I continued where I left off yesterday, dropping down to SR33 west, which picks up US6 eventually.

I needed fuel fairly early, and stopped at a semi-rural station where a local struck up a conversation, wanting to know details of my travels. When I mentioned I was headed for Denver / Colorado Springs he was aghast. "No way you'll get that far..." And as I was leaving, his buddy stopped me to warn of nasty weather ahead. Well, I (thought I) knew that, so waved and left.

So I'm riding along, and off to my left see a couple of Harvestore silos, big blue enameled things, one of which doesn't look quite right. As I get closer, I see it has a huge dent in it, like a beer can that's been smashed by an axe. I turned back around and took a picture; this is tornado country, although I hate to think what could have done it.

(Some have said that this can happen when the vent system in these silos fail. I couldn't find any similar pictures, though.)

About 15 miles later, I started to notice some regular mounds of dirt on the south side of the road, and they went on for miles (just east of Hastings, NE). Curious, I set a waypoint to check them out later. Near as I can tell, they're bunkers, left over from what was a Naval Ammunition Depot in WWII. Everything I could find indicates that the depot was closed in 1966, but there seemed to be a fair amount of activity there, more than could be accounted for by anything that is reported to be occupying the site presently.

Then, just west of Hastings traffic was stopped, and cars were turning around to come back. I made my way up to the head of the line, where a young man was standing next to a truck with an irrigation company logo on it; it appeared that a crew had a section of one of those huge circular structures stuck across the road; he had no idea how long they'd be. I pondered trying to figure a detour, but with no local knowledge (and he was no help) decided waiting was the best course. Just as well, less than five minutes later they broke something loose, and zip, the road was clear.

The sky has been bumpy-cloud gray and gloomy all day, and I'm thinking about that chunk of weather I saw, and the gas station guy's warning. I'm approaching McCook, and start feeling some rain. I've got nothing to prove, I punch 'lodging' into the GPS; it routes me to a Days Inn. I wait while a couple of business men check in, only to be told they're full. Huh. Back down the road a bit, there's another motel where a Holiday Inn Express should be, she's got one room left, smoking. What's going on? She really doesn't know, just lots of business men. I take the room, although paying more for a stinky room than I did the night before galls a bit. (I didn't try the 'Walk Away' thing, as I wasn't really willing to go elsewhere.)

I cross the street for the night's groceries, and as soon as I get back in my room the skies open up. As the evening wears on, the weather channel has tornado warnings in the area, and I think I hear a siren once or twice, but ultimately nothing happens except lots of wind and rain.

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