Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Day 22 Kadoka to Pierre

Day 22 Kadoka to Pierre

Essence: "Daddy, I don't wanna play bike ride no mo'! "

After a warm night in Kadoka we were up before the sun. Switching tme zones the day before, now mean waking up in the dark. Not anything beautiful or romantic like the pre-dawn twilight or at sunrise... NO this was just DARK. I had slept without my sleeping bag. Just my sleeping pad and a sheet and was finally comfortable when my alarm went off at 5:00.

But I managed to drag myself out of bed hoping for a better day. A blood red fireball of a sun, burned its way through the clouds as we made our usual breakfast and said goodbyes to our host "Mayor Harry" who had arrived at five to open up the shower rooms for us. Great hospitality till the end. (If you haven't read my last ost go read it to see what I mean about South Dakota People.)

Cue sheets in hand for the day, we turned to uor daily business of riding. Jo (Jodi) breaking her facade of "strong woman taking on the world single handedly" dropped a line that just burst us out laughing. In a perfect Panhandle Florida southerrn drawl, she announced, "Daddy, I don't wanna play bike ride no mo'!"

And that was all that needed to be said.

After yesterday's tough, hot struggle we needed a good day and today was looking to be just as bad if not worse. Without a morning thunderstorm to cool us off with or fend off the sun for a while, we were looking at a hot 95 mile ride with headwinds.

We had come to doubt the accuracy of the elevation plans of the ride and when they were flat, they did not accurately show the long unrelenting climbs ahead of us.

We rode past "1880s" town, which is more movie leftovers from the shooting of Dances with Wolves. More sunbaked fields of wheat without a tree insight to breakup the winds, the horizon, the scenery or provide a strip of shade. Al the water here tastes terrible as it is very heavy in mineral content. Much like Phoenix tap water back home. You can drink it when it is ice cold. But 2 hours in to a ride in our water bottles, ain't nothing cold. We are happy if it isn't Hot water. So even the drink of water isn't refresing. And the Gatorade powder mix just gives it a fruity bad flaovr, but doesn't cover up the bad taste.

We ride. We struggle. The day is so tough that I only took 3 pictures and 2 of those are of the same tractor.

Here are the Dimmits, our tandem bike couple. Greg and Trish. As I say "Two if by land, one if by sea, the Dimmits are coming, The Dimmits are coming."


The other picture I took was of this reaper, right before he turned I had to ride through all his chaf. THAT was a singularly nasty experience. I have never been so instaneously doused in dirt in my life.



8 or 9 hours after we had started that morning, we finally arrived in Pierre, South Dakota. We were camped in a city park right on the Missouri river. As our feet were hot, Kari, Alison and I reinstituted our tradition of cool our feet in the river,... that is until the bugs threatened to carry us away. And the bugs were huge.

Showers were in 4 shared motel rooms about a block away. The best part about the showers was getting to wait in the air conditioned hotel room with noe bugs while you were in line for the shower. We were hot, dirty and ready to throw our bikes in the river and head collectively home.

We went to dinner, where the guy behind us tried to eat one of those huge meals, where if you ate it all in an hour, then it was all free. Even us starving cyclists, who are burning 5000-700- calories a day looked at the thing and our stomachs just flipped. Yuck.

After Dinner, Rodney, Jerome and I set out on a quest to find Ice Cream. It got us away from the bugs in the park and sounded like a a good treat. We walked probably 7 or 8 blocks found nothing, gave up and returned to camp empty handed.

That was the moment of an angel. We were all sitting around lamenting, when up strolled Eric Raveling (pictured below on right) , a local, an ice cream expert and a guy who could help us. As computer software guy for state of S.D. he could give us detailed directions of where to go to get to Zesto's better yet, he was headed there himself and would escort us. not only that he had just finished playing frisbee golf in the park with his buddy, Brock (pictured below on left) who happened to have 3 still chilled ice bottles of water and an ice chest of icy melt water!



As offered to us, the water got handed out and then several of the girls stuck their feet in the water to cool off. Not something I would normally do, but I deifinitely understood.


Our bodies cooled or watered and our spirits lifted that we successfuly find Ice cream, we head out with Eric as our valiant guide for better living.

We indeed did find Zesto's. And as you can see life was turnig around for us.


Eric was great to tell us about the city and what he did and be a sort of local tour guide. Finally it was time to head home, to be and leave the company of our hero Eric.


Back at camp, it was still muggy, hot and buggy. I took this shot and wrote a few postcards and then tried to sleep in the wet blanket of summer air.

For Eric and Brock - Thank you so much. Your support and buying all ice cream and just being so welcoming. It really lifted our collective spirits. The group of us that went with yuou that night, took that good cheer back and shared it among our friends. You lifted the whole group, on a day when we all really needed it thank you. That is one of the great things that we are experiencing on this trip is the hospitality of people across the country. You are welcome at my home any time, and we thank you, collectively from the bottom of our hearts.

Don't forget to Comment - Mom, it is okay to leave me silly comments or memories.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Andy,
I just left a comment on your day 21, but wanted to say now that I am SO glad that you found ice cream!! I was getting worried for you :)
I remember Peirre from our Family outing that we took with Chuck's family to the Black Hills a couple of years ago. It looks like you are heading a little bit north so you won't be going near Chuck's home town of Salem, SD. Oh well, the most important thing was that you rode and stayed in my home town of Spokane :) Just kidding.
Keep up the good work and stay strong!!
Garnette

PierreFirstUMC_WebAdmin said...

Andy,

Glad to be of service. Again please accept my apologies for the South Dakota weather, even though I'm not in control of it :)

If you or anyone else reading this is coming (back) to the Pierre, SD area, I would be happy to tell you were to find the best steak dinner you've ever had in your life, or answer other questions you may have.

Good luck & keep pedaling!

- Eric Raveling
straybison@hotmail.com

Brock said...

Hey...One thing I gotta say, "I would be heading with all of you...what a great, friendly bunch...but I frankly gotta tell you the truth...I couldn't hang in there with you". Ha Ha...good luck on your journey...May God watch over all over during your trip...weather, traffic, and everything you encounter. have fun!!! It was a honor to meet a great bunch like you!!! Hope our water this week don't taste like toe jam...haha!!

Chris said...

YEAH Ice Cream!!!
Love the picture of the feet in the cooler!
Chris
Big Ride '06