Cycling and other musings
88 miles, 3379 feet climbed
Pretty much just another day on the saddle. Weather was conducive, not too cold or hot. A nice bike path in the middle and crossing the Mississippi at the end.
Continue reading “Day 32 – Rochester, Minnesota to La Crosse, Wisconsin”101 miles, 2421 feet climbed
These last two posts have been a couple of days late in part because I’m a little worn down but mostly because the hotel WiFi connections have been too slow to successfully upload the photos. I hope to catch up in a day or two.
Today’s ride followed 112 miles yesterday. I didn’t have the spring in my pedaling but keeping the pedals turning will eventually get you there. Another day of mild weather helped too.
Continue reading “Day 31 – Mankato to Rochester, Minnesota”112 miles, 1293 feet climbed
Considering the distance, today went pretty well. I wasn’t too worn out at the end and the weather was accommodating–low 60’s top start, ending in the 80’s. So far on the trip we’ve had cooler than normal weather with just a couple days of rain while we were on the road. We have another 100 miles tomorrow.
Continue reading “Day 30 – Worthington to Mankato, Minnesota”71 miles, 1417 feet climbed
Today started out cool and remained so for most of the day. After our first an only SAG, slight headwinds increased but were nothing compared to Saturday’s winds (Day 27). The roads are less rolling, some good smooth asphalt and others the “kerchunky” concrete we’ve recently seen. The highlight was the first 9 miles ridden on the bike path that loops through what seemed like a continuous series of parks ringing Sioux Falls. The pavement was remarkably free of the tree-root upheaves we’ve seen in other places. Our time on the bike path ended at the Sioux Falls.
Continue reading “Day 29 – Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Worthington, Minnesota”Today I went on a walkabout. I got as far as the Shiells store on 41st Street, where I scored a Dark Side of the Moon jersey, something I’ve always wanted. At Best Buy, I picked up a camera cleaning kit as my Fuji mirrorless camera all of a sudden was showing a persistent dot in its viewfinder. Laundry, a visit to Culver’s for frozen custard, and resting completed the day.
Continue reading “Day 28 – Sioux Falls, South Dakota (rest day)”71 miles, 2497 feet climbed
Our departure was delayed by a big storm with very strong winds. At the start they were blowing from the west and would’ve made a great tailwind but half an hour later they turned around. And then there was the rain. We waited until the rain passed and loaded out luggage at 9 am. The winds remained, however, 25 – 30 mph blowing right at us. Some chose to put their bikes on the vans and ride. Most chose to ride, including me.
Continue reading “Day 27 – Mitchell to Sioux Falls, South Dakota”75 miles, 1132 feet climbed
Today the headwinds turned in our favor. Except for the miles of concrete roads with mismatched heights at the seams every 10 feet or so–called “ker-dunk” or something similar by staff. Not as bad as the road heading north out of Pocatello, but still annoying. I don’t think I mentioned that I picked up a suspension seatpost in Rapid City to tame those kind of roads. It seems to be working to reduce their impact, making for a little less fatigue and less rough on my camera hanging in a bag attached to the underside of my seat.
Continue reading “Day 26 – Chamberlain to Mitchell, South Dakota”73 miles, 1680 feet climbed
Today was probably the hottest day yet; so far we’ve been lucky to see below average temperatures. I’m talking about the heat index, which was pushed up to nearly 100 degrees. We started the ride with the sun obscured by clouds. After the first SAG, however, the sun appeared and I needed nearly two water bottles to make it 23 miles to the next SAG. The final leg was on I-90, construction was in process, adding way more debris on the shoulder than normal. At RAP, staff said that was our last riding on the Interstate.
Continue reading “Day 25 – Murdo to Chamberlain, South Dakota”99.9 miles, 3858 feet climbed
When I did this ride in 2004, it was a 117 mile day. We hopped on the Interstate for about a mile and then vectored northeast to Pierre, the state capitol. Not much to see and headwinds to boot. The highlight was crossing the Missouri River just before Pierre.
Well ABB has fixed that in the last few years. Today we went south instead and looped through the Badlands National Park. What a pleasant surprise. On our one family trip through this area when I was a kid we were short on time and only visited Mount Rushmore so I had no idea this existed. You’ll find a multitude of pictures below. To make sure we didn’t spend all day there–it was a 99 mile day, after all–staff set time windows for each of the SAG stops to keep us moving.
Continue reading “Day 24 – Wall to Murdo, South Dakota”58 miles, 2005 feet climbed
We’ve been gradually coming down from the mountains, so to speak. Across most of Wyoming and the first day in South Dakota we were hanging out at about the one mile elevation mark. Today in Wall, we ended a little below 3,000 feet. With “only” 58 miles to ride, we loaded (luggage) later than normal and headed off. The only possible complication was late afternoon thunderstorms, which were late in coming but pretty impressive at 8:30 pm or so.
Continue reading “Day 23 – Rapid City to Wall, South Dakota”