The Midwestern cyclist poem……
“When the wind blows and nothing is higher than wheat
You’re going to get beat”
Not much of a poem but you get the idea, we got beat and beat badly today.
At 7:30 AM, just before we departed the wind speed was already at 20mph according to the weather channel. Not a good way to start the day but we expected this in South Dakota. We accepted the punishment and pushed forward.
We have started seeing the exodus of bikers from the Sturgis Rally. Sturgis is a small town above Rapid City, SD that attracts over 500,000 people. We planned our journey to just miss this major motorcycle event. We did not want to have to compete with a half million people for hotel rooms, restaurants or roadway. Imagine cruising down a peaceful back road then have 100 roaring motorcycles pass by over and over. It may be cool to see a couple times but it does gets old after a while.
Around mid-day we spotted an airplane hangar and a few crop dusting planes that were getting refueled. We just had to stop and ask questions. The hangers and surrounding area was spotlessly clean and set up nicely. The specially designed aircraft cost over a million dollars each. The small planes have over 1000 horsepower and can each carry 500 gallons of chemical. This particular operation sprays over a half million acres within a 40 mile radius. The owner offered some cold drinks and was happy to talk about his business. He said crop dusting pilots have to be the best of the best. About 20 minutes after we left the owner of the air spraying business made a low fly-by and dipped his wings at us as he headed off to spray. Real cool! 
The flat landscape we have seen for the past few hundred miles changed to again to rolling hills as we approached the Missouri River and today’s destination, Pierre.
The Missouri river was still badly swollen from weeks of rain last month. Thousands of sand bags had been placed along the banks and around buildings in the area and were still in place.
Tomorrow we will be staying at a cabin that is in the middle of no-man’s land out in the Badlands. There is no place for us to get food so we made arrangements for the owners to make us dinner and breakfast. I hope they know how much we can eat after 100 miles… we are impressive.
78 Miles
2735 Feet of Climbing
Temperature 68- 80 degrees
Daily average miles so far 95 per day
20 miles outside of Pierre South Dakota:
Take a picture with the three of you without helmets on :-)
ReplyDeleteThe best dreams happen when you’re awake. You guys are living your dream :-)
ReplyDelete