Today was our most beautiful and enjoyable ride in several days. The wind was either very calm, or at times even provided a nice tailwind. The route was short at sixty miles, and took us away from the main highways that we have been on lately and onto less-travelled country roads. And it was mostly [...]
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Today was the first day that we were forced to start the ride in the rain. It was a welcome change to me, though, as it wasn’t raining too hard, and it kept the sun and heat away for the first twenty or so miles of the ride. The lunch stop was in the town [...]
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Miles 0 through 23: Cool, calm, overcast, pleasant. We pass the cross-country half-way mark. Miles 24 through 45: Headwinds start; extremely difficult going 7 mph. Euphoric but brief tailwind for 0.2 miles as we make a hard-right into the lunch stop. Miles 46 through 64: Headwinds continue. We pass a windmill farm — so, these [...]
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I got a good nine hours of sleep last night, then got up at 8:00 as a few of us loaded up our laundry on our bikes and rode towards town to the laundromat. While a clothes spun, I got breakfast at the Country Kitchen with Robert, Bruce, and Colin (and where we happened to [...]
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We awoke to a rainstorm this morning, which delayed some of the folks who usually like to get a very early start, but the rain cleared and I got going around 7:15 with Meg, Brian, and Robert after the usual 6:30 breakfast in the schoolhouse. The clouds hung around for a while, which thankfully kept [...]
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A gear problem this morning – as I was taking my tent down, one of the poles snapped in half. I had to cut the stretch cord inside in order to get it out of the tent’s pole sleeve. We went to the A&M Cafe once again for breakfast, then proceeded into the entrance of [...]
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The day started out with a five-mile ride from the school to downtown Rapid City for breakfast at a diner called Tally’s. After finishing my blueberry pancakes, I headed out of town on my own. What a difference a day makes. We are definitely out of the mountains now and into the Great Plains. The [...]
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A spectacular ride today; I am glad that I am feeling well enough to have done it. We headed out of Custer on the Needles Highway, which leads past Sylvan Lake Resort, Cathedral Spires and other rock formations, and through several one-lane tunnels cut through the sides of the mountains. Later, the Norbeck Scenic Parkway [...]
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I got on the road with Brian, Meg, Bruce, and Robert around 7:30am, after breakfast at the Senior Center. (Robert had decided to stick it out and stay with the tour, riding the short days or partial days as best he could.) The route took us finally out of Wyoming and into South Dakota. Several [...]
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I felt pretty good when I woke up at 5:30am, so I decided to ride the first half of the route, which was about 43 miles. I got dressed in my bike gear, packed up the tent and everything else, then got to breakfast at the KOA diner by about 6:30. I headed out on [...]
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