Day 23
Day By Day Notes From The Road
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This document updated July 24th, 2004
Pierre to Miller South Dakota - 73 Miles
By Erwin:
Today was a day of failed expectation management and a day of waiting for the wind to turn. Last night, the weather forecast said the wind would change from coming from the east to coming from the northwest. This morning, however, the wind was still south-southeast, and the forecast said that the wind not turn until the afternoon. But, ehhh, it didn't until we got into camp.
The disappointment of the easterly wind was actually a good lesson in mental agility. Riding was tough until I had come to terms with the fact that today was not going to be an easy, "be-in-by-noon" kind of day, but rather a "beat-into-the-headwind-all-day" kind of day. After I had realized that, I felt much better and started to enjoy the work-out.
The scenery we rode through kind of reminded me of the south of the Netherlands, where I grew up, and also a little of the flatlands of northern France. The landscape was made up of endless flat farmland. It was nice. Particularly when drafting of someone else, the wind brought some cool in another 95 degree day.
One highlight of my day was a stop in the town of Highmore, where I had my first ever "Malt"; a milkshake with malt flavoring added to it. Malt flavoring taste a little like the Ovomaltine that you get in Austria and Switzerland. It tastes very nice mixed with ice-cream, milk and vanilla flavoring.
Tomorrow, the forecast is for the wind to finally be NW, 15-20 miles, but who knows it could be anything. If it is NW, however, the day should be really nice! Also, tomorrow we will be reaching the half-way point in the town of Huron, SD! No point in turning around now.
By Lucija:
Funny how the focus of our attention has come down to two things: temperature and wind direction. Today was hot with headwinds, which makes for a hard day.
At 5pm in the afternoon the sun was still relentless. Erwin and I, after 3 days of biking in the heat, tried to walk (only 6 blocks or so) to dinner. There was hardly any shade on the street and we were so pathetic and miserable looking that a local lady (Shaila) stopped her car and gave us a ride to the restaurant. It goes without saying that people in these small towns are really nice.
I have to warn those of you who enjoy looking at our pictures that they are likely to get more repetitive... I'm starting to notice that the landscape is flat, planted with corn/soybean, or occupied with cows - and it doesn't seem to be changing at all. So consider yourself warned.
Photos:
A typical scene - the water tower warning us that we are about to approach a town.