South Dakota is officially the friendliest state in the nation (so far). As soon as we entered South Dakota, Tim took a really nasty spill from hitting a pothole and lip in the road. Apparently it's the fourth time of the year that a cyclist has crashed in that same exact spot... someone isn't doing their job.
The reason why South Dakota has earned the friendliest state position is because almost every single driver that passed by stopped to see if he was okay and the fire department was called. The fire marshal, chief of the fire department, a fire department ambulance (??), and an ambulance from the nearest hospital showed up to check on Tim. Unfortunately they arrived 10 minutes after a woman who happened to be an EMT drove by and performed a very thorough check up and fortunately he got away with just a few bumps and scrapes and an enormous hole in his shorts. Half a mile later, Matt Harlan broke his chain and while we were fixing it up, some more passersby checked to see if we needed any help. People seem to really like lending a helping hand in this state. A funny side note: we had to put his chain back together twice because Matt Cady routed the chain through the derailleur completely wrong.
Today is day three of brutal headwinds and crosswinds. The winds were so bad that without saying a word, everyone naturally figured out how to draft and ride in formation to make the going a bit more manageable. It's a pretty cool sight to see, especially when we tuck into the shoulder to let cars pass and spread out again right after. We had a group of twelve, with three rows of four at one point, almost like a flock of birds.
It's been a month since starting this trip and I still haven't gotten into the habit of writing blog entries, seeing as how this is only my third... I'll try to write more often from now on, especially since the trip is going to start getting more interesting as we ride deeper into the scenic West.
These past two weeks have been a roller coaster ride; going from the best days of my life to some really terrible weather conditions. The day between leaving the amazing stayover at Greenwood, Indiana and riding into Champaign was a blur because I was so excited to go back to somewhere familiar and visit my friends. It felt strange being back in Champaign and not needing to read direction cues to return to my apartment after being in a different foreign place every day.
Getting to Champaign was no easy task, however. The day started out with a mean headwind while riding into Illinois from Indiana, welcoming us back to the windiest state in the United States (my opinion is skewed). I was relieved when the wind died down not long after, but the relief was brief because it soon began to rain heavily for the next fourty miles or so. On top of that, we had miles and miles of gravel and clay road to ride over - mountain bikes would have been nice. Fifteen miles from campus, we met up with our awesome sponser, Geoff from That's Rentertainment, along with several previous year riders to ride into campus together. Two of them showed up on the most terrifyingly old and rickety tandem bike I've ever seen. Once we rode into the alumni center with humorously little fanfare, we all jumped into the fountain right outside of it which turned out to be surprisingly refreshing. There must have been someone watching because the fountain shut off a few seconds after everyone jumped in.
I was really sad to leave Champaign the next morning because we barely had any time there, especially since my usual bed time is around 10 pm. I was surprised by how easily I got over it because of how incredible the next week was. Unfortunately, I have to end with a cliffhanger since it's way past my bed time.
As a side note, I hit 1999.1 miles today. 0.9 miles tomorrow morning and I'll have ridden a bimillenia!
