A Lot Has Happened

Day 22-Mon. This was my favorite day so far. We had a good ride, beautiful scenery, trees(yea), rocks jutting out everywhere and Mt. Rushmore. We came in from the back side, a lot of climbing, but we got to a neat side profile of George Washington only. Then we went around to the front, what a magnificent site. Pictures don't do it justice at all, you have to see it in person to really appreciate it. Before we arrived at Mt. Rushmore we passed a sculpture of Crazy Horse that they have been working on for quite a few years and they only have his face done.

While we were at Mt. Rushmore, a lot of people talked to us and asked how far we were going. They were either jealous of though we were CRAZY. After leaving the Presidents and doing some more climbing we headed to Rapid City SD. On a great descent I had a flat tire and couldn't yell loud enough to Ken and Ted. After a couple of miles they wondered where I was. Well I was on the hill fixing my tire. They did call the mechanic to go check on me, and then they got really worried when they saw an ambulance going my direction. Got the tire changed and had to hustle to Rapid City because they were calling for severe thunderstorms, which ended up not coming to the evening after I had arrive, thank goodness.

Day 23 - Tues We went to the famous town of Wall, SD, which has all of 818 people. It is famous for the wall drug store. Quite a place, but definitely a tourist trap. Someone said it is like a Cracker Barrel on steroids, which is a good analogy. It was a short ride to there and we rode really good, had to contend with some wind part of the way and a lot of grasshoppers.

Day 24-Wed. Oh my we are done with our longest ride now, today we went 117mi. We were a little concerned that we felt really good after it. No scenery to speak of, a lot of fields with hay bales and more grasshoppers. We did have to deal with some construction and they had watered down one portion, so we got a nice bath of mud all over us and the bikes. The bikes got their bath 1st. We passed over the Missouri River right outside of Pierre and as soon as we crossed the river we went into the central time zone. Had another flat again today, never had so many before.

Tomorrow is our half way point 25 days and approx. 1800 miles. It is really hard to believe that we have come this far already. 3 more days in South Dakota and then into Minnesota. Things continue to go great, as of now I have looked forward to every day of riding. Here we come Portsmouth.

Haven't been able to use my camera card to put any pictures on lately, so the things you see are from Oregon and Idaho.