Rapid City, SD to Newcastle, WY
Today was another crazy day. We started out from Rapid City, SD in heavy fog, and spent the first two hours of the day climbing hills the entire time, and hoping that the fog would clear up before we got to Mt. Rushmore. It took us 2 hours to get the 23 miles between Rapid City and the monument, which meant we went really slow, but luckily the sun came out and burned off the fog, so by the time we got there, we had a great view of the presidents. We were actually there on a historic day as well, because there were people on top of the monument when we arrived, and the tour guides told us that they were up there checking the conditions of the rock to make sure that it was still stable. However, this soon turned out not to be true, as the climbers unfurled a huge sign right next to Lincoln's head, and it turned out that it was Greenpeace, who was staging a huge protest for global warming. The tour guides were really mad, and it turned out to be a pretty big deal, as I guess people are almost never able to pull things like this off. Greenpeace was able to stay on the side of the monument for a good hour or two before either the cops arrived or their sign broke, and they took it down.
Anyways, after that, we headed onward, and got to see the huge Crazy Horse monument that is still being built in nearby Custer, SD. We also met a second person in South Dakota who has seen us passing through Minnesota a few weeks ago, and recognized us, so that was kind of cool. Finally, we headed on toward our destination for the night, Newcastle, but our exciting day was not over yet. I was riding in with Conor and Matt Strick, and we had been enjoying the ride, it was very hilly, but not so bad that they were unclimbable, and we were really enjoying the downhills, I topped 40 mph a few times today. We crossed the border into Wyoming just 9 miles from Newcastle, and took the necessary pictures with the "Welcome to Wyoming," and noticed that bad weather appeared to be approaching, so we decided to try and hurry into town to beat the rain. Once we got back on the bikes, we had a few miles of this really cool weather where it was beautiful and sunny for miles on our left, and incredibly dark and it looked like it was pouring in the mountains on our right. We wanted to stop and take pictures because the clouds were so cool and the colors and differences between the two sides of the road were amazing, but as we got closer to town, we started to hear sirens, and thinking that they might be storm warnings, we decided against stopping. Instead, we would just try to beat the rain in, but just two miles from town, the wind really started picking up, and Conor noticed that the clouds were spinning, which was cool, until Matt Strick realized that they were also coming down towards the ground. I looked at the clouds, and sure enough, a huge funnel of clouds was getting closer and closer to the ground directly to our right. We panicked a bit and rode as fast as we could until the funnel was at least a little behind us. We realized that we were just about 200 feet from a tornado that was about to touch down!!! It was especially crazy because we were just barely under the clouds, it was totally clear and sunny about a 1/4 mile in front of us, and directly to our left. The funnel was insane, the clouds were moving really quickly and the wind was getting ridiculous, and we didn't know if it was better to try and outrun the funnel, or just stop and find cover inside. We sped up as soon as we realized what was happening, but quickly decided that it would be best to get off the road, especially since we were now riding into gusting 50+ mph headwinds, and we really didn't want to get caught in the funnel. We spotted a row of houses on our left, threw our bikes over the barbed wire fence and hopped it somehow without getting cut, and knocked on a random door. Thankfully, a really nice couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lee let us in, and waited with us while the tornado passed. (Thank you so much Lee's!! Who knows where we would be without you!!)
It never ended up touching down, so we probably would have been fine just riding past the half-formed funnel, but it was definitely safer to stop. The groups in front of us arrived in town before the funnel, and the groups behind us saw the funnels forming from a few miles back, but no one else ended up getting caught in the storm. I also was a little disappointed that I didn't get any pictures of the funnel, but I was much more concerned about getting inside somewhere safe and living through the day. All in all, it was one of the craziest moments of my life, and I was more scared for my life than I have ever been, but it makes for a great story, and was a great adrenaline rush to end an exciting and memorable day.
States traveled through:15(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD, WY)
Distance today: 80 mi
Total Distance traveled: 2452 mi