6/22 - After leaving the Calkins and getting out of the crazy floods, we headed strait for Brookings, SD. Luckily we were out of the never ending rolling evil hills. Although there is one benefit to hills that one must recognize, once you get to the top, you can stand up and ride down it. Thirty seconds doesn't seem like a long break, but its just the recovery the sore butt needs. After many miles of flat roads and wind that was blowing hard enough we were actually riding at a slant, we found a nice baby size lds church lawn to sleep on in the town of Miller, SD. It was a beautiful sunset, and since we hadn't seen the sun in days, it was a treat to watch it set with a large corn silo in the silhouette.
6/23 - The next morning we stopped at a nice local grocery store to pick up some breakfast and or donuts. Because everyone knows that donuts are the best fuel for biking all day, or we just have a weakness for them. The store owner let us fill up our gallon bottle with delicious filtered water for free. We gladly accepted this because we drink some strange tasting water I tell you what. We got a late start but luckily the wind wasn't against us all that much. This day we decided was the day we were going to break into the triple digits for our miles. What seemed like an easy task, wore on and on for 6 and 1/2 hours. After the hills, wind, and a crazy flying crop duster plane which Dayne thought was a large Remote Controled plane, we made it at 103 miles. Dayne wanted to go the extra 20 miles to Brookings, SD but realized it was almost dark and we were totally spent. Luckily these small towns have awesome little camp grounds in the city park. This one had a beautiful pond with some angry geese that were giving us a little gruff for sleeping by them.
6/24 - Waking up after riding that long and hard isn't really the most pleasant experience. Everything is sore and moving is way too much of a chore then it should be. After a nice breakfast of cream of wheat, oatmeal, and a bananna, we headed off towards brookings. It was only 20 miles but Dayne quickly lost energy and was super hungry. So we made a stop in Brookings and ate an 'all you can eat' pizza buffet and ate way too much almost feeling sick. We came across another couple Rachel and Brian crossing the country going west. They were staying with some couch surfers and said we could probably take a shower there! So an hour after being there the host quickly talked me into staying for the night and going to Sioux Falls 40 miles south for his friends show. Then I slowly talked Dayne into agreeing to stay he he. There also happened to be a car show and tons of people everywhere. We even got to meet up with Martin from Fort Pierre, he was down there for the weekend so it ended up being a really fun night.
6/25- Today we woke up and walked across the street to Brookings mini farmers market for some just picked strawberries yum! Then walked over to a ma and pa cafe for breakfast and then hit the road. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up some veggies for dinner and inside the store, in the produce section we found something on Dayne. We're guessing at about the border of SD and WI, Dayne recieved his first tick ever, so much fun!! He wanted to know what the heck was on the back of his neck so I looked, and I don't have much experience with those so I said it looked like some bug that was trying to get in his skin ha ha gross! So as we were screaming, jumping all around and freaking out I tried to get him to calm down and I took his shirt that was still on him and used it to pick it off. Dayne starts screaming, "where is it, where is it!?!" So he rips off his shirt, throws it to the ground and starts stomping on it. And I'm yelling at him to go to the bathroom because people are starring at us as were still in the produce section ha ha ahhh! When we were finally out of the store and pulling away a really nice lady asked us where we're from and where we're going and said she wished we were staying the night so the local newspaper could do an article on us as they love bicyclists. It made us feel normal again and not like such freaks that we had just looked like in the store. She must have just missed that outragious scene right? Back on the bike again for another thirty miles or so to find a not so hidden camping spot for the night right off the highway ending close to Springfield.
Follow along as we venture the US on a Tandem Bike. As this is our first time, I am sure there will be many challenges and interesting events happening.
