The Sand Hill Byway – that’s what they call Nebraska Highway 2.  It’s called that because the scenery is made up of hills that are covered with wind-blown sand that has accumulated over hundreds or thousands of years.  The important part about it today is that it lead me 400 miles closer to home.

The roll-out time from Casper, WY is our normal 9:30.  The first hour was spent primarily on I-25 which has an 80 MPH speed limit.  From there we followed US-20 across eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska.  Once again the wind was blowing pretty consistently today which makes riding feel like a fight against nature.  We took a hard right turn when US-20 intersected NE-2 and stayed on that road the rest of the day.

We’ve covered this area multiple times so there are only 2 pictures today.  Our usual overnight stop in Broken Bow, Nebraska is the Arrow Hotel.  It really is a unique old hotel that rents a small apartment for $89 a night.  I wanted to try something different this time so I reserved rooms at the Cobblestone Inn.  I have never heard of this chain before and wasn’t sure what I was getting in to.

It turned out to be an almost new facility that is really nice.  It is conveniently located next to a brand new gas station and a Taco John’s restaurant.  I probably won’t be eating at Taco John’s again unless there is no other option.  The only thing that saved Taco John was that the Cobblestone had a small in-house bar.  We drank a couple of beers to wash away the mediocre taco meal

Tomorrow we are headed to Osceola, Iowa as we get closer to Indiana.  The mileage each day will get shorter. As we get closer to home the draw will be there to do a long day instead of 2 shorter ones so we can sleep in our bed.   We’ll see how the spirit moves us.  I am hoping the weather holds for us.

Typical scene along Nebraska’s Sand Hills Byway (NE-2). You can see the hills and how straight the road is.

A small lake and more sand hills as we make our way to Broken Bow, NE.