Day 28: I spent much of today resting, reading and writing by myself. I wrote some postcards, but I still haven't purchased international stamps. Today, there were strong winds, making me especially happy that we didn't have to ride. For dinner I joined some people at the Timber Lodge Restaurant. We are all pretty slender and our nice waitress Nicole must have wondered a bit how that could be since we all ordered big steaks or fish platters complete with baked potatoes with butter, chives and sour cream, rice, and of course, dessert.
Sioux Falls has a laser sound show at the falls every evening during the summer. Some of us took a taxi there after dinner and joined other tourists for the show. The show portrayed the town's history over the last 150 years or so.
Day 29: Today, I am back on my bike again. Some riders had spent the rest day buying new bike gear (saddles, tires and tubes, etc.). Dave from the "Blitzen Gang" purchased a new cassette that is better suited for the flat terrain we are now riding.
Getting rid of his climbing gears will allow him to ride even faster. It is a pleasure to watch the "Blitzen Gang", Dave, his wife Cathy, Steve from England, Gordon and another Steve appear in our rear view mirrors after sleeping in, pass us, and soon disappear in front of us. If our speed is 20 mph, their speed is at least 24 mph. They are fast riders.
Glenn Vanderlinde from Atascadero, CA is now riding with our group. He is an excellent rider and very strong. He is 71 years old and has competed six times in the senior race at St. George, Utah. Five of the six times, he has brought home the winning jersey. May I add that he rides a Litespeed. He will compete again this October, so OCV riders going there, look out for George.
On a funny personal note, Wal-Mart is becoming my favorite place. Not only do I often wear the dress that I bought there at the beginning of the ride and take my photos there for developing every rest day, but also I had my hair cut at their walk-in salon today.
Maybe I can start doing Wal-Mart ads in my spare time after I complete the ride. To my friends in California, guess what the price of gasoline is in South Dakota and Minnesota? How about $1.21-1.28/gallon?
Tonight the Worthington town Mayor came and spoke to us after dinner. Worthington became a city is 1912. Today there are 11,283 people living here. Over 30% of the population are immigrants from Laos, Vietnam and Latin America. They mainly work in hog slaughterhouses. How many hogs do they slaughter in Worthington you ask? They kill approximately 1,000 hogs / hour or 15,000 hogs per day or 4 million hogs / year. Some of the product is exported to Asia and Europe.
The Mayor also told us that the eastern parts of North and South Dakota and the western part of Minnesota are the windiest areas in the U.S. We had no problems believing this fact due to the strong wind we had already encountered, but couldn't believe that relatively speaking, the past few days hadn't been windy. If this is true I wouldn't want to ride on a day he considers windy!
Day 30: How nice is to check into a Holiday Inn located on Main Street. The library is just across the street and the post office is only a few blocks away. I felt a bit spoiled today, as there were mints waiting on the pillow, a massaging showerhead, stationary and a coffee maker in the room.
The day started out with a few raindrops so we all put on our jackets. The rain didn't last very long, which was very nice, as today marks the first of four long days. We will pedal 371 miles over the next four days. We usually end up bicycling a few more miles than noted on the route slips, so if we are lucky we'll end up with four centuries in a row!
Our usual group rode together. Due to tailwinds, our average speed was great, but we still didn't make it to the hotel early because we stopped many times to rest and eat. Dairy Queen is now on our list of regular stops. The scenery today consisted mainly of well-maintained farms. Huge corn and grain silos speckled the roads near the railroad tracks and main highway.
/Gunnel