Day 26 -- Payback...a great day on the road. . . yahoooo!

July 15, 2005

ROUTE: Chamberlain to Mitchell, SD

DISTANCE:71 miles

WINDS: A 5 mph  westerly tailwind that felt like a gale

WEATHER: Sunny, low 90s by ride's end               

TERRAIN: A climb out of town (below) and then pretty tame                

TOTAL CLIMBING: 1,150 feet

RIDE OVERVIEW: Yep. A great day on the road . . . and I'm in the van. Aw well, luck of the draw. Josh radioed a good oldies station, so I tapped out the tunes on the steering wheel and kept myself--and at times the riders I passed--rocking.

Riders were in very high spirits today as they pulled into the SS set up at mile 35 at a little A to Z rental store/gas station/motel. Everyone was grinning and happy. Amazing what a good day can do to recover the spirit. Because the day was short, this was the only SS. I chatted with the pleasant woman who ran the store, and she told me that she and her husband had Gold Wings and had toured many areas of the U.S. The Eastern seaboard was next on their itinerary.

Actually, this seemed to be a day for chatting with the locals. I was parked on a dirt road at Mile 8 waiting for riders to come by this morning when a guy in a battered pick-up pulled up to my window. He had a sprayer in the back of the pickup and had been hired to spray a sunflower field but got bored waiting for the wind to change so tooled over to my side of the highway for a little conversation. 

Then I ran the line and pulled over at another dirt road outside of Vernon. A guy in a semi-sized cattle carrier stopped and wanted to know the details about the bike riders he'd been seeing. I gave him an America by Bicycle catalog. Wonder if we'll see him on a future tour? A migratory beekeeper (one who transports his hives to farmers' fields for pollination) turned down the dirt road too and I was hoping he'd stop for a chat as I once kept bees, but he trundled his flatbed loaded with supers on down the line. I've been noticing groups of hives set up in fields for the past couple of weeks now.

Today's route only reinforced my opinion of South Dakota as the state with the most roads that go off into nowhere. I know, I've said that before, but it seems to keep coming up. At least today riders saw some trees lining the roadway, but several times the road was so straight and flat that it seemed to go on forever. Over the course of the entire 71-mile route today, I think riders saw maybe 3 stores, until they arrived in Mitchell. It's really desolate out here. 

We have only one more day in SD before we have another day off.  I'm ready and I'm sure the riders are too. Tomorrow is forecast to be another hot one, so I'm beginning my hydration program as I type (with a tall iced coffee, Bill). I know, I know, coffee won't help me hydrate, quite the contrary, but I promise to switch to water and juices after I've enjoyed this delectable brew.

Well here we are in "a-maize-ing" Mitchell, SD, a little corn crazy prairie town (its radio call letters are KORN) and home to the world's one-and-only Corn Palace. The citizens of Mitchell built the first Corn Palace in 1892 when some of the early settlers decided to put some of their harvest on rather than in the concrete reinforced building with its dome and four turrets. Every spring following that, the exterior of the building is completely covered with thousands of bushels of native South Dakota corn, grain, and grasses arranged into large murals. Each color of corn (and they use 11 different color varieties) is grown in separate fields so it won't cross-pollinate. The Corn Palace serves as a tourist draw, as a huge auditorium for touring celebrities, as a sports arena for the various Kernels teams, and as the locus of Corn Palace Week, the high water mark of Mitchell's yearly social calendar. Corn Palace Week marks the end of the harvest--and the beginning of planning for next year's Palace theme. Last year's theme was Lewis & Clark. This year's theme is "Life on the Farm." The Corn Palace has one more title: World's Largest Bird Feeder. After Corn Palace Week ends and winter sets in, local pigeons, squirrels, and birds make a feast of the murals.

Almost everyone got in early today (some well before noon) and spent the afternoon sightseeing downtown. I got to town early too, so decided to find a beauty saloon and get my hair cut. I have a 2 o'clock appt. and hope I don't trade my present sheepdog look for a poodle-do or worse yet, a hairless Mexican Chihuahua. Several are also planning on attending the rodeo this evening. That should be a treat . . . all these people with funny tan lines sitting in the bleachers watching others trying to ride things that can buck them off.

Tomorrow we ride to Sioux Falls and our much needed rest day. See you then.    Susan

HEARD ON THE ROAD TODAY: 

• "Chips Ahoy!"
• "This is a good day on my manic-depressive swing."
• "What would Josh do?"
• Dianne: JOHN, WE'RE HAVING LUNCH IN MITCHELL BEFORE GOING TO THE MOTEL.DO YOU WANT TO JOIN US?"
  John: “The louder you talk the better I can understand what you're saying."
• "Boy, today I felt like Eddy Merckx."
  "You feel that strong do you?"
  "Not really, he's in his 70s."

 PHOTOS OF THE DAY:

(I let Mikie do the photo section today. He spent a good deal of time with Karen playing in the hayfields today and just couldn't stand not posting his photos to his website.)

The welcome at the motel was special
today for Larry...how did they know?

Karen rode sweep with Me today and we had so much time
 on our hands that Karen took the time to help Farmer Fred
in his father's freshly farmed fodder field.  After pulling
Mike all morning, this was fairly fun.

In the "Don't try this at home department," 
Karen and I went playing today and 
just couldn't resist one of the hay bales
 along the road . . . let's see, this is how 
the "X-games" folks do it.

There!  Made it!  Piece of cake!

The thrill of victory! 

Maybe I should have given the dismount a little
more thought or I should have read the
"How to ride down" instructions more carefully...oops! 
Dang. And just after I uttered the famous last words
of a Redneck, " Hey Bubba watch this!" 
Don't worry, I'm OK!  I think.