Not to worry...

everything has been fine. We arrived, as scheduled in Sioux Falls on Saturday and had a rest day there yesterday (Sunday). A reliable high speed Internet connection was impossible, so I wasn't able to post. The ironic thing is that I had been at that motel on business before and think I had the same problem then -- a few years ago. All in all, though, the motel was good. The staffs at most of the motels really go out of there way for us. This particular one had Blue Bunny Orange Dreamsicles at the ready upon check in and made sure we had plenty of cold drinks and refreshments.

There was an early load, 6:15, on Saturday. It was purely strategic to beat the heat. A 71 mile day is very managable now, but conditions called for temps to hit the century mark again and wind gusts up to 30 mph. Similar to the day into Pierre.

I was in by 1:00. I don't think the temperature hit 100, but was close. The heat was really coming up off the pavement by the time I got in. We were fortunate to spend most of our time travelling east, so winds were cross to quartering tail.

We are starting to see more population than in western South Dakota. On Saturday the route went through Alexandria, Canistota, and Emery before getting to Sioux Falls.

I had not realized the size of Sioux Falls. We had to navigate five miles of town before arriving at the hotel. This morning's route (Monday) took us 18 miles before we were on country roads again.

The rest day found everyone catching up on the normal bike cleaning and laundry. The motel was across the street from a mall, and there were many restaurants within walking distance. All meals are on your own during a rest day.

In addition to the normal things that needed to be taken care of, I took in a movie with part of the group. We saw "Pirates of the Caribbean." It may have helped to be better versed in pirate mythology and to have seen the first movie, but the special effects were excellent. Not sure I could summarize, though, beyond that. It was enjoyable.

We entered another state today. We crossed into Minnesota at mile 24.4 this morning. It's amazing that the geography almost immediately got greener, and it was about this time that the humidity of the morning seemed to lift and get cooler. The price, though, was 30 mph cross winds from the north. Glad it wasn't a century day (that's tomorrow)!

We woke this morning to thunderstorms at around 2:00. When we left the motel it was close to 90 and HUMID. We're thankful for the cool down. I think everyone was glad to be in.

Today's route started on a bike path in Sioux Falls, which was excellent and very scenic. After exiting the path we went by the Sioux Falls stockyards (cattle and hogs) before leaving Sioux Falls. The yards seemed to be empty. There's a Hormel plant across the street, which I would assume is hogs.

The route also took us through Brandon, Manley, Beaver Creek, Luverne, Magnolia and Adrain. These additional communities provide an opportunity to get off the bike and get something to eat or drink if needed. That was the case when we got to Adrain today, 15 miles from the end.

We ran into road construction again today. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), this wasn't passible. So off we went on the detour -- straight north (remember the wind). After three miles of plodding through the headwinds, we were able to turn back east and look forward to a kicking tail wind when we turned back south. Somehow, we wound up in the same place with the detour as we would have if we had stayed on route without ever turning back south. What's up with that?? No reward, again!

Seems as though everyone made it in good shape, after, of course, a pit stop at Dairy Queen which happened to be on the way to the motel! Okay, maybe that was the reward.

Tomorrow it's onto Mankato.
~Lisa