Day 41 - Why-oming

Newcastle WY to Gillette, WY

Today's ride was pretty boring, we had cool but sunny weather, and the roads were a little hilly, but not too bad.  I got a flat, my first in a long time, so that slowed us down some, but other than that, the day was spent watching Wyoming go by.  This state is not as pretty as South Dakota so far, it mostly consists of dry grass and huge open expanses.  We didn't see any people for most of the day, and we saw our first traffic light 72 miles into the day, when we were already in Gillette.  All in all a boring day, we are hoping that tomorrow is more exciting, when we ride 70 more miles into Buffalo, WY.

Animals seen - One dead porcupine, a few pronghorns

States traveled through:15(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD, WY)
Distance today: 75 mi
Total Distance traveled:  2527 mi

Day 40 - A Whirlwind of a day

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

We are not in Kansas anymore

No joke. Yesterday's ride from Rapid City to New Castle, WY was extremely eventful. To start off, the first 20 miles were pretty tough, hills around every corner. And the last 2 miles were especially steep, but it was more than worth it when we got to the top and rode into Mount Rushmore. As we were taking pictures and talking to a bunch of people about our cause, some people on the mountain dropped a HUGE banner right next to Lincoln's face (the far right) that said: "America Honors Leaders Not Politicians. Stop Global Warming." as a critique on the current president Barack Obama (a picture of him was also on the banner). It turns out it was Greenpeace and it was awesome. Apparently, no one's ever really done something like that on the mountain before so we were pretty lucky to see something like that.

Lots of the people there were curios about our cause and it was a lot of fun talking to them. Some were cyclists, some cancer survivors, some just inspired. That was really awesome.

The ride leaving the park was awesome too, great downhills. Tons of cars, but that was expected. The last 20 miles of the ride were crazy too. We were riding under the most amazing/scary looking clouds ever and thought it was all well and good. Plus, we had this huge tailwind and were cruising easily at 30mph. Suddenly the wind changed on us almost blowing us over! We heard tornado sirens going off in the distance and could see the beginnings of a funnel forming ahead of us. So, we booked it as fast aswe could into town since we were only a few miles out. If it had gotten any worse, we would have had to seek shelter somewhere. Luckily, we made it to the church safely sans tornado touching down anywhere near us. Plus we got an extremely delicious meal from the church. Man, that food was great.

Today's ride was pretty flat in comparison to the hills we've been seeing. Wyoming is pretty quiet so far, so we'll see how that goes. The ride was a little shorter too (75 miles) so we just played games and talked for most of ride which was fun as usual.

Mt. Rushmore & Wyoming

The ride through Mt. Rushmore was really exciting, but long. When we rolled into Mt. Rushmore we witnessed the Greenpeace protest in which they hung a banner next to Lincoln saying "America wants leaders not politicians" & "Decrease Global Warming." According to the tour guide, that was the first time anything like that had ever happened. 

The ride then continued through the black hills, which were absolutely gorgeous. Even though we spent more time riding, the hills and scenery kept our minds off the time, so the ride didn't seem as long as it actually was.

Almost as soon as we entered into Wyoming, we saw a storm off to the right of us. We didn't really think anything of it at first, but the sky kept getting darker and darker. Slowly, the wind started to pick up. By this point, we decided to waterproof ourselves and pick up the pace. Within about ten minutes, the severity of the storm had increased ten-fold. We then received a text message from one of the riders, who had already arrived at the stayover, saying that the sirens were going off and there were tornadoes in the area. To our left, it was sunny, and the right we saw this horrible storm with funnel clouds. Luckily, the group I was in beat the storm, but another one of the groups had to pull over and take cover in a house nearby.

We were warmly welcomed into our stayover with a delicious meal, and relief to top it off.

The ride today was pretty uneventful compared to yesterday. My group played a few games, including a revised form of catchphrase.

Why-oming?

Today was not nearly as interesting as yesterday. In fact, about the best we can do is describe all the road kill we saw today. It's been a while since we've seen road kill, so Wyoming was a strange throwback to our rides on the east coast. We saw a couple of deer today in addition to our first porcupine.
Other items of note include that we did yoga for today's Mosher activity, it was different and refreshing. We also had a number of tire problems, including a broken valve stem and a couple of flat tires.
Tomorrow we ride to Buffalo along I-90, a stretch of road with no gas stations or towns for a whole 65 miles. Wish us luck!

Mail Drop part 2!

