South Dakota! Woohoo!

July 5, 2007: We woke up early!(4:40?) We had a 120 miler from Riverton to Casper, Wy. What can we say- hot, boring desert landscape with lots of nothing except wind. Did we cave and ride the sag in? Noooo! Because we're idiots. But we made it. Enough said.

Friday, July 6: It's a rest day. Whoohoo! We had breakfast together with Rand, who had flown in the night before, then the two of them drove back along our route to 43 miles north of Jackson Hole for Alicia's wedding (Alli and I actually booked this particular X-country trip because we'd be in Wyoming for the wedding). Meanwhile, Joel actually rested, beginning the day with a massage (his best ever- if you ever plan a drive out West and your route takes you within 500 miles of Casper, book a massage with Davina @Bamboo salon and spa), then getting a haircut and beard trim for thirteen bucks at the local barbershop, where there are two chairs and you don't need an appointment. Just walk in, take a seat, and note the people ahead of you; when the last person gets out of the chair, hop in and chat with the verbose barber about anything - bison, politics, or local eating establishments. Later, caught a movie, then did a lot of nothing in anticipation of the next day's ride- 106 miles at 106 degrees. Water bottles were steamy enough to brew tea 5 minutes after being refilled with icy cold water.

Saturday: Joel rode with the train, i.e., the Miller train, consisting of papa Miller (Mike), mama Miller (Bernice), baby Miller (also Mike), and the younger baby (Derek). Gary also tagged along, and Joel mainly played the caboose, where he drafted to his heart's content. The day was again (surprise) HOT. The Millers tend to stop a lot and take a myriad of pictures, so after the second sag when the mercury was bursting out of the top of the thermometer and eggs were seen to be frying on the asphalt, Joel left the train behind to book it into the hotel, which was nice enough to greet us with cold lemonade and freshly baked cookies.

Sunday: A mere 93 miles from Lusk, Wy to Hot Springs, South Dakota. Allison was still on leave (read that as AWOL). Joel decided to ride at his own pace. He maintained a blistering pace and arrived first at the destination with an average pace of 22 mph. NOT! The first half of the ride had an irritating cross wind, but then after we turned east, the wind aided the ride. It was fairly uneventful until we closed in on Hot Springs, where we had some long climbs, and then finished the last 10-15 miles riding through the smoke of a forest fire which took out a significant number of homes and killed one person.

Monday, July 9: Allison's back in the saddle and raring to go after three days of rest. This ride was one of the highlights of the trip thus far. The terrain was rolling and beautiful, through the black hills of South Dakota, and had both good climbs and several screaming descents. At one point, early on in the ride, we had a near run-in with a bison! There were large herds nearby, and as we were descending at 35 miles an hour, a great big ugly one decided to wander out into the middle of the road! Lucky for us, a car coming from the other directions scared it off, and neither of us were impaled. Later in the day, we saw Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore, which were both cool. The 72 miles flew by, and before we knew it, we were in Rapid City, SD, feasting on Quizno's. Mmmm, toasty.