I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that none of us would be sad that today is our last day in the State of South Dakota – it just seems like we’ve been here forever and you can only look at so many corn and soybean fields and continue to find them interesting. I have heard from other P2P veterans that just the length of the state (413 miles on I-90 alone), the persistent wind and the almost featureless terrain in the eastern part of state at least, make it a hard state to really love. No offense to you South Dakotans, but I have to agree (at least from a cycling perspective) . I will say that the people here though have been great – friendly. engaging and helpful but we’re sorry we can’t visit longer.
Since we only had 73 miles to cover to get to Sioux Falls today, we had a little later roll-out at 7:30 AM for our group. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we prepped our bikes and filled up our water bottles and headed out with a slight wind in our faces and a morning that looked like it might rain at any time. Now that we’re more than half way across the country, we’ve all kind of figured out who we’ll ride with on day-to-day basis. We are generally in 2 groups but sometimes 3 depending on the length of the ride. The goal is to try to get people to the lunch stop at around the same time. We have some really strong riders and climbers on our trip and I would put myself in the 3rd quartile with the 1st being the strongest. In any case, once we get started in the morning it takes a few miles before we sort it all out on the road. Today was a great day for some additional pace line riding – flat terrain, moderate winds and roads with decent shoulders. For our pace line group – we have some unspoken rules – no ear buds, smooth and even cadences and no jerky movements in and out of the pace line. Just keep the speed consistent on flat roads.
Some people have asked me how we navigate from place to place and it’s a good question. Every rider has a Karoo Hammerhead navigation device that is maybe 2/3 the size of an iPhone and is mounted on the handlebars. The daily routes are already loaded into the device and we just select the day’s route and off you go. We can follow the route turn by turn with just a quick glance and the device includes an alert feature each time a turn comes up. I also have my Garmin 1040 device mounted as well both for navigation and for that data that downloads to my Training Peaks app for my coach.
Today, we did have a little detour due to a road closure that put us yet again back on I-90 east but it was only maybe a 5 mile or so diversion, but I had hoped that we were done with I-90. The landscape today was a little eerie with a low fog and what smelled like smoke for awhile. Since it was a Sunday morning, we would go 5-10 minutes at a time with no traffic at all. I wish that I could spend some time with the people that live in the homes that we pass by here on the South Dakota farmlands – I would like to know what their lives are like, how they came to be farmers, how they met their spouses with so few people living here, and what goals they have in their lives. Their lives are so vastly different than what any of us on this trip have experienced. But that’s what makes life interesting!
We made quick work of our 2 morning SAG stops and made it to the Pressler Park in Humboldt, SD (A Small Town with a Big Heart) for lunch by about 12:30 PM. After lunch, we had only about 16 miles to make it to Sioux Falls – home to 232,000 South Dakotans which comprise over 25% of the entire state’s population.
Picking back up on P2P profiles, Chad and Michelle are from Michigan and are riding the tandem bike across the country and they are both strong riders and FAST! Both late 50’s or early 60’s with Chad being a recently retired pharmaceutical executive and Michelle still working and taking calls on our trip. They have been riding a tandem since they were first married and it has been fun getting to know them.
Today was a fairly easy 78 mile ride (with the detour) with limited climbing of 1,500 feet. Tomorrow, however, will be a different story as we have our 126 miler on tap from Sioux Falls to Fairmont, MN. The winds don’t look great right now so it could be a very long day. Let’s hope for the best!