I4k friends and families:  It's that time again!  Got a hungry rider out west?  Does he or she need warm clothes for the chilly Pacific Northwest?  Send it to Missoula, Montana!   We'll be arriving on July 20 and having a rest day there the next day, so make sure you have it sent out soon!

Write your packages / letters out to:

[Name of rider]
Care of: General Delivery
Missoula, MT 59802

Please allow at least 3 business days for letters and Priority Mail packages.  It'll show up at the main post office in Missoula, and we'll pick it up on July 20.  As always, our eternal gratitude!

(If you sent something to be picked up at the last mail drop and your rider didn't receive it, that's OK - you can call the main post office in Rapid City, SD and ask them to forward it to Missoula care of General Delivery.  The number there is (605) 394-8600.  Again, thanks!)

South Dakota to Wyoming

    Today was such a cool day. Rapid City is only about 20 miles from Mt. Rushmore, so we took our first rest stop there. Mt. Rushmore is interesting enough, but we happened to be there when this happened: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090708/ts_alt_afp/environmentwarmingusprotest. So that was pretty cool. It was more unexpected than anything else, but very interesting to see how other people handled the situation. According to the park rangers noone has done anything like this to Mt. Rushmore since the 80’s.

    Most of the rest of the day was spent escaping the Black Hills, and getting into Wyoming. The Black Hills are gorgeous. Lots of switchbacks through large pine forests dotted by rocky outcroppings. Somewhere around mile 50 road changed from upward or flat, to downward or flat. This lead to a lot of  “cruising” at speeds between 25 - 45 mph while taking in the beautiful scenery. Right along the border of South Dakota and Wyoming on US-16 is incredibly beautiful. If you find yourself in the area, make sure to stop by. Especially if you have a nice panoramic camera.

    Overall it was a pretty cool day. Definitely pretty. Definitely interesting. Definitely, OH WAIT I FORGOT WE ALMOST GOT EATEN BY A TORNADO! Only one mile out from New Castle and our stayover Connor looked up and said, “Oh look the clouds are swirling.” If only it hadn’t been about 100 feet away from us. Luckily there were some houses across the street and Jesse, Connor, and I were able to find shelter.  It all cleared up after about 10 minutes, but we got a really good scare at the beginning. Thank you very much to Mr. and Mrs. Lee from New Castle, WY for harboring three sweaty refugees from mother nature.

Adding another state to our trip

Today was a long and eventful day. We started out leaving a little later than usual due to some extra time needed to pack the bounty of food provided by Main Street Market last night. In some ways you could say that our route could be broken into four very different segments. The first segment, from Rapid City to Mount Rushmore started out as fairly foggy, but that eventually lifted as we made it to the monument. This segment also marked our entrance into the Black Hills, it's been quite some time since we've seen hills of this caliber, however I think we all made it over them without too much difficulty. In addition, on the final climb up to Mount Rushmore, a driver going in the opposite direction stopped and cheered for us, it was just the encouragement that some of us needed to climb the last half mile.
We reached Mount Rushmore just in time to see Greenpeace protesters rappel down the side of Lincoln's head and unfurl a banner commenting on Obama's environment policy. It was a little disappointing that their protest had to be at the expense of all those trying to enjoy the monument. While we were standing around watching the Greenpeace spectacle, we happened to meet a young boy who had been diagnosed with cancer at the age of three weeks. He's now been cancer free for nine years, and is a healthy kid. We invited him to be part of our team photograph, which we'll try to get up as soon as we can.
Our second segment led us to the town of Custer. While we continued to wind our way up and down hills, we had an added challenge of a headwind. Because of our late departure and the long time we had spent at Mount Rushmore, our lunch stop ended up being much later than usual, leaving many of us very hungry. Thankfully we had more than enough food to leave everybody more than satisfied for the third segment of today's ride.
Our third segment was best defined by a sign we saw along the way warning "NARROW WINDING ROAD  NO SHOULDER". At first that seemed like a very scary proposition, however the traffic on US-16 at that point was fairly minimal and also had to slow down enough that riding with traffic was very possible. Along the way we had some amazing views, some great climbs and descents, and was easily one of the coolest stretches of road that we've seen thus far.
Our last 20 miles into New Castle was dominated first by a long series of downhills that took us all the way into Wyoming and a few miles past. During this stretch of road many of us rarely went slower than 20 mph, and at points some of us exceeded 40 mph. Unfortunately the downhill was not the only thing we encountered on this portion of our ride. As we descended further and further we could see a large storm starting to brew over the Black Hills. While we managed to avoid getting wet, we did hear the tornado sirens go off and encountered some pretty nasty winds.
Thankfully we managed to avoid most of the storm and made it safely into our destination where the church ladies provided us a wonderful meal of lasagna and a variety of salads. I think most of us would agree that today has been one of the best, and certainly one of the most exciting days yet.

