Big Ride Day 23

Photos from Day 23

Today started out really well with a great breakfast of pancakes hot off the grill and great clear, sunny weather. The entire day was spent rolling through the South Dakota farmland. Today I rode with Doug and Mary. Mary is a fifth grade school teacher who just quit her job to be on the ride and also to start a family. She is a really neat, energetic person who I've enjoyed getting to know. She has been having problems with her Achilles tendon lately and Doug was able to tape it in a way that she is able to ride now with us so she is really happy about that. Although the scenery was beautiful, the day really started to drag on towards the end as the miles piled up. Also, I was still a little tired from riding hard yesterday. Today, my knees were a little sore in the morning but we were taking it easy and as the day wore on, they started to feel better. Lately, my knees have been sore almost every morning but most of the time, they get better as the day goes on, which is great.

Tonight, we are camping on the banks of the Missouri River in this really nice park in Pierre, SD (the state capital). We got in at a reasonable time but we passed into a new time zone when we crossed the river so it actually turned out that we got in right before dinner. For dinner, we finally had pasta (spaghetti) and it tasted so good! I loaded up on those great carbs. Today was Doug's birthday and he got cake from his wife so we all shared in that too. Also, the Chamber of Commerce here made us cookies. Something I haven't mentioned much so far is that we have been getting great support from the Chambers of Commerce in the various cities. I guess we represent big business to them and many of them have sent out representatives to help us find things and to shuttle us around to local businesses. It's really been nice to have that kind of support. Some have even set up tours for us and things like that. Well, its time for bed -- the next four days are a lot shorter and fairly flat so we should have a much easier time.

This page modified November 25, 2000