Five days and about 500 miles have passed since I updated last as I was leaving the Black Hills. In that time I’ve marched across South Dakota and part way across Iowa.

On my last day in the Black Hills, I stayed with Marc, Laura and Connor Reed. They weren’t people that I knew prior to knocking on their door Monday night (they were friends of friends of people I met earlier in the trip). Despite the fact that they didn’t know me from Adam, they were amazing. In addition to giving me a soft, dry place to sleep, they also fed me a steak dinner. Marc served in the military in Afghanistan and said that the hospitality they showed me was their way of paying back the generosity he and his family received while he was overseas… funny, I feel like it should be us, civilians, repaying him, not the other way around!

After leaving the Reed’s I rode about 90 miles to the edge of the Badlands where I camped at a place advertising “all u can eat made from scratch pancakes”…sounded like my kind of place. The next morning I learned that the record was 10 pancakes; I only managed to eat 5 so I guess I should’ve ridden farther the day before!

The next morning, I rode through Badlands National Park. No other name would work; they truly are bad lands, so otherworldly that they are beautiful in a very harsh sort of way. The day in the Badlands was also the first day I had any physical problems on the trip, it may have been caused by the giant ball of pancakes in my stomach, but my lower back was incredibly sore. As a result, I opted for the flatter, more populated route of I-90 across South Dakota.

Although it wasn’t overly scenic, riding I-90 turned out to be the right choice, for the next 300 miles I rode into a headwind and the passing traffic (I-90 isn’t too heavily traveled compared to most other freeways) helped to knock it down a little bit. Of the nearly 300 miles I spent on the interstate, almost 200 of them were in some form of road construction zone. About halfway through the 200 miles, I had to laugh when there was a road sign stating “road work next 43 miles”, I’ll never know what prompted the SD Dept of Transportation to pick that point to warn you that virtually the entire freeway was under construction!

On the 3rd day of riding I-90, I passed through a town called Mitchell at about the 60 mile mark of that day’s ride. Partly due to the fact that I’d been seeing signs for it for 2 days, and partly because my Dad told me I’d be stupid not to, I broke down and road into the town to see something called the “Corn Palace”. Surprisingly, the Corn Palace is exactly what it sounds like… a palace built primarily out of corn! Seeing it wasn’t the highlight of my day though; that came about an hour later when my back suddenly loosened up (further proof that a good solution to any problem is to keep pedaling through it). Not only did my back feel better but my legs felt great so I kept riding until dark when I reached Sioux Falls (125 miles for the new longest day of the trip).

As most everyone knows, the Midwest has had one of the wettest summers in history; and along the interstate in South Dakota that caused a disturbing phenomenon… hundreds of turtles and thousands of frogs have committed suicide by trying to cross the 4 lane divided highway. It was like riding an obstacle course trying to miss all of the shell fragments (l learned the hard way that they are sharp enough to cause multiple flat tires)!

Leaving Sioux Falls, I was lost for about 20 miles (in case you’ve forgotten I’m directionally challenged), but this time it wasn’t technically my fault (I like it when that happens); the highway I was looking for was called something else in the city and the map I was using didn’t mention that. In this case it turned out for the best as I ended up on a road that took me a long way into Iowa without much traffic to contend with.

You don’t need a sign on the side of the road to know when you enter Iowa from South Dakota… one second you’re riding along on the prairie and the next you’re surrounded by a sea of 8ft tall corn as far as you can see in every direction! As a young kid, I lived in Nebraska, so I wasn’t surprised by this; but if you’ve never been to this part of the country you’d be surprised by how beautiful the gently rolling, corn covered hills are. Every 20 miles or so is a small town with a grid of streets lined by houses with perfectly cut lawns surrounding a main street. The people are friendly (everyone waves) and helpful and riding through this part of the country gives you a sort of peaceful, quiet satisfaction that I’ve been enjoying for the last couple of days.

It’s still incredibly wet in Iowa and while I’ve been riding I’ve been caught in several downpours which have been nice because the rain is warm enough to be comfortable. Any other time, someone (maybe your Mom) would be telling you to come in out of the rain… in this case there’s nowhere for me to go so I just get to keep riding in the rain! It’s great fun, it makes you feel like a kid again! I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I rode along trying to see out of rain-streaked glasses this afternoon.

Due to some extra long days, I’ve gotten a little bit ahead of schedule (I need to be in Dubuque to catch a plane to go race Leadville) and as a result I’m in the process of taking a really cool detour to Davenport Iowa where I’ll visit my great aunt and uncle (whom I haven’t seen in 10 years) before heading up to Debuque on Friday. I’m really looking forward to seeing them!

Like the line from the movie, this isn’t Heaven, it’s Iowa, but it’s pretty darn good (since I’m getting to ride my bike everyday, most places are pretty great now that I think of it)!

Ride it till it’s rode out!

Scott

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 7:45 am and is filed under Ride Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.