We have to admit that not much changed after we rolled into South Dakota yesterday. Our routes here have straightened into long lines — at times, the team follows the same road for a majority of the ride. As we bike through these expanses of the nation’s agriculture, we find we have a lot of time to think. Today, many of our minds were in reverent anticipation of our unique destination — The World’s Only Corn Palace. An aptly named corn-adorned multipurpose facility and our stayover for the night, The Corn Palace is an undeniable highlight of the ride’s Midwestern stretch. Given we are an organization based in Illinois, there’s nowhere we feel more at home than a stayover whose walls are covered in multicolored corn mural art. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 71.3

Elevation: 1,307’

Ride Dedication: Karen Johnson, Maaike’s late grandma, a breast cancer survivor who often took family trips to South Dakota.

Points of Interest: The Corn Palace.

Quote of the day

Tales of the Trail

Following Tommy’s morning activity of group trivia, the team rolled out into the linear rural terrain of South Dakota. Although the lack of scenery was sometimes daunting, small things like generally pleasant wind conditions and the occasional field of majestic wild horses kept us going. Plus, now that we have our speakers, there is no shortage of ways to entertain ourselves. Whether it’s a classic hype song or an entire musical soundtrack (a surprising number of team members know every word to “Hamilton”), we appreciate the distraction. 

Our time on the bikes was ultimately uneventful, which translates to a good day in the I4K sense. At the almost halfway marker of our journey, we’ve gotten to the point where we’re in “the groove” of the ride. This also means that today’s journal entry will be relatively shorter (and Maaike and I will get a healthy amount of sleep).

Things got interesting when we finally arrived at The Corn Palace, whose hallowed grounds deserve a paragraph of their own. 

Ah, The Corn Palace — where to begin? As we rolled into town, it was hard to miss it (for one, it had a gigantic yellow “CORN PALACE” sign with an oversized corn-on-the-cob out in front of it, but that’s beside the point). Its architecture sticks out in its non-adherence to the classic structure of the American downtown that surrounds it, as well as in its constantly changing skin. You see, each year, the talented artists of The Corn Palace choose a new theme — this year’s being famous South Dakotans — and recreate it on the building’s walls with, you guessed it, corn. While that may seem limiting at first, the end result is genuinely artful. The history of The Corn Palace is equally fascinating, grounded in a longstanding acknowledgment of indigenous relationships with Western settlers. Some of the team learned more about that background in a short but insightful 15-minute walking tour of the premises, while others explored the area around it. 

From the corn art, to corn hats that say “shuck yeah!”, to the fact that President Barack Obama has visited this place, we are all in awe of the corn-centered spectacle that this stayover has presented us. Thank you to The Corn Palace for enlightening us with its agricultural extravaganza, and we look forward to more radically new experiences like this to come. 

Cyclist’s Corner

Today’s Rider: Kev Murphy

How are you feeling today?

Today was a great day! I love South Dakota so far. It was a good ride, some nice scenery. I mean, it doesn’t look too much different from [the rest of] the Midwest, there’s just a little less corn, and I think that makes it a little prettier, just seeing grass and cows instead of corn and cows. There’s still a lot of corn, I mean, we’re sleeping in a corn palace. But less corn than usual so, it’s cool. You can see for miles on these roads, and the roads are not busy at all.

You’ve fundraised thousands of dollars for our cause. What has been the most impactful fundraising experience you’ve had?

I hosted a live music DJ event to raise money, and it was very successful. We raised over 3,000 dollars. I think it was impactful because it didn’t just help my donation goal, I was able to have teammates help me with that so each teammate that helped got about 300+ dollars for their fundraising goal. So it was really nice that not only I was able to raise a lot of money for my goal and for the cause, but also I was able to help out my teammates, and they were able to help me with that event. I also want to thank my mom for her constant Facebook posts, that really helped with getting me to my donation goal. So thank you mom!

What keeps you going when it gets difficult to put in all of those miles or even to get on the bike?

My legs just move. It does get tough often. I try to think about it just in the 20 mile, 25 mile stretches of the rest stops, which helps. I’m like, “OK, I only have this many miles to go until I get to hydrate and have a snack,” and this and that. But even that sometimes gets hard. Like the other day, we had that very rough 22 mile stretch — that was probably the worst stretch ever. Read the journal on that day! The day into Spirit Lake, the first 20 miles out of Mankato. Terrible. Terrible. So I think during that, having my teammates really motivated me. Thinking about why we’re doing this, the cause. Anytime something goes wrong, or something isn’t going to plan, it doesn’t matter at the end of the day, because we’re doing this for a different reason. Like yeah, we’re biking across the country, but if there’s parts we can’t bike…we’re being able to do something that many people can’t do, and we’re doing something for the fight against cancer. So it’s just having my teammates, and having the cause, helps.

Do you have a favorite accessory to wear with your ride uniform?

Ooh, this is hard. I have a lot of accessories. Every single day I wear my bike earrings. Love them. I have my bike hat, which I love, that I put on after biking. I have pins on my bag on my bike. I put some pins on there, which is my favorite part about my bike…I have an Illini 4000 sticker on my bike, I have an Illini 4000 sticker on my helmet, that’s fun. 

What’s your rest stop routine?

I am so excited when I arrive, my energy like skyrockets. Anytime I see the van in the distance, I’m like, “OMG, that’s SAV,” I’m so excited. So energy skyrockets, I get to the rest stop, I’m a chatter. I chat too much. Then I remember to fill my water. Then I sunscreen. Then I have at least one or two granola bars, and fruit — fruit, grapes, apple, watermelon, whatever, something healthy if it’s available, and then I treat myself at the end to a cookie. A cookie or brownie or something like that. And then I usually have a ton of other things to do, like I forget to sunscreen so I have to sunscreen before I roll out, or I need to refill my water bottles. And then I chat a lot, dance a lot, chat more.

In the remaining portion of the ride, where are you looking forward to visiting the most?

I’m really excited for San Francisco. It’s really far away, but I’m really excited. Other than that, I’ve never been to the West coast, so I’m excited to see the West coast. I’ve actually never been to South Dakota. So this was kind of a cool spot, the Corn Palace, is kind of a cool spot to be sleeping in. I haven’t been that far West, so this next stretch, it’s what I was really excited for about the ride. Like the first stretch was cool, but now we’re entering the part where like, it’s all the states I haven’t been to, it’s all the national parks. So just in general, I don’t think there’s a particular one other than San Francisco, but I’m just so excited for everything.

Is there anything else you want to talk about?

We’re watching a corn documentary as we’re doing this interview, and I think it’s really stimulating my brain in the right way to be having great answers to this interview. Other than that, we’re sleeping in the Corn Palace, which is crazy. This ride has been an adventure, and every day surprises me, like “oh, we’re sleeping in this spot.” Now it’s like okay, we’re sleeping in a Corn Palace. Or all the people we meet. It’s just so cool, it’s crazy. It’s a crazy adventure, it’s a crazy life, it’s a crazy bike ride.

(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)