Illini 4000

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Day 29

We awoke to thunderstorms today, but the weather had fortunately settled down to a light drizzle by the time we were to roll out of Norfolk at 7:15. The ride dedication was for a man at Jeff's church who passed away last year from cancer.Then plan was to take the Cowboy Trail all the way to Chadron over the next few days, but with all the rain, we chose to ride on US-275... For miles upon miles. The first 20 miles of the ride were dry, but the next 20 were cold and rainy. Finally after a stop in Neligh, the sun came out, drying our sopping wet clothes as we rode into a strong headwind. Ewing was where we ate the standard 2-PB&J lunch, then rolled onto O'Neill. O'Neill is the home of the largest permanent shamrock in the world! ...which is a shamrock painted in the street.Our stayover for tonight is St. Patrick's Catholic Church, and they provided accommodations in the next door St. Mary's High School. We have the entire gym to ourselves, and really nice showers provided. The next step was to work on food donations because there is no kitchen available. Ryan awesomely found several restaurants in town willing to give us food. Godfather's Pizza at Cubby's gave us two large pizzas. Also, Tia Zia donated burritos. DQ agreed to provide 3 riders with meals! It has been a great evening, watching the USA vs. Portugal soccer game, despite the fact that we tied. :( We are also resting up for tomorrow's ride - the longest one I4K has ever done!