Today I wanted to dedicate the ride to Pat McNamara. Today was the annual ‘Pat Mac Pack’ ride from the south side of Chicago to Long Beach Indiana. Pat got a brain tumor when he was two years old and passed away when he was 13. I knew Pat from growing up as the energetic kid I would see on fourth of July, since our families were close. He always had a good sense of humor, and even when he was balding from his chemo treatments he dressed up as the old six flags man for Halloween to keep things light hearted.
Two words: HEAD WIND. For a total of 73 miles today we battled 22 mph headwind on our way from Watertown to Redfield. To put things in perspective for you, Watertown has a total population of 22,000, which makes it the 5th largest city in the whole state. The entire state itself has less than a million people total. As a few of us walked around Redfield after dinner we noticed that it seemed to be a town stuck in the past. Many of the signs were hand painted and the main street looked like it had remained static since the 50’s. Since time is not our priority while on the ride we were shocked when the gas station clerk informed us that coming up is fourth of July weekend. It is really crazy how fast yet slow this trip is moving.
Today we stayed on route 212 for 70 miles today and only passed four gas stations the whole way. Morale started pretty low this morning as we faced rain for the first twenty miles. Luckily for us the sun eventually came out for the last 15 miles. It felt so freeing to be able to shed our layers of coats and feel the wind on our skin at the end. Once the sun eventually came it it really changed our whole mood. Although South Dakota is not technically the Midwest, it is nice to know that we only have a few days until we start hitting the real scenes like the badlands and Mount Rushmore, and from there, the rest of the west should also be beautiful.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s short 50 mile day.
Where them president heads at
MB