One Last Stop in South Dakota

Today we had a relaxing rest day in Rapid City, our last stop in South Dakota.  Tomorrow we ride through the Black Hills and past Mount Rushmore.  I have to say, I will hate to see South Dakota go, but I am excited to see Wyoming.  So far South Dakota has been great, we have met the nicest people all across the state, and today we got a ton of food donations.  I am not even sure how it is all going to fit in the van.  South Dakota has also been a very scenic ride, from the plains, to the rolling hills of the Missouri River Valley, to the Badlands, to the Black Hills.  I have also seen numerous deer, pheasant, and prairie dogs, as well as a few buffalo and antelope.  The Badlands have been the coolest part of the trip so far, everyone had a great time climbing on the formations and taking in the awesome views.  More to come from Wyoming.

Blazes, Badlands, and Black Hills

Boy, where do I begin?

4th of July in Murdo, SD was nuts. It proved to be the craziest fourth of July of my life, hands down.  Everything is legal in South Dakota, so when we spotted a fireworks stand on our ride into Murdo, stocking up on the good stuff was a no-brainer.  Then, when we got to Murdo and found another stand, stocking up some more was another no-brainer.  These weren't the only times we didn't use our brains on this day.

So eventually we got impatient and realized that if we waited till nightfall, we would be up all night in order to shoot off everything we had.  So we headed to an open field on the other side of the interstate.  I'll never know why we needed to go this far just to shoot off fireworks when there was a big open lot perfect for shooting off fireworks just behind where we were staying, but whatever... So we started lighting off some of the less cool stuff, things that wouldn't be necessarilly be cooler in the dark.  Things were goin great, we were havin a ball and I decided it would be a good idea to light off one of the bigger ones, since we had so many anyways, just to see what it'd be like.  I shot it out of a bottle and it went more horizontal than vertical and exploded in a big field of high grass. 

We all watched as the heat rose from the grass.  Next thing I knew, there were flames and Clinton had jumped over the barbed wire fence, cutting himself in the process.  Eventually, the flames got pretty big and we all realized we needed to do something so there we were, about 6 of us, jumping the fence and trying to pound out this huge wildfire with our shirts and sandals... yelling at eachother and in major panic mode... The only one who had his wits about him was Jesse, who called 911. 

The fire department drove up about 10 minutes later in a small pickup with a big tank on the back and hosed it all down, not before a good portion of this field was turned black.  We all sat and watched, worried like a bunch of 12 year olds that were going to have to go home and tell their Moms they had gotten detention... We didn't know what was going to happen.  I was thinking pressed charges, maybe arsony, possibly getting sent home from the trip or having to come back for a court date... a fine at the very least.  The firemen couldn't of been more nonchalant, they probably wouldn't of even of stopped to talk to us if we didn't sort of flag them down.  When asked what we needed to do, the man just responded "Naw, I know the farmer.  It'll be ok.  Happens all the time"

Major Relief

That night was great.  We went and saw the fireworks in Murdo, put on by the same firefighters who saved our butts earlier.  Then spent a lot of time lighting our own off.  Saebin had spent 50 dollars on one single display that last about a minute... so that was our grand finally.

The next day was the best day of the trip.  I got three flats, it was 95 degrees, a 100 mile day, and still the best day.  We rode through Badlands National Park, which was absolutely stunning.  I don't even know how to explain the views, just miles of buttes and spires eroded over millions of years to make these formations that were easily the coolest thing I have ever seen.  Our group really took our time through the park, hanging out and climbing at the different overlooks.  I took twice as many pictures in the Badlands as I had the rest of the trip combined. 

That night we rode into Wall, SD, home of wall drug, where you can get free ice water and 5 cent coffee... and some amazing homemade donuts.  This place is advertised all over the world, particularly along I-90 from 100's of miles away, making it a pretty big tourist attraction... Its really pretty ridiculous, but at least sort of amusing.  Wall has a population of around 800 people, but 13 Motels... all for Wall Drug.

The next day we rode into Rapid City, where I am now.  We had a rest day today and checked out the Black Hills Cavern, a cave about 5 miles outside of town... I was pretty impressed.  Tomorrow we'll do Mount Rushmore and leave South Dakota for Wyoming.

