Day 22
Day By Day Notes From The Road
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This document updated July 24th, 2004
Rapid City to Pierre South Dakota - 95 Miles
By Erwin:
Today was very hard, possibly one of the hardest days of the trip so far. We had to fight 95 miles of 110f in shade, 25 mile headwinds and continuous hills. It was tough.
The landscape around us resembled what I imagined the prairie to be, except that it had more rolling hills. For reference, the movie "Dances with Wolves" was filmed in the area. It was pretty, but the wind and the heat meant that I hardly looked at our surroundings.
Still, Lucija and I stayed together most of the day; me up front and Lucija drafting. We were having fun. We even played a drinking game: every time we reached the crest of a hill, we made each other chug some "Squencher" - the "activity drink" we're using. Still playing drinking games: the more things change, the more things stay the same. Still, as I drank so much (about 10 liters), I felt pretty good even toward the end of the trip.
2 miles before camp Lucija and I made the brilliant decision to stop for some food in a nicely air-conditioned restaurant; it was a great way to cool down before having to deal with setting up camp. All in all, my day was much better than expected. Tomorrow, life should be easy, with only 75 miles to go and a 20 mile tailwind. How things change!
By Lucija:
Oh is was just terrible out there today... so hot and windy. Though at the end of the day we got to camp in one of the prettiest camp locations along the Missouri river.
Another surprise today were two baby birds that appeared to have fallen out of their nest, onto... yup, my bicycle parked under the tree. I found them there first thing in the morning, crawling up my spokes. I left them alone as long as I could, hoping that they would miraculously learn to fly. Eventually, I moved them onto a nearby tree branch - during the process both of them made sure to poop on my hands. Great. The good news was that their parents returned to feed them on the branch, so hopefully they will survive.
Photos:
Look at me - I crawled spoke by spoke all the way to the top of the wheel!
The landscape was beautiful, but the wind relentless - notice the sideways orientation of the grass...