Minnesota nice

I didn't start riding until about 8:20 this morning, which I think was my latest start of the trip.  We rode 56 miles into Rochester, home of the Mayo Clinic.  As I am now east of St. Paul, I can report that I have ridden across the United States, from St. Paul to Boston in 2013, and now Seattle to Rochester.

Miles of corn and soybean fields in this rich farm belt.

There must be a story here.  Unfortunately, I don't know what it is.

We rode the Douglas trail into Rochester; it is well paved, although it crosses some gravel roads, and has long stretches of lovely tree tunnels.

We are staying tonight in this huge Lutheran church.  It has 4000 members and the three story building with 70,000 square feet of space, including a full size basketball court.  More importantly for us, it has showers, so we didn't need to set up the shower cabana.

Two fine days

Yesterday was a very full day, and the Internet connection was poor, so I didn't try to post anything.  Our 66 mile route took us through lots of corn and soybean fields into New Ulm, a "big" city of 14000 with a strong German heritage.  A cousin from Minneapolis met me for a too brief visit, and we explored the town by car, a real luxury.

Today we rode about 75 miles to Faribault, mostly on bike trails, which is a welcome change after riding on interstate shoulders in Wyoming and South Dakota.  I haven't seen much of the town, but I did find an excellent Thai restaurant for my first spicy meal in quite a while.

We crossed the banks of Plum Creek into Walnut Grove yesterday.  Once again, we were well ahead of opening hours, so we only saw the outside of the Lauren Ingalls Wilder museum.

New Ulm boasts a 32 foot statue of Herman the German, atop an imposing pedestal on a high hill.  No, I am not making this up.

Wanda Gag, who wrote Millions of Cats, lived in this house in New Ulm.

As we rode into Mankato this morning, we found artists working on a mural on a concrete wall that was hiding a view of the Minnesota River.  Now people can see the river.

Also in Mankato is this statue of a white buffalo, honoring the spirit of the Dakota people.  It is in the Reconciliation Park, the site of the largest mass hanging in our country's history.  Thirty-eight Dakota were hanged, essentially for stealing food during a famine when a government agent would not release food from a warehouse because he claimed he lacked the necessary authorization.  What a sad chapter in our history.

A scene along the trail today.

One of our support family took this picture of John as she passed him in the truck this morning.  John has the only recumbent bike in the group, and he is the fastest recumbent rider I've ever encountered.

Hail Minnesota

Once again we are denied a sign going into a new state, so look for a Welcome to Minnesota picture in a few days, along with a Welcome to Wisconsin, if we are lucky.  We rode 70 miles today to Tracy, Minnesota, more pretty country riding.  Ken and Nancy tell us that we have finished survival riding and into much more relaxed touring.

We thought we had ridden into Denmark when we stopped for lunch in Tyler, MN.

Main Street in Tracy is sadly deserted on a Thursday afternoon.

We are staying at a church again tonight.  I know I'm in good Midwestern territory, as we had jello salad and several casseroles served to us at dinner tonight.  It was all delicious!

Just a nice ride

Sixty miles on back roads, rolling fields, lots of ponds and a couple of lakes, just a nice summer ride.  We covered 61 miles into Brookings, SD, relaxed a bit, and ended the day with dinner at a UCC church where the group has stayed in previous years.  The minister there has done some lobbying on climate change in DC, and has attended services at my Cleveland Park church.

I love seeing water towers of small towns appear in the distance.  And the first 15 or so miles in the early morning are my favorite part of the ride.  I was about eight miles into today's ride when I stopped to take this picture.

I'm always happy when I'm riding near water.

The McCrory Gardens, part of South Dakota State University, right across the road from our motel, were a lovely place for a walk.

The church where we had dinner has a gifted quilt maker who has decorated the sanctuary with spectacular quilt banners.

Corn country

As we continue to ride east, we are clearly out of the West and back into farmland.  Corn is a theme of the day, but lots of soybeans, sunflowers, and impressive farm equipment were very much in evidence.  After our long rides, 70 miles today into Howard, SD was easy.  We even had a tail wind for the last 10 miles, just as it was getting hot.

Feeding frenzy at the food table.  Our support vehicle usually stops at a planned spot along the way.  Today the stop was early, as there were no good spots further along the route.  Here we were at 9:15, after a 6:30 breakfast, looking like we hadn't seen food for days.

