veranda. 20mins later the rain stopped and we were on our way again cross in to Nebraska;

I arrive at Chadron and book into a Motel – no apologies for being soft but I needed a decent sleep which meant a real bed. I unload Fred and go on a tour of the town;

I find that the buildings are just what I had seen on TV;

I swing by Safeway and get sorted for dinner. I noted that there was a motorbike dealership in town and would check it out tomorrow as I have to change Fred’s oil. I head back to the motel and hope that I have a good sleep!