Day 30 Firth, NE to Waubonsie State Park, IA (Sidney)

Last night we had some time to interact with the kids that are attending the Bible camp we stayed at. They attended the end of our peleton meeting and Jane Brouwer explained what poverty was and why we were riding across the continent. Jane did such a good job and the kids were really into it and had a ton of questions for her. Later we joined the kids and some of the camp staff for praise singing around a campfire (it was 90+ degrees!!) and the kids made smores for everyone. It was a good time.

This morning I was awoken by bikers rushing to take down their tents and get their bikes inside the camp’s community building. I found out that there was a storm front bearing down on us and the horizon looked pretty dark. We had our breakfast inside the building and waited out the storm front. It did rain some but was not as bad as it looked. We were kept in camp until 8:00 a.m. to allow the weather to clear some.  All the bikers were pretty bunched up on the roads today, as most left within a short period of time.

We had many hills to climb in Eastern Nebraska today. We finally reached the Missouri River crossing bridge near the town of Nebraska City. Just before that, a group of us stopped at the Lewis and Clark Welcome Center. It was interesting to look around there into the history of their expedition on the Missouri River, looking for the Northwest Passage. It is amazing the amount of exploratory evidence they collected in so much detail on navigation and surveying and the study of animal and plant life that they encountered.

Just after the Missouri River crossing, we entered Iowa, our 7^th state. There was a 6-7 mile flat Missouri Valley and then the Iowa hills start abruptly and it was a steep climb up them to our campsite at the state park.  The day was not easy, but the wind was not as bad as was predicted and the rain did not last too long this morning.

I was really bonking near the end of today and took a good nap this afternoon and feel a lot better. Thanks to all of you for your comments on my blog and the encouragement and prayers you are offering for us. Your interest is so encouraging. I got nearly 400 hits on my blog on a day earlier this week.