This mural, at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, is made of (surprise) corn.

The outside of the very large building is covered with corn murals, which are replaced every year or so.

One of these tires would make a good swing, if you had a redwood sized tree in which to hang it.

My favorite tractor.

Ninety miles

Today's mileage made it the longest ride of the trip.  Eastern South Dakota isn't exactly hilly, the winds cooperated most of the day, and the temperature didn't get much over 90, but it was still a long day.  It was great to have a swimming pool at our quarters for tonight.  

We crossed the Missouri River again this morning.  

These guys seemed happy to pose for me.  I thanked them politely, and they went back to grazing.

Hay cutting comes right up to the edge of the road.  I have no idea if this year's crop is particularly good, but we certainly see a lot of these round bales.

As you see, we are not a young group.  The tall man standing next to me is 78.  He is both the oldest rider and the fastest rider.

Riding in to central daylight time

I'll be posting this on Monday, as we don't have strong enough Internet tonight to do the job.

We rode 78 miles from Kadoka to Presto, a very pleasant, low drama day.  Our route was the old highway which parallels the Interstate, so we encountered almost no traffic.  In addition, it was overcast and cool most of the way, and no wind!  About halfway into the route, our clocks changed themselves to the third time zone of the trip.

We are staying in a rather upscale hunting lodge with space that works well for our group.  The decor is another matter.  Some taxidermist has made a lot of money on the wall decorations here, but not all the critters are stuffed.  In what we hope is a very secure glass enclosure, there are five rattlesnakes lazing about, which explains why the place is called Snake Den Lodge.

Deserted houses and even deserted towns are a common sight.

Downtown Presho on a Sunday afternoon.

This fellow (stuffed) greeted us.

Antelope keeping an eye on the cook.

A resident rattler.

Badlands National Park

More than half of our 58 mile ride today was through the Badlands National Park.  We rolled out at 5:30 to get the best light, as well as to avoid heat and wind for a while.  What a bike ride!  The pictures don't convey the joy of riding among these fantastic rock formations.  

Of course the wind had to put in an appearance, but not until I had ridden most of the park.  Eight miles of very gusty crosswords had me off my bike more than once to avoid being blown sideways.  Fortunately, we turned and had close to a tail wind for the last 18 miles.  I did my best not to pedal, figuring that after fighting the wind for days, the wind could do the work for a while.  

We are in Kaduka, SD, population 654, tonight.  I think we are safely out of tourist territory.

A lake?  No, a rare misty morning.

All in a day's play.

More Black Hills, then moving on

We covered 118 miles yesterday, by car.  Four of us who had never been to the Black Hills rented a car  and did a grand circuit, snaking our way up Iron Mountain Road, which I thought rivaled Going to the Sun Highway at Glacier, driving the wildlife circuit at Custer State Park, visiting the Crazy Horse monument, and finally going in to the Mt. Rushmore National Monument.  

Today we were on the road by 6 am and rode 57 miles into Wall, SD by noon.  It was 100 degrees when I arrived and made it up to 105 a couple of hours later.  I'm glad we're not camping.

A view of Mt. Rushmore from Iron Mountain.  

Our first siting of Buffalo in Custer State Park.

A bit farther down the road, we encountered a small herd closer to the roadside.

As a grand finale, we came to a buffalo traffic jam.

The big guy.

A little guy.

I wonder if the Crazy Horse monument will be completed in my grandson's lifetime.  Looking at a scale model and then the mountain, it is hard for me to visualize the final sculpture.  The scale of the mountain is also challenging, as we were told that all four heads on Mt. Rushmore would fit in the single head here.  I took this shot from about a mile away from the sculpture.  Twice a year people are allowed to hike up to the arm, just in front of the face.  I've added that to my bucket list.

Finally, Rushmore from close up.  The park has quite a monumental avenue of state flags and huge viewing area full of people taking selfies.  Off to the side and down a shaded path, we found the deserted historic viewing area, which was much more to my liking.

We started seeing Wall Drug signs in Idaho.  This one was only about 10 miles out.  I didn't find 5 cent coffee, but the milkshake was excellent, and many people were taking advantage of the free ice water today.