Day Two – Des Moines to Hot Springs SD - Miles: 648
We stopped at The Breakfast Club for breakfast and were on the road by 7:00. We rode about 60 miles mostly on IA44 and mostly due west before we pulled off the side of the road to put on the rain suits. It had gotten very windy and we were just on the edge of the storm. We didn't mess around and quickly got back on and started the ride through the storm. We stayed on IA44 but diverted down to I-880 in an attempt to by-pass the storm. It worked. In almost exactly another 60 miles we pulled off at a rest area and removed the suites. We were about 20 miles north of Omaha and we crossed over into Nebraska and connected up to NE91. We stayed on this route until we hit up on NE2 and shortly thereafter we reached Halsey where we stopped on the outskirts of town at a little park with a pond unofficially known as Fish Pond. Not much to look at but it was a needed stop. We continued on until we were just on the east side of Alliance NE. There we turned north on NE59 and stopped at Carhenge which was about 4 miles north of town. Carhenge is a take on England's Stonehenge and was opened in June of 1987. It consists of 39 cars all spray painted gray. All sorts of cars are display and it was fun identifying as many as we could. The cars ranged from a 1954 Caddy to a 1974 Vega. In little over 100 miles we were in Hot Springs and dodging all of the construction work going on. We walked to dinner, but for some reason the place we wanted to eat was closed, so rather than Whiskey River we ate at 309 General Restaurant and Bar. It was just ok. We had a burger with a couple of Amber beers. We walked back to the hotel and sat outside in the nice area they had. Getting across Iowa and Nebraska is never the most entertaining trip but since the rain was very minimal and the temperature was not too hot, so the ride was good.
