To make it up to Lauren for taking me to the doctor, I agreed to ride up some hills to Mt. Rushmore with her. Some hills turned into many hills and steep hills. She worked her butt off to get to the top of Mt. Rushmore where we faced our most challenging hill of the first leg. On our way through the town before Mt. Rushmore, we passed by the clinic that I went to yesterday. It took us 6.5 miles to get there yesterday, and it only took us 3 miles of cyucling to get there today. Man did I feel dumb. No more directions for me! 
Mt. Rushmore is much smaller than I imagined. The people there were very curious about our voyage. Here are some pictures. There are some pictures floating around with our prairie dog Brad taking the face of Lincoln. The next leg of the 80 mile ride proved a little more difficult for me. Actually, extremely difficult for me. I could not breathe deeply at all. I basically hyperventilated for the next 20 miles. I was getting dizzy and weak. I was falling behind. Me gapping was very surprising to my riding group. Something was wrong. I blame it on a couple of things. The heat at Mt. Rushmore was unbearable. Our break was very long. The headwinds were tough and the air had a scent in it that irritated my lungs. Whatever the case, I felt so horrible at the lunch stop at 46 that I chose to sag the rest of the way into Newcastle, WY. Here was my pretty view. 
Some suggested that it could have been the altitude. That kind of alarmed be because we were only at 4000 feet. We have another 9000 to go! If I can't breathe at 4000 feet, my lungs my shoot out of my mouth at 9000. My plan is to ride out fast tomorrow to test my lungs. Probably not a smart idea, but sometimes you have to be crazy to get better!