Today was a great day. Most days generally are good, but today was one of the really special days.
Today's essence comes from a quote from today. "Never Forget Your Dreams"
Well the trains rumbled through all night and blew their horns all night. I am glad that I can sleep through anything, so that the trains only woke me a few times. I have never heard so many trains, hooting and toting at each other and trying ot figure out who is on what track. Aye yay yay. I had enjoyed camping outside again though. And the tent pole my mending job on the yesterday's broken tent pole seemed to work like a charm.
So awakened by the trains I got ready to go off route and take our chances our our own resourcefulness and abilities to plan aa ride and face our own challenges.
I made sure breakfast was the standard oatmeal. Fortunately the senior center was serving us and I even got seconds on the slow oat oatmeal just like my grandman used to make. With Brown sugar and raisins, I knew I was fortified with good slow burn carbs that would carry me a long ways.
I headed out with the "Scott Train" (Scott, Alison, Kari, Tom and Me) again one of the last groups to get out of town. We had coordinated all wearing our BIG Ride Jerseys so we matched and looked like a team. Soon that team split and reformed as the Rushmore expedition. Bob Dumke, myself, Kari, Ben, Toronto Dave and Rodney.
We crossed into South Dakota and Checked off another state on our list.
Rushmore Expedition leadership was given to Bob, while I played the roll of scout and tracker. I lead a lot of the day and did most of the navigating (as I usually do). I am usually leading the pack so me, navigatingi s not much trouble.
We go to Custer State Park and beat out some tough climbs and rocketed down a few descents with truck escorts since there were no shoulders. Apparently South Dakota replaces flaggers with mere stop signs. Now you can't see the other stop sign, so proceeding in to a workzone is hairy and basically a role of the dice if you will get through. We were glad to have the maneuvability to get around cones and such, but it worked out.
Finally we hit the midway checkpoint and checked in as heading off route and pursued our goal of riding to Mt. Rushmore. We knew there would be a few extra miles and lots of extra hillclimbs, but we couldn't tell how much or how many. We were going on guesses.
WE rode passed the Crazy Horse Monument.
At crazy horse I also saw this arch which just seemed to embody the day andthe trip for me. NEVER FORGET YOUR DREAMS!
This ride was a dream and even going off route to ride to Rushmore was a dream. And I was involved in making both a reality.
The roads and scenery in Custer State Park were as pretty as Idaho had been. I love the clouds, the color of the color of the sky, the trees everything jsut made such a wonderful visual composition.
The hills just rolled out from under us and the Rushmore Expedition was riding strong. A quick mid morning sandwich and we hit the last 10 miles to Rushmore.
Next thing we knew we were at the park...
And then there it was... MT. RUSHMORE
The Monument had changed a lot since I was kid. They have built a whole parking structure to accomodate the cars and a drive up drop off for the busses. The cafeteria and gift shop are near the front. You walk past those and down a colonade of columns with all the states flags flown and engraviing of when each state was admitted to the union. It is much more ceremonial and regal.
There is a new observation deck that is at ground level and the visitor center is then built underneath the observation deck.
Also they have built a new amphitheatre below the visitor center and it looks like it would be a very cool amphitheatre to see a concert and have the faces as a backdrop.
I was amused at watching the crew setup a 10 tower truss systme concert roof with flown audio and lighting. For a moment I was back in work mode and I just stated how much I love my job, but I wasn't missing it. That was good for me to know that I am not mentally done with the ride.
The Faces of Mt. Rushmore were really beautiful. The clouds would come and go and the lighitng would change on the faces. Eventually we went into the visitor center where we sat down to watch the 15 minute educational parks video.
Okay helpful tip. Don't have 6 cyclists ride 60 miles and then put them in a dark room with comfy chairs and a woman speaking soothingly ... and expect to remain awake. We all zonked out for 5 or 10 minutes and it was really great. WE then went to the next theatre that showed the video on how they blasted and carved the faces. We slept less during that movie.
AFter that we felt that we needed to head out.
Lots of folks kept reading our jerseys and wanted to know what we were doing.
We had ice cream at the ice cream shop, like we do. And then headed down to Rapid City, in a very rapid fashion.
10% downgrades went by very quickly. Coming out of the mountains we hit the flats and the headwinds that came with them. We had less than 10 miles to go and we were then back on the route and home.
We were back to the dorm for our rest break, not too far behind normal schedule. We were certainly back long before we had been expected back. It felt like a bit of a reunion with us catching up with how the regular ride went and everyone wanting to know how our day went.
God blessed us with strength, ability and carried us through to see it. And it was good! In the end, I think we had the better day. The day had a sense of worth and value. Going for what you want, even though it is hard yet rewarding seemed every present. In the end, the climbs were TOUGH and there was very little shoulder when were were off route. I only would have felt comfortable going off route with similarly strong fellow riders. But we could do it and saw great things, which was in stark comparison to a tough day with afternoon headwinds and boring scenery for the other rides.
And in the end only 4 miles longer than scheduled route. Yay!
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