Day 30 - Worthington to Mankato

112 miles and about 1,250 feet of climbing.

Overall, although it was one of the longer rides, I would say it went pretty well.  Did not see too much.  Here is a wind turbine; there are many of these all along the route.

Just a couple of clips:

In this clip, you can see a bit of the MN. chip seal (new).  Much easier to ride over this compared to new Oregon chip seal.

This is the Red Jacket Trail (a rails to trails project).  This is a video of the down hill.  Then we took a killer trail up hill.  Then they had one more killer uphill, so we pulled out our phone to bypass the killer up hill and we were successful.

Day 29 - Sioux Falls, SD to Worthington, MN

Completed 73 miles with about 1,100 feet of elevation gain.  Great ride today, light winds and nice lunch at a local Chinese restaurant at the end of the ride.

We stopped at a Cenex Station/Convenience Store and we were eating ice pops in the store about 15 miles outside of the town we were staying in.  We started talking to the girl behind the counter (Danielle) and she the Chinese Restaurant is pretty good.  So that is where we went and indeed iyt was very good. 

We had a nice ride along the Big Sioux River heading over to Sioux Falls; here are a couple of clips

The Big Sioux south of Sioux Falls is much more polluted with E. coli, fecal coliform, and suspended solids.  It seemed like as we were riding along the river, it kind of smelled like crap.

NEW STATE TODAY, hello Minnesota!

Interesting how the scenery seemed to dramatically change almost as soon as we crossed the state line.  Just seemed like the greens were darker and the vegetation more lush.  Still lots of corn and soy growing on both sides of the road today.  Also, the condition of the roads seemed to be much better in MN vs. SD.

Day 28 - Sioux Falls

Rest day.  We hit the half way point in South Dakota somewhere.  And we moved into a new time zone in this segment, the central time zone.

This is where I am by the numbers:

Total trip miles:  3,690

Days of trip: 50

Miles completed so far:  1,904 (I have lost about 30 miles from the total trip; due to weather and a                                              mechanical problem with the bike)

Percent miles completed:  52%

Percent days gone:  55%

Total climbing so far:  72,395'

Day 27 - Mitchell to Sioux Falls

About 74 miles and 1,300 feet of elevation gain.  Fun ride today!

We had very little wind and a pretty level ride today; a lot like riding at home.  Jeff started riding with us at about 16 miles in.  We were doing half mile pulls then rotating to the rear.  The first SAG stop was at 32 miles.  Then we started riding again and stopped at a Sinclar station/convience store at about 50 miles.  The next SAG was at about 56 miles.  

Herman and Ada, who are from the Netherlands, pulled into the SAG right behind us.  Herman and Ada ride a bit faster than us.  However, Satish asked if we could ride in with them.  Ada took the front and Herman took the rear.  The final 15 miles were almost a blur, just a lot of fun.  On a couple of hills, Herman actually pushed Jeff up the hill.  

Herman, Satish, Hugh and Ada

Then we stopped at the Thirsty Duck for lunch and those who wanted some had beers.  After lunch, we rode the final couple of miles to the hotel, only to have to wait an hour and a half for our room.  Long story there, but mostly can be summed up with two words, poor service  at the Sioux Falls ClubHouse Hotel and Suites.  Here is my Yelp review:

Day 26 - Chamberlain to Mitchell

About 74 miles and less than 1,000 feet of elevation gain.

Nice, relaxing day today.  And, oh, the sites we saw today.

Well, the day started out with a forecast of rain all day.  When we left, it was pretty overcast; I brought my full rain regalia (rain coat, rain pants and cinches to tie the pants legs to my legs and rain booties).  Thank goodness I did not need them today.  As the day went on, it got really nice, no rain at all; we were all very lucky.

I just thought that this was a really cool farm house I saw on the way.

South Dakota has a crazy bad fly problem, we see tons of house and horse flies.  Worse than that, been seeing a lot of mosquitoes also.  Then, when we got back to the hotel today, and put on the TV, there was a commercial about mosquitoes.  South Dakota has has the largest number of West Nile Virus cases in the United States, so be careful.  One more thought on insects, every now and then you see stacks of bee hives by the side of the road, and as you ride by them, the bees seem to be swarming all around the hives and the roads.  A little scary.

Well, around mile 10 of the ride today, we were supposed to ride itno Pukwana.  And in Pukwana, we were supposed to find the the Nascar Lawnmower race course and the Puk You Bar.  Well, we never say the signs and when we got back to the hotel, we were told, the mosquitoes down there were just horrible.  Guess it is a good thing we missed this one, or two.

Around mile 20, we found the South Dakota Tracker Museum.

KER-PLUNK is how the leaders described the road last night at the Route Rap.  The road was more like a side walk, large cement squares/slabs.  Each slab has a gap in between.  Some of the gaps are larger than others, and a lot of the slabs are uneven.  So every time you go over one of the gaps, it feels like a bump and it actually feels like ker-plunk.  Here is a short clip of the road.

As we came into the town of Mitchell, I went by a John Deere Tractor dealer, here is a short clip:

Then at the end of the ride, we went to the only Corn Palace in the world, in Mitchell, SD.  It was pretty cool.  All of this art is composed of ears of corn fastened to the wall to make the murals inside and outside of the Palace.

Day 25 - Kadoka to Chamberlain

TOUGH DAY!  About 116 miles with about 2,800 feet of climbing.  We pretty much had a head wind from the moment we left breakfast to the time we got to the hotel.

The day started with breakfast at Steakhouse 27 in Kadoka.  I thought it was pretty cool seeing all the bikes lined up in front of the restaurant.

As soon as we left breakfast, at about 6 AM, we felt the headwind; ugh, the day did not start out fun and it was a trudge, all the way through.  It was a pretty strong head wind.

About 20 miles into the ride, we hit the tour's official half way point.  Pretty much the hi lite of the day.

Then, sometime around mile 40, we went into the Central Time Zone.  So now after battling the wind for 40 miles (about 75 miles left to go), it just got an hour later to finish up today.  In a nut shell, we got to the hotel about 7 PM.

We were told that dinner was from 5-7 PM, but they set it up for Staish, Bob and I to go to dinner at about 8:30, after rap.  Bob, another rider on the tour, also got back about 7 PM too.

The only thing we saw of interest in my opinion, was a caravan of tractors.

The day ended with nine miles on I-90 and then about five more miles on a service road and then a cool bridge over the Missouri River and then a left into the hotel.

Day 24 - Wall to Kadoka

Pics from the day we entered South Dakota:

Today's ride:

57 miles with about 2,000 feet of elevation gain.  The ride was kind of tough in the beginning, we had a really strong head wind for the first 9 miles or so.  Once we got into Badlands National Park, the scenery was pretty amazing.  I have several clips of riding in the park and what I have seen: