What a difference the wind makes!

What a difference the wind makes! Today we went farther and actually climbed more than on Wednesday but it was a much shorter day -- all because of the wind.

Tuesday, July 8: 97 miles in 8 hours 35 minutes saddle time (total time was 10 hours 20 minutes); avg speed = 10.8.

Wednesday, July 9: 103.42 miles in 7 hours 14 minutes saddle time (total time was 7 1/2 hours); avg speed = 14.2


Tuesday's route took us from Parkston to Winner, SD. There were 4 turns on our route sheet; three of them to get us onto the main road which led us all the way to Winner. The winds were from the NW all day and ranged from 10 to 20 mph. I did pretty well at first and managed to stay with others to get some protection through drafting. Thankfully my quad was feeling much better and I was able to pedal while being out of the saddle. The scenery changed from being flat fields of mainly corn and soybeans to rolling hills of corn, wheat, and pasture land. The area around the Missouri River was stunning in it's beauty. The descent down into the river valley was a sweet ride but the climb back onto the prairie was long and hard since we were fighting the grade as well as the wind.

On a day like Tuesday, Tom is always a welcome sight. He and his wife, Lois run the last rest stop out of their van.  On a "normal" day, Tom comes out to the road and cheers us on. However, on the hard days, he greets us with the cowbell and a little dance. Tuesday was definitely a "cowbell" day! He had also written "15.5 TO GO" on the road.

After Tom, the next most welcome sight is that of the town we are headed to. Yesterday we came up over a hill and looked down at Winner so I got out my camera for a picture -- which turned out to be of the road rather than the town. You'll have to trust me that it was a beautiful sight after all those miles. I did stop to take a picture of the flags in front of the Holiday Inn as proof of what we had been fighting for much of the day.

The Assembly of God church hosted us, taking us over to the school for showers and feeding us a great spaghetti supper with salad. By the time I had my things organized for the next day it was 8:30 and I was more than ready for bed.

This morning we got rolling at 5:50. Being this far west, the sun was just coming up and it was a chilly 51˚. The reflection of the rising sun on the clouds was beautiful and the prairie was stunning in the morning light.

Sometime around mile 30 the light crosswind/headwind shifted. Our first clue was looking down and seeing that we were going uphill at 16 mph. We couldn't do that yesterday going downhill. Most of the rest of the day was a breeze; at least the miles clicked away at a much faster rate than the day before. At the 3rd rest stop (about mile 60) there was a very dark ominous looking cloud up ahead with some lightening in the distance. After some debate about which way the storm was headed, I headed off with Leah and Lauren and were soon briefly pelted by small sized hail and huge rain drops. It didn't last long since the storm was moving south at a rapid pace. Later on we were rained on again for about a mile. I finished the day on quiet SD roads talking with Leah as we blew into Martin. Maybe the wind often blows from the east here, since the East Wind Casino was on the edge of town. Besides the tailwind, the best part of the day was having no pain/soreness/tightness/twinges in my quad. I'm stiff and sore but it's the normal stuff that works itself out after a mile or two on the bike.

Tomorrow is a short day (less than 60 miles) to Pine Ridge and the wind forecast is for winds from the SE or S. We can deal with that.