Lance is awesome.  Really awesome.

Day 38/39 - President City

Wall, SD to Rapid City, SD

I had to drive today since I hadn't in a while and it was my turn.  It was fine, since the ride was a pretty boring 60 miles and I didn't feel bad about missing anything.  We did meet an awesome rancher, Gus Aus, on the way who took us around his farm and showed us his mini rodeo bulls.  The bulls may have been mini, but they were still pretty huge from what I saw, and he also showed us the hilarious mannikin that he painted a bikini on and put next to the highway to distract drivers.

The next day was a rest day, and we explored Rapid City, which is really cool.  There are president statues on every corner, so I got a bunch of pics of those, including a pretty awesome one of Nixon.  There was also a graffiti wall which was awesome, and even had a TWLOHA reference, which I had to take a pic of for Mav.  After that, I picked up my care packages, and was delighted to see how much I got.  Many many thanks to my Mom, sister and Grandma Dawn, who sent me so much food that I don't know how I will be able to fit it all in my backpack tomorrow!  I also got a pro FLickr account, so I can put all my pics up now, without waiting.  So check that out, I put up all my pics from Wisconsin on, there are a ton.  Here is the link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/8300819@N03/   Tomorrows ride is long, but we see Mt. Rushmore, and also enter Wyoming, which I'm pumped about, it feels like we've been in SD for weeks.  See ya in Cowboy Country!!

States traveled through:14(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD)
Distance today: 0 mi
Total Distance traveled:  2351 mi

Day 37 - Have You Dug Wall Drug?

Murdo, SD to Wall, SD

The ride today was awesome.  It was another long one, finishing at 102 miles, but we saw everything in between.  The ride was pretty straight forward for the first 55 miles, although we were unlucky with flats, and Cady and Adam both had to change multiple tires.  Suddenly, the ride opened up and these amazing hills came out of nowhere.  We were in the Badlands, and they were awesome.  We made it to the gas station at 60 miles, and waited for everyone.  I had a buffalo hot dog, so I can now proudly say that I have eaten buffalo, and it was pretty good.  We went into the Badlands Park, and it was amazing, the buttes were amazing, we could climb all over them, and we could see for miles.  The ride though the park was 30 miles of amazing views, cool climbing, and tough hills, but we made it through and saw some really funny prairie dogs near the end of the park.  This was just the beginning of the day thought, we still had to go to the infamous Wall Drug.  This is a famous thing around here, its basically a drug store with free ice water and 5 cent coffee, they advertise all over the place, like every 1/4 mile here in South Dakota, as well as in London, in Time magazine, even on the moon.  It was entertaining inside, they had a huge jackalope, a dinosaur, and tons and tons of souvenirs.  

States traveled through:14(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD)
Distance today: 102 mi
Total Distance traveled:  2351 mi

South Dakota is the best.

Riding into Wall, South Dakota was such a great day. Although it was a 100 mile day, it was so awesome. We rode through the Badlands and they were beautiful. Riding through them and climbing all over them was so much fun even though it was really hot and there were some surprising climbs. It was probably the most beautiful place we've been so far.

We rolled into Wall and immediately went to Wall Drug, Wall's claim to fame on an international scale. After about a thousand billboards, we just had to go. We got some free ice water, 5 cent coffee, and homemade donuts (as advertised). For a town of 800 people, it's surprising and a little strange how huge that store is. It's a lot to take in.

The ride into Rapid City was a good one too. It was only 60 miles, with only a few turns (South Dakota makes our cue sheets extremely short). There are a lot of awesome things about Rapid City:

1. Dairy Queen is right next to the church we are staying at.

2. The downtown area is really cool: fun shops, presidential statues at every corner, good bagels, etc.

3. Post offices are good for packages/ cookies

3. The laundromat is right across the street, so my clothes are clean for a while.

4. It's a rest day: full of exploration and relaxation.

Good stuff. More to come from Wyoming!

Fourth of July and Bad Lands

The Illini 4000 on the Fourth of July didn't miss a beat. A couple of our riders lit a field on fire, but luckily the people in the town didn't seem to mind and nothing was damaged. We also saw some great fireworks in Murdo, and Brad lit his bike with sparklers and rode around the block.

