Cloudy and windy upon stepping out of the hotel this morning but it
was still in the high 60’s. Left at 9 a.m. and it started out as a 3 layer day
due to a dampness in the air. However,
by the time we stopped for lunch around 12:30, the sun was out and the temperature
was 81o…the fleece and the long sleeve shirt were stowed away and my
short sleeves were pulled up. Highest
temperature I saw today was 84o. We’re all set up for camping at the
Badlands/White River KOA and Kim’s phone is still reporting 82o at
6:15 p.m. and there’s still a touch of humidity in the air. Maybe we should have packed a fan instead of those
extra blankets.
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We were about 5 miles out of
Sibley this morning on the radios talking over our near crash experience last
night when something substantial sounding hit my bike. I said, “Hey!..Hey!..Something just…I’ve got
to stop…I’m stopping, Kim!” I thought
for sure I’d see a big ol’ scratch in my faring from whatever it was that hit
my bike. As we’re pulling over Kim says
“I don’t have a shifter…my toe shift is gone.”
It didn’t take us long to surmise that what hit my bike was Kim’s toe
shift. We turned around to see if we
could find it…if not he could use his heel shifter. Found the shifter and bolt laying on the road
about 1/8 mile back…Kim got his tools out and reattached it…back on the road in
5 minutes. And bonus! there doesn’t
appear to be any damage done to my bike…maybe it just glanced off my
windshield. 😐
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Our goal today was
Badlands/White River KOA …where I thought I had reservations but apparently didn’t.
Luckily camping isn’t at its peak this
time of year…sites were available. Yesterday’s leftover miles were tacked onto
today’s miles making it about a 350 mile day.
Rapunzel tagged it at about a 6 hour run so we were up at 7:45 a.m. and
on the road just before 9. We had about
55 miles to the South Dakota state line and we did a lot of jogging on our way
there…drive for 3 to 20 miles, turn right, go a mile or so, turn left…repeat
many times. Our route through South
Dakota had more wide sweeping curves to change direction than 90o
left/right turns. Of course, the hilly
landscape of South Dakota lends itself to wide and sweeping so much better than
the flatness of Iowa.
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We saw thousands of round
bales out in fields today…also sunflower and corn fields stretching to the
horizon with a few fields of sorghum thrown in for good measure. These fields are huge…acres and acres
huge…field preparation, planting, and harvesting in just one field seems like a
monumental task. Multiple that many
times over and…well, I’m tired just thinking about it. Every time I travel through this part of the
country I’m in awe of the amount of work needed to make food happen. And what a blessing for those doing the work to
have air conditioned tractor cabs!
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Observations from the open road:
*Cornfields make a good wind break
*Ducks and geese don’t seem to mind where the water is…ditches as well
as puddles in pastures draw a crowd.
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Every oncoming semi-truck drags
a wall of wind behind it and that wall of wind is different every time and a force to be reckoned with
for a motorcycle. I learned that I had to brace myself for
the blowback every time I met a semi today…and the first 100 or so miles of our
route today was very popular with semi drivers. Very popular indeed. That equaled a lot of bracing and trying to
hold steady when being buffeted by the wind.
It was a good but very tiring day.
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Got into camp about 5 p.m.
(Mountain Time)…Kim looked around and wanted to know if we’d been here
before. Why, yes…yes, we have. We decided to stay for two nights…we had a
long day on the road and had enough energy to put the tent up and prepare/eat
supper. Then it was get a shower and
relax. Tomorrow we’ll head into the
Badlands National Park. We’ve both been
through there several times but the sights always amaze me. Then we’ll head for the Black Hills Saturday
morning. At least that’s the plan right
now….things could change. 😉
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I have a camera and I like to use it…my family can attest to that. Someone has to be the documentarian of our time here on earth.😉 While photo opportunities present themselves all the time when riding cross
country on a bike, actually taking the picture presents a problem. More than once I’ve seen a photo op and by the time I get the bike stopped, either the scene doesn’t
have the same look or if it was an animal it has either flown or run away. Yesterday I wanted to stop to get a picture
of the road stretching out behind us (like I don’t have that picture from other
bike trips. 😏) As we were pulling off to the side, Kim
noticed an old unpainted homestead standing in a field all by itself. He wanted me to get a picture of that, too, it
because it was “cool as shit”. And
indeed it was.
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Small Town of the Day: Wood, South
Dakota…population 62
We saw several ‘towns’ in South Dakota that didn’t really fit the
general definition of town, as in there were no stores, no gas stations…not
even a Dollar General. It were just a
bunch of houses in a general area…but there were official population signs so
they qualified for my contest.
 |
| One of 32 murals in Rock Rapids, Iowa |
The first 75 miles of our
route today was basically town less. We
did encounter one town, Rock Rapids, that didn’t have a population sign but did have numerous building murals. The one that caught my notice while sitting at the stop light is similar
to the one on the Central Drug building in Charlevoix. That one incorporates the actual back door
into the mural…this one incorporated an actual shed outside the building into
the mural. 3-D murals are a slight step above the norm. We stopped to check 'em out. The
five or six murals I looked at today were each done by different artists and they
seemed to depict historical events/moments in the town’s history. So I’m giving bestowing a Small Town Honorable Mention to Rock Rapids, Iowa for displaying its
small town pride.
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Thursday miles: 346 miles
Total miles: 1277 miles
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