7/16 - Pierre, SD - Miller
 

The theme for today is: "Boy it really is Hot and Windy in South Dakota!!"

After a nice of rest in Pierre it was great to get back on the road. The ride started off by following the Missouri River south for about 20 miles. Since crossing the Missouri river on Sunday, the scenery has started to become more green. You could look across the Missouri and see the brown field and look either side of the road we were on and see green fields. By the 23 mile mark, we came across a piece of modern art in installed in a while open field. You gotta see this thing. It looked as if the Wright Brothers crashed into a telephone pole..... several times!!!!! I'll see if I can upload a photo to the site.

The road became bumpy until the picnic stop. The lunch was about half way through the ride at forty five miles. The ride was re-routed to bypass the bumpy road. A benefit was that the next leg head north. The direction gave us a tailwind. For the next nineteen miles, the tailwind allowed me to average about 20 MPH. I think that at times, I peaked at 29 MPH, that’s traveling!! When I reached Highmore I discovered the Frosty Freeze and had their special flavor of the day, Orange sherbet. By this time it was really starting to cook. It turns out the almost all of the riders had stopped at Frosty Freeze as well.

The last twenty two miles was really hot and the direction had changed so that the great tailwind had now become a strong crosswind. Good thing that there were enough water stops along the way. As I entered town, a Dairy Queen beckoned to me. I could here it say to me..... root beer float.... root beer float..... root beer float. I gave in and stopped. Guess what I had? A root beer float!!! Andy was already at the DQ and Marc soon joined us.

After setting up my tent I headed into town with Marc to find something to drink. We walked into a saloon that had the Weather Channel on. The map on the screen was a contour map of temperature, showing where the hottest point in the country was. It turns out we where the hot point!!! Guess I feel good that we made it!!