The ride after the fourth was a 100 mile ride that went through the Bad Lands. I have to say, the Bad Lands topped the ride through Everitt. Even though there were some big climbs, everything about the Bad Lands is absolutely amazing. We ended the ride in Wall, where we visited the infamous Wall Drug. Ever since we entered South Dakota, there have been signs advertising Wall Drug-  "5 cent coffee"   "Free Ice Water"   "Homemade Donuts and Ice Cream!"   How could we resist? Wall Drug was definitely not what I had expected, in fact I found it pretty overwhelming. There was stuff everywhere. Regardless, Wall Drug is definitely an example of how successful advertising is.

Yesturday's ride into Rapid City was really awesome. It was a short 59 mile day, and we arrived before 12:30. Rapid City is a cool town, and has a really cute town decorated with statues of the presidents. We can see all the hills (they're called hills, but they look like mountains) that we will be riding into tomorrow. Even though the hills look exhausting, we'll be going by Mt. Rushmore, so that will be cool.

Manifest Destiny (East meets West)

The Fourth of July went out with quite a bang for us this year. A bunch of people on the team bought fireworks which kept most of us entertained for the afternoon, but it was Saebin who brought everyone together for his grand finale firework. There's definitely a correlation between the distance to the fireworks and the fun had while watching them.The ride from Murdo to Wall, SD was originally around 90 miles, but everyone on the team decided it would be a good addition to the trip to include riding through the Badlands of South Dakota, which added 11 miles to the total route making it right around 100 miles for the day. The ride went easily enough, there was plenty of rest stop action, and only a few flat tires to get to the entrance of the Badlands. They definitely made the ride exciting. We've seen a good portion of the country, but this was something else.If you live anywhere within 500 miles of Wall, SD you already know what we did there. For those who don't know, we stopped by Wall Drug and took full advantage of their five cent coffee and free ice water. That night for dinner Caroline "dancing queen" Thurn and Justin "the tool man" Taylor with help from Tim and Christa cooked brinner (breakfast for dinner)for the team. It was met with much appreciation after such a long day in the badlands in combination with the time zone change adding another hour.The next morning most of the team grabbed one more cup of coffee and a doughnut from Wall drug to start off the 60 mile ride into Rapid City, SD. The weather was almost too perfect and the roads were in good condition as we paralleled I-90 on country roads into the city. At the 40 mile stop (lunch!) a group of riders were met by Gus Aus who happened to own a ranch in the near vicinity. The name of his ranch was the "Lazy Heart O" which also corresponded to his brand of a heart on its side above a letter "O". He was kind enough to share some of his time and stories with us, mostly involving broken bones, as we got a new appreciation for cattle ranching.We arrived at our stay over in Rapid City only to find that it was immediately adjacent to a Dairy Queen. Sometimes life hands you lemons, and sometimes it hands you a blizzard... We spent to rest of the day doing laundry and recharging. Today was a rest day which gave the team an opportunity reset and explore the quaint, albeit tourist friendly, downtown of Rapid City. To our fortune there were many kind individuals who donated food to our cause. First, The folks at Main St. Market who pampered us with organic and natural foods including two gigantic watermelons. In addition was a donation from Piesamo's Pacchia of two large, and delicious, cheese pizzas. Lastly, we received an anonymous donation of chips, lunch meat, orange juice, just to name a few. Thank you whoever you are.

Holy Crap!

Warning: Short blog post ahead!The Badlands are so awesome! Seriously, they are amazing. To ride through that park was the greatest experience ever. Even with the 100 mile day that ended up taking 13.5 hours, it was my favorite ride yet!



It was that awesome.

Day 36 - FIRE works

Chamberlain, SD to Murdo, SD

Our ride today was almost as good as it gets, it was a bit rainy in the morning, but the weather the rest of the day was cool and perfect for exercising in.  Since today was the Fourth of July, Cady got the Mosher this morning and treated us to the climax speech from the movie Independence Day, which was awesome, and really pumped us up for today's ride.  We rode over the Missouri River today, so we are officially in the West now, it was really pretty, but we couldn't get any pictures because it was raining this morning when we went over it. 

    The terrain today was more rolling hills, and excess cows, as has been the case for the past week or so now.  It is occasionally beautiful, but we are more often bored out there seeing the same endless grass and cows over and over, so much so that our most exciting moments of the day today came when we managed to scare some cows into running alongside of us, and we got way too excited to see cows that were not just standing there staring at us as we rode past.  The way all the cows stare as we roll by makes me wonder if maybe we are the most exciting thing they have seen in a long time as well.  Anyways, yeah, if you're wondering how we entertain ourselves out there, singing and telling jokes can only go on so long, and yes, yelling at cows is the next most entertaining thing to do.

    We met some awesome people today, including the Holder family, who we met on their way back home to Sturgis.  They were some of the nicest people we have met so far on our trip and even gave us Native American nicknames, Conor was Two Lashes, and Clinton was Pretty Eyes, haha.  They also wanted to get pictures of us, which we were more than happy to oblige with, and the kids were all really cute, we are hoping they will send in the pictures so that we can post them up on the site. 

We got in early again, and picked up some fireworks for the night at some local stands.  Murdo is very small, its hard for me to imagine anyone living here, since the population of the town, 679, is almost the same as the size of my high school graduating class.  The Murdo high school graduated only 17 kids this year, it's strange for me to imagine what that's like.  Zernyu and Cady cooked up some good spaghetti for dinner, and then we went out to test some of our fireworks out.  Cady accidently set a small part of a field on fire, but with the help of the fire department, the fire was kept extremely limited and nothing bad happened, other than Clinton cutting his leg trying to hop a barbed wire fence trying to put the fire out.  We were happy to show Sae-bin what the Fourth of July was about(he's Canadian and Korean and this is his first Fourth of July in America), and right in the middle of the excitement, he ran up to me and said, "This is the best Fourth of July ever!!"  Needless to say, we are headin out to see some professionally run fireworks just outside town in a bit.  All in all, it has been a great holiday, and tomorrow we get to see the Badlands, which everyone keeps telling us is beautiful, so I am super excited about that, even though the ride will be a long one, clocking in at 99.7 miles, on the way to Wall, SD, which is also the home of the world famous WallDrug, which we plan on spending lots of time in!!

Animals seen: Pheasants, turtles, endless staring cows

States traveled through:14(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD)
Distance today: 70 mi
Total Distance traveled:  2249 mi

Day 35 - Buffalo Rain

The ride today was cold and wet.  We rode from Mitchell, SD to Chamberlain, SD, a ride of 75 miles, and it rained on and off for the entire day, but we saw some more interesting things.  We rode past a herd of longhorns, and then just past that, a herd of bison ran along with us for a bit, they may have wanted to join in on our ride.  I think it may be the first time I have seen bison live and in person, so I was excited about that.  We also got lost for a bit today, so added about 8 extra miles to our route, but it was ok, days don't seem long any more unless they are over 100 miles or in really bad weather or rain.  Thats the good thing about really hard days, they make the rest of the trip a lot easier to bear.  The end of the ride had a really nice downhill into Chamberlain, which is located on the Missouri River, and we are about to begin to see the prettier hilly side of South Dakota.

Animals seen - Bison, Longhorns, turtles

States traveled through:14(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD)
Distance today: 83 mi
Total Distance traveled:  2179 mi

Independence Day

For the past two days we have been riding in the rain off and on.  Today for the 4th of July, Matt Cady did an inspiring speech from the movie "Independence Day."  We crossed the Missouri River this morning, which was really scenic, but we couldn't get any pictures because it was raining.  Once we crossed the river the terrain  became rolling hills which were very pretty.  We stopped at a gas station for lunch and got a $100 donation from the Holder family of Sturgis, South Dakota.  The entire family was extremely nice, as has been the case with most of the people we meet in South Dakota.  It still amazes me how nice everyone has been to us, it is really awesome.  I also want to think Marilyn Seymour who helped me bandage my knee when I cut it.  Tomorrow we ride through the Badlands, so I am pretty excited to see that.

Independence Day!

It's hard to believe its already July 4th!  We are currently in the town of Murdo, South Dakota awaiting the fireworks display that will be starting soon.  I am disappointed to be missing my neighborhood's annual display, but at least I am missing it for a good cause.

Yesterday's ride was just about 75 miles entirely in the rain.  Fortunately, it was warm out which made the day easier.  With the rain coming down, I usually kept my head down and just focused on riding with the group, but kept thinking how beautiful everything would be if it were not for the overcast skies and rain.  Then today's ride, which at first seemed like it would be a repeat of yesterday, turned out to be a very awesome ride in the end.  After crossing the Missouri River we rode through some continuous hills that made me really love South Dakota even more than I already do.  Throughout the route there were very ominous clouds that filled the sky that only made the ride all the more epic in the end.

Tomorrow we are headed to the town of Wall, SD home of the Wall Drug drugstore.  On our way, the team is making a worthwhile detour to see the badlands which I am totally psyched for.  I have been looking forward to this for some time now and can't wait!