South Dakota and North Dakota

Friday August 28th Day 10

Roday we left Gregs. Due to the intensifing pain in my sprained/twisted ankle we only rode 25 miles. We landed in a tiny town called Arlington. We had mexican food at a small cafe, which seemed to be serving the entire town while we were there. It was more like a cafeteria. The sour cream came in little tubes like in high school, and when i squeezed mine, mold came out. Ew. We decided to splurge and spend $40 on a motel room. It was the pheasant motel, the lady who owned it was the same lady who cooked our food at the cafe!!! We watched three movies and layed in bed all day. It was wonderful. It was a little overdoing it, after the enchiladas we had microwave cheese nuggets, animal crackers and a milkshake. My whole body felt a little awful.


Saturday August 29th Day 11

We traveled about 60 miles today to Huron, SD. We stayed in a park on the outskirts of town, not before posing for a few pictures with the worlds largest pheasant!!! We had some time to kill so we made a big dinner, read and enjoyed being outdoors.


Sunday August 30th Day 12

Today we planned to go 65 miles or so but once we had gone about 50 I saw a sign for a drive in movie theater playing the 6th Harry Potter movie. Billy was easy to convince to stay so we got wine, carry out from a bar because everything else closed at 5pm, some snack foods and popcorn and biked to the drive in movie. We ended up staying only a little longer than half because we didnt plan for how cold in was going to be. It was about 50 degrees, which made sitting outside in the wind watching a movie unbearable. The next drive in we go to ill bring my sleeping bag, lesson learned.


Monday August 31st Day 13

Today was a very hard day. The first and last 25 miles out of about 80 we had wind blowing at us from the sides and the front. I had heard that a semi could knock a bicycle over and I wasnt sure that was true until now. The cross wind was so powerful that even without a semi's burst of wind it was hard to keep your bike from falling over. There were these strange long load dump trucks that kept passing us and showering our backs with gravel, every 5 minutes one would pass and Id have to get off the very narrow shoulder to make way. We finally made it to Pierre, SD, the capital city. While we were setting up our tent alonside the Missouri river we saw what looked like to be another couple bicycle touring. We chatted with them for a bit and made plans to talk in the morning.


Tuesday September 1st Day 14

Today we took our day off in Pierre(everyone here pronounces it Pier...). We did laundry, Wal Mart shopped...I had to get a wall charger and cord for my ipod and when I was at Wal Mart I found each seperatley for 20 bucks each. I was mad but I know I need music. After a while in the iphone section I came along an all in one and it was only 15 dollars!!! That was a reason to celebrate! I was in a fantastic mood, I started spray painting my panniers(the bags that hold our stuff), listening to music, writting postcards with a beautiful view. Soon, Billy and our new companions, Dan and Anona joined me. They were both from Champaign, IL. We talked about our recent visit there and to the bars C Street and Soma. They had left from St Louis and were moving to Portland, Oregon. We plan to ride with them for a week or so. We had a great dinner of burritos, its easier to shop for 4 people when you dont have a refridgerator instead of 2.
Happy Birthday Jamie!


Wednesday September 2nd Day 15

I saw a dead snake today that was like 5 feet long and the girth of my fist. Scared me shitless. We stopped at this old house on the side of the road and explored it. It was leaning over and we found besides rubble, couch springs an old sink and furance. It was a little eerie. I had one of the best showers of my life.


Thursday September 3rd Day 16

Today we had a hard day. It was suposed to be an easy 40 miles and I was excited for the time off. Instead we went 90. The group asked me if this was okay, and I said yes but I dont think I had a choice. I felt quite left out and incapable of biking as hard and fast as Billy, Dan and Anona. But we made it to Pollock, SD and we found a campground and then went to the local watering hole called the SandBar, there we met Doug, Elaine and a few locals. Elaine was 49(she kept reminding us), and drunk. She kept rubbing my arm telling me how young and thin I was and that boy does she give us credit and that I should marry Billy and that he was real good looking. We each had a drink or two and pizza and learned all about farming in South Dakota. It was great, after being called crazy about 100 times we retired.


Friday September 4th Day 17

Today there were so many hills! The kind of hills I would have walked up two weeks ago, but I didnt! Billy and I went 60 miles and Dan and Anona kept on to Bismark which was another 30+ miles away. We saw a dead porcupine. Tomorrow we will take a half day off in Bismark. Oh yea, state three, North Dakota!!!


Saturday September 5th Day 18

We made it to Bismark by 1030 after meeting some of our nice camper neighbors. We ate a diner breakfast that was incredible! This town seems quite nice, hopefully the rest of the day will be great!