Well, my forth century ride is finally complete. That 20 or so miles into that vicious headwind had things up in the air for a while. I missed my early morning shot yesterday with the late start, but made up for it today. With the long day, we headed out earlier than usual and the sunrise did not disappoint. In fact, all the early start did for me was to have me stopping even more than usual because of the sky. Here's my first shot of the day, just as I was leaving Wall. Notice the dinosaur in the foreground. Don't have any idea why it's there, but it did make the shot kinda cool.
Then there was the lone tree out in the distance.
...and I couldn't pass up the water tower since I wear my RAGBRAI jersey from 2008 out here so much.
and one more from the road that I just thought looked cool.....
Cottonwood, SD....population 6. I'm guessing that if you were locked up here, one bad accident could leave you in jail forever.....of course I doubt it would be too hard to stage a jailbreak.
It's really cool out here in all this grassland and farmland to see a small pond or creek. It's like a little oasis in the middle of lots of nothing. All of a sudden there are trees and green grass.....and the water in these little holes is always deep blue.
I was wondering .....what other countries do they fly to from Hayes, SD........
Today's view of South Dakota.....at least when I looked up. Most of the time my head was down trying to push through that headwind. Of today's 117 miles, a good portion of the riding time, was getting through those 20 miles.
Should've taken pictures of the grasshoppers. They were everywhere. If you get behind someone riding down the road, all the grasshoppers jumping to the side look like the wake from a boat. Of course with the wind, they wind up hitting you everywhere. I even had one attach itself to one of my spokes and hang on for almost a mile. If they get dizzy, that thing had to be looped by the time he let go.
I also have to thank Oakley for the quality of their impact resistant lenses. I'm so glad I bought these for this trip. Going through a construction zone today, an 18 wheeler kicked up a large rock that would've got me right in the eye if it hadn't been for my sunglasses. As it was the impact knocked them almost completely off my face, even with the arms tucked into my helmet straps. I'm happy to say that these small scratches to the left lens is all the damage that was done (except maybe for the skipped heartbeat when I saw the rock coming at my head in slow motion).
Well, every time I think it's over, they mention more climbing. Sounds like we have 3 good sized little climbs tomorrow. The cool thing is we will be at the halfway point sometime tomorrow morning. It's hard to believe we've ridden halfway across the country already. And now that we're in Pierre, we have officially crossed into the Central Time Zone.....home sweet home.
Thanks for reading. Don't forget to check out the Tour de Cure page if you haven't done so.
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