I really enjoyed my stay at the Historic Golden Hotel in O'Neill, slept better than I usually do at a hotel. It was so cool to step right out the door to an actual sidewalk instead of a huge parking lot. I grabbed a couple things at the grocery store next door, and as I rolled away I noticed my front tire was soft. Since it looked like it could rain or mist at any time, I pulled behind the library across the street under a little overhang. I just swapped to a new tube rather than look for a tiny hole. I finally got going and jumped back on the highway shoulder. Temperature was in the upper fifties and the sky was dark. The wind was again at my back. I made good, fast progress but the highway was boring and the cracks in the pavement were jarring. So made it a point to ride some side streets of every little tiny town to break the monotony. Soon after the town of Clearwater I decided to just risk it and I jumped on the trail. It wasn't that far to Norfolk, and I still had tons of patches and three good tubes. In Neligh I checked out a historic flour mill powered originally by the Elkhorn river. The state owns it now as a historic site but the little museum was closed. There was also a neat historic bridge as well. Of course as soon as I decided to use the trail, it had several sections closed for bridges out of commission. I stopped counting after 4 detours to the highway. But I kept trying and I'm glad I did. I only had one more flat which I quickly patched. As I rode closer to Norfolk the trail looked like it's been getting more use. There was a nice part that took me right by the banks of the river and there was a neat little station set up for taking a selfie in front of the view. As I was playing around trying to get a decent shot, I heard a pretty loud actual gunshot from somewhere not far away across the river. Made me jump. Way to class it up Nebraska. I had wanted to go by the bike shop in town and I knew it closed at 4pm and so I had to ride pretty hard because I was all the way on the southside and needed to get up to downtown. Turns out Norfolk is a good sized city. But I got there with a few minutes to spare. I was rather proud of myself but when I rolled up to it I quickly realized they weren't open. But they didn't close early or anything, there was a sign on the door saying they were closed all day yesterday and today. Oh well. A lot of extra effort and distance for nothing. So I had to ride all the way to the west side of town to Wally World. I quickly grabbed a couple more tubes and rode back south to the campground. It's a lovely spot on the Elkhorn river and the price isn't bad, it's right by the trail, and the tent area is away from the campers. Far enough away from the highway for it to actually be pretty pleasant.