Day 25: Pierre to Chamberlain, SD

Our fearless leader has a motto: "A bad day on a bike is better than a good day at the office." He must have had a pretty bad job. I like my work and today would have been worse than most days I can remember. We rode 84 miles over mostly monotonous prairie with very strong headwinds or, when we were lucky, cross-winds. The high temperature was 98 degrees. Positive spin was that the winds were good because they kept us cool. Not really. I drank about a gallon of water and as much Gatorade as I could stomach and was still hot and thirsty when I got to the Best Western du jour in Chamberlain. We had three climbs today, a surprise given the general flatness of the terrain, and climbing while facing a 30 mph headwind is pretty demoralizing.

The highlight for today was passing the halfway point in our cross-country trek. Many of the riders who insist that they'd rather be doing this than anything stopped to take pictures of the painted marker in the highway, which said something like, "America By Bicycle, Halfway Point." I expected marching bands and pretty girls to drape medals around our necks, like at the Tour de France. Instead we got a SAG stop with peanut butter and bagels (this excites cycle geeks), as well as cookies, apples, granola bars, and bananas--all things that I used to like 50 SAG stops ago.

I am being a little unfair to the terrain around here. Were it not for the heat and headwinds, I probably would have enjoyed the prairie grasses for the first half and the ride along the Missouri River during the second half. The Missouri was very pretty. But my new friends are getting hard up for photo ops. One decided the highlight was a very well endowed bull.

Those of you who have pledged amounts per mile will be happy to know that Paul and I have cycled every single mile (plus a few extra for trips to bike shops and such). This is becoming a singular accomplishment. Five people who had planned to ride to New Hampshire have dropped out. One left after the first day with a separated shoulder blade. Another tried to ride with a broken clavicle, but gave up a couple of days ago because the pain was too great. Two friends bailed out when one of them developed a worrisome arrhythmia. And one rider left shortly after joining the ride after he was clipped by a trailer and broke a cervical vertebrae. Other riders have been driven to the SAG wagon by the hills, the heat, or repeated stress injuries. A very strong rider from Holland sagged today after becoming nauseated by the heat, which he says he never experiences back home. Another sagged yesterday after feeling ill. My rough guess is that only about half of riders have pedaled every mile.

Tomorrow we have a relatively easy 70 miles into Mitchell, SD, home of the corn palace--subject of much comment at wrap tonight--and George McGovern--subject of no comment at all; I'll be looking out for George. The day after that, we ride 72 miles into Sioux Falls, where we get a day off. My butt is really looking forward to that.

Cheers,

Len

(Picture is of an interesting parking strategy near Pierre, SD. Honestly, this was the most interesting thing we saw in Pierre.)