Day Three – Lincoln NE to Ft. Collins CO - Miles: 490
The route out of town would take us well south of downtown but we first rode about 3 miles northwest to our breakfast stop at the Hi-Way Diner. The diner has been serving breakfast for over thirty years. We headed west on NE33 before connecting with US6 which was the original Detroit-Lincoln-Denver highway and was originally planned to be the first transcontinental highway. Prior to 1920 it was the Omaha-Lincoln-Denver highway but the name was changed after the road added sections to the east all the way to Detroit. As we approached Hastings NE we came upon the old Naval Ammunition Depot that produced ammunition of all sorts during WWII and the Korean War. At one point during WWII the facility was producing 40% of all Navy munitions. The facility was finally decommissioned in 1966. In addition to the Ammunition Production facility they built 800+ bunkers made of earth and concrete and can still be seen from the highway. They are now used as storage for what looks to be agricultural needs. We stopped on the far side at the DLD State Recreation area. We were hoping the rec area would have a view of something but there wasn't much. We didn't stay long and were soon on our way. Our next stop was at Loop Brewing in McCook where we had some lunch along with a pint to wash it down. The brewery and restaurant are in an old Icehouse that sits right on an active railway. The brewery has many neat old pictures of the railroad and surrounding area, and its whole theme is based on the railroad; nice place. The highlight of the trip across the DLD highway was going through the small towns and looking at the old architecture and essentially breaking up the somewhat monotonous trek across the plains. We stopped at the city park in Fleming that was very well kept and even had a museum but it was unfortunately closed. Not much further we stopped in Sterling at Parts and Labor Brewing. The brewery was located in an old Cadillac dealership and I assume that is where the name came from. We pulled into Ft Collins before 7:00 and after washing the bikes stopped to check in the hotel and after a quick turn around we rode a short distance to Zwei Brewing. It quite busy on this Friday night and it took a while to get the first pint. There were several food trucks out so we grabbed a quick bite. We decided to ride across the street and hit Obstacle Brewing but when we pulled in the strip plaza where it was located it began to sprinkle and the brewery didn't look all that great so we decided to head back to the hotel for a last glass of wine and call it a night.
