Day 24 Aberdeen, SD -> Miller, SD

Sunday 14 August 2011. Day 3 Week 4

When the wind turns on in the Midwest it stays on.  And today the wind was "ON" and on in a big way.
A steady unrelenting 20-25 mile per hour blast in your face punished us all day long.  Of course we had a few higher gusts tossed in to liven things up a bit.
There were times on flat ground when our top speed was less than 10 mph with us pushing hard.
Today riding was like a climbing a hill for 8-1/2 hours straight due to the wind. It was a beating.

I guess we should not complain the wind is getting our legs ready for some of the big climbs we have coming in the Rockies.
Speaking of big climbs, Ken’s wife called and read an article to him about Mt. Rainier.
This winter Mt. Rainer had a record snowfall total of over 900 inches!
Normally in August the wild flowers are in full bloom and the mountain green with vegetation.  But as of last week more than 4 feet of snow is still remains on the ground!
Some of the roads are still closed to traffic.  We will have to monitor this situation and may have to alter our plans to make that climb.

The great traffic free roads we have been traveling on in this state are thanks to Fred Deutsch a fellow cyclist.  Fred took the time to help us plot the route we are using.
Another example of good people doing good things.  Thanks Fred we owe ya big time.

Instead of only seeing miles of corn and soy beans we were   again treated to hundreds of acres of sunflowers to look at.

Our day ended late in a small farming town Miller South Dakota.
Sadly for us the only food available was the Dairy Queen for a “grill and chill” as it says on the sign.
Gosh, was that a nasty greasy meal. This DQ was a dump inside with more flies than patrons.  Actually the flies were patrons they were whole families of them at every table.
If you got up off the table to get a drink refill you had to cover your food with a paper napkin to keep them from carting it away. It was that bad.
We were even limited of what we had to choose from for ice cream. The hot fudge machine was broken and when Tim ordered a waffle bowl ice cream they told him they did not have what they needed to make it.
Just not the way to end a hard day of riding. 
We will give ya the miles and put out the effort.  Just feed us something decent when it is over. Dinner is what we work for.
It is the highlight of our day.
It could have been worse so let’s not complain too much.
About a hour after we arrived the dark clouds rolled in and the sky opened up flooding the streets. We were inside nice and dry…..this time.

Tomorrow we will make Pierre, South Dakota and this helps stage us for a ride through the Badlands. We have a very limited  selection of places to sleep in this part of the state.

94Miles

2525 Feet of Climbing

Temperature 60 - 70 degrees




Should be rollin smooth on the new rubber! 
Daily Report,,, WEindy