Motorcycle tour of Nebraska; Are "New" tires safe?; Danica Patrick announces 2010 NASCAR Nationwide series schedule; RaceCeivers required at Eagle Raceway, Butler County Speedway and Beatrice Speedway in 2010

While browsing through a motorcycle forum, I came across a thread from a rider overseas who was planning to take a trip to the United States and asked about taking a tour with somebody giving guided tours. There are several such companies in the Southwest and West. I haven’t had a chance to look yet, but I’m wondering if there is any place in the Midwest that does something like this.

It would be interesting to plan tours from Beatrice or Lincoln. I’d need to either have an agreement with a dealer to rent motorcycles for the tours or have my own motorcycles to either rent or include the price of in the tour. The problem with either is that the weather in the Midwest can be so much different from one year to the next. It’s hard to plan any kind of road trips before, say, May 1st, and by the time you get toward the end of September the weather can once again come into play.




Would a trip out of Beatrice be more local or a few days to a few weeks? Something I’ve thought about doing myself but never have is to take a trip around the “edge” of Nebraska. If you look at a map. Nebraska has 6 “corners.” I’ve thought about leaving Beatrice westbound on Hwy 136. At Jansen, I’d go south on the State Spur to the Rock Creek Station. This was originally a supply center and resting spot for the many travelers headed westward on the Oregon and California Trails in the 19th century. From the Rock Creek Station, a short ride south would take me to Hwy 8. From there, it’s about 5 miles into Fairbury. Continuing west on Hwy 8, I’d cross Hwy 81 and stay on Hwy 8 until it ends in Superior, Nebraska.

From Superior, I’d take Hwy 14 north to Hwy 136. Hwy 136 will take me to Red Cloud, which the birthplace and site of the Willa Cather State Historic Site. Another 32 miles west on Hwy 136 brings me to Republican City, which is the location of the Harlan County Dam. Another 8 miles and I’d be in Alma.

At Alma, I’d go north on Hwy 136/183 for a couple of miles, then west on Hwy 136 until it meets Hwy 89. I would then follow Hwy 89 west to Hwy 83, then north to McCook. From McCook, I’d go west on Hwy 6/34 to Hwy 61 at Benkelman. From Benkelman, I’d go north on Hwy 61 to Ogallala and the home of “Boot Hill.“ Staying on Hwy 61 will take me to Kingsley Dam and Lake McConaughy. I would then return to Ogallala and head west on Hwy 30 to Kimball.





From Kimball, I’d go north on Hwy 71 to the Gering-Scottsbluff area. From there I’d take Hwy 26 to Hwy 29 and head north to Harrison. At Harrison, I’ll go east on Hwy 20 to Crawford. I’ll stay on Hwy 20 from Crawford to Chadron. Continuing east on Hwy 20 to Valentine, then Hwy 12 all the way to Sioux City. From Sioux City, take Hwy 75/77 south to Winnebago, then stay on Hwy 75. This will take me to Omaha, then Nebraska City. I’ll stay on Hwy 75 into Richardson County, where I’d go east on Hwy 73 into Falls City. At Falls City, I’ll go west on Hwy 8 to Hwy 77, then north back to Beatrice.

I haven’t figured out the mileage for this trip, but depending on how much sightseeing would take place along the way, this could be a 3 or 4 day trip. I’m thinking about other trips out of Beatrice, and I’ll talk about them in posts down the road.

I had our car serviced and while it was up in the air, the tech looked the tires over. They all had about 4/32” of tread left, which is pretty close to the tread wear indicators. Before we do much more traveling in the car, the tires will have to be replaced. We knew we were getting close, and had talked about it this winter. Since we’re not going to Vegas this winter for the NASCAR weekend, we can put it off just a little longer. Ironically, about the same time, a fellow Blue Knight sent me a link to an ABC News Special Report on tires. The news report brought up something that people in the automotive industry have known for years. When you go to a tire store to have tires put on your car, there’s a good chance that even though they have never been mounted on a rim, the tires you buy could be several years old. As a matter of fact, they claimed that a customer could buy a set of tires that have been on the shelf for as long as 10 years. Here’s the link to that report: http://abcnews.go.com/video/PlayerIndex?id=4826897 You can copy and paste this link into your browser if it doesn’t appear as a link in this article. I will point out, though, that some parts of this are a bit slanted. They show tire tread along the road that is from truck tires, and some of it appears to be from retreads. Anyway, we’ll be doing some looking around and try to get the best value for our dollar.




In NASCAR news of the last few days, Danika Patrick has announced her 2010 NASCAR Nationwide series schedule. She will be competing in an ARCA stock car race at Daytona on February 6th. Her comfort level in the car will help her determine if she is ready to race in the Nationwide race at Daytona the following Saturday. If she does not compete in the Daytona Nationwide race, she will debut at Fontana, California on February 20th. She will follow that up with Las Vegas the next week, February 27th.

Patrick will not compete in Nationwide again until June 26th at Loudon. She will then race at Chicago on July 9th, Michigan on August 14th, and Dover on September 25th. She will be back at Fontana on October 9th, Charlotte on October 15th, Gateway on October 23rd, Texas on November 6th and Homestead on November 20th.

Brad Keselowski, Paul Menard and Carl Edwards will be competing in the full Nationwide schedule in 2010. Other Cup drivers competing in the Nationwide series part time will be Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, Reed Sorenson, and David Reutimann.

On the local scene, Eagle Raceway At Eagle, Nebraska, Butler County Speedway at Rising City, Nebraska and Beatrice Speedway have all announced that they will be requiring all drivers to use RaceCeivers. Eagle says they will rent them for $20 a night and at the end of the night will refund $5 when they are turned in. They can be purchased outright in the $100 to $150 range. In looking at IMCA rules, I found the rule that says “No unapproved cameras, transmitting or listening devices.” The rule does not specify what is “Approved.” Beatrice has not given any more specifics and has said registration information will be sent out to drivers in the next couple of weeks.





RaceCeivers are a one-way radio that each driver has in his car.  The driver listens to the radio through ear buds and can hear the track officials.  If there is an accident on the track, the driver will know before he/she is caught up in the accident.  During restarts, the driver is told by track officials where they should line up.  Dawson County Speedway at Lexington, Nebraska and McCook Speedway at McCook, Nebraska used them in the past and the drivers liked them.  It's my understanding that Minneapolis Speedway in Minneapolis, Kansas also used them with success in 2009.




Eagle has said they will rent the RaceCeivers for $20 a night, and when they are returned they will refund $5.  I haven't heard what Beatrice is planning.

I had a chance to look at the RaceCeiver website and found that larger orders may be able to get a bit of a discount. If a bunch of us order maybe we can get a better price.

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