Bike America Day 32: It Blows

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Day's distance: 65.35 miles
Overall distance: 1,659 miles

Are you wondering about the title of this blog post? Want to know what blows? The wind in South Dakota is what. On Sunday it blew at 22 mph and was never once a tailwind for us.

We knew this was in the forecast so we set our alarms for 4:30 am and mounted our bikes by 6:30. My mom and I watched the sun rise as we rode and we were lucky to avoid some of the heat and wind early in the day. She and my dad switched at mile 26 where we turned south straight into the gusting wind for five miles. It was a brutal ride but a wonderful leg workout.

At mile 38, we arrived in Winner, SD but didn't feel like total winners. It was 10:30 am and we'd been working hard. We sat on the sidewalk in the shade of a gas station eating soft-serve ice cream cones from inside. Then we filled our water bottles to the rim with ice and turned south onto highway 18. We rode eleven miles into a hellish headwind and it took us an hour and a half to go the distance. It is incredibly frustrating to work so hard, harder than you ever do on a bike, and watch the miles tick by so slowly. I started to change the settings on my odometer so that I could see speed but not the distance. Mentally, it was a little easier to not pay attention to how little ground we'd covered. I thought of my friend Hadley who has the same mentality when she runs.

We met my mom and the car in Colome where we chugged water and ate lunch in the shade. We talked about how hard we were working and my dad said I was sure to burn more calories in today's 65 miles than I did during my century ride. Good thing because I was chowing down on summer sausage and cheese like a ravenous monster.

Leaving lunch I passed this awesome sign and had to stop for a picture. At first I thought it was cool that there is a place on earth called Bassett, Nebraska. Then I realized that it led me in the other direction to Gregory, SD our overnight town. Since Josh's name is Joshua Gregory Bassett and his dad's is Gregory Bassett, I was really psyched by this.

Then I reluctantly got on my bike to keep slowly pedaling. I didn't think it was possible but the final fifteen mile stretch into Gregory was the worst of the day. We weren't riding straight into the wind so it was slightly less hard but it was gusting at our side and it was uncomfortably reminiscent of my ride (and fall) during the storm outside of Missoula, MT. It was coming at us from the right so when I let it carry me, it would carry me into the road. I didn't want to fight too hard to not let it lead me sideways because that's what made me fall over last time. I stopped when I felt scared of the gusts but, for the most part, just kept pedaling. It blew. Really really hard.

This was taken the next morning but you can get an idea of how cute the motel room was.

We still rolled into our motel fairly early, around 3pm. In line with the trend of cute small-town motels, the room was adorable. I was the first to shower and took an unplanned nap. Then my mom and I went to the grocery store where we satisfied two of the three cravings I've been having a hard time satisfying in these small towns: nutella and hint of lime chips (not together). South Dakota beer has yet to be found though. Dinner for me was a chef salad with chicken, hint of lime chips with salsa, and turtle ice cream. After a Steve Jobs 60 minutes episode, a call with Joshua, and a blog post it was lights out and I was asleep instantly.

Bike America Day 31: No Brie on Bastille Day

Saturday, July 14, 2012


Day's distance: 63.01
Overall distance: 1,594 miles

It was Bastille Day and, sandwiched between the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Badlands National Park, we could not have felt any further from France. We were graced by another pretty view of sunrise from our campsite and we began our ride before 7AM for the first time all summer. As we rode away from the Wanblee convenience store, though, my mom noted that we’d soon be losing an hour and 6:30AM would turn to 7:30AM when we entered the central time zone later that morning. Still, it was cool and the sun was low for the early part of the day. We pedaled over many hills and passed some more scatterings of badlands-type formations amongst the grassy hills.

 My parents switched at mile 32 and my dad and I braced for the horrible heat that was headed our way. We rode 15 painful miles to White River, SD where we sat on asphalt with our backs leaning against the shady side of a casino. We made more tomato, avocado, and swiss sandwiches and re-filled our water bottles with ice and Gatorade powder.

The final fifteen miles into Wood, SD were really hard. The heat was dangerous and the hills were many. My heat rash was back in full force and we did everything we could to just keep pedaling. My mom was waiting in Wood with the car and she reported to us our options for lodging: rent a hunting lodge in Wood that would cost $150 for the night or drive 30 miles up to I-90 and rent a motel room that would surely be cheaper. We opted for the drive and motel.

I rubbed calamine lotion on my legs and then fell asleep in the backseat of the car. When I woke up, we were pulling into the Landmark Inn parking lot in Murdo, SD. It was a cute, family-owned motel off the interstate and we got a small room for $67. It was the strangest motel room I’ve ever stayed in but it was cold and cozy.

My mom and I made a quick trip to the local drive-in to pick up dinner. I wanted a baguette, brie, nutella and a glass of sancerre but none of that seemed to exist in the small town. Instead I got a turkey burger and a mixed berry smoothie which I ate with tortilla chips. While eating and blogging, we watched Double Jeopardy and Sleepless in Seattle. There was something comforting about watching movies in bed. Another hot day down, many more to go...

Bike America Day 30: The Badlands- Not so bad after all

Friday, July 13, 2012

Day's distance: 54.66

Overall distance: 1,531

We set our alarms for 5am Friday morning to be up in time for sunrise at 5:18 in the campground whose reviews said "best view of stars and sunrise you'll see on your west coast trip." I had a pretty view out the door of my tent but wanted to get the full effect by driving out of the grassy hills we were surrounded by in camp.

My dad and I hopped in the car and drove up to a ridge where we could see the high, sharp badlands in the distance. The sun was coming up to the right of them, over what looked like farmland but it was still below the horizon. The sky all around was pink and blue as it waited for the sun to fully rise.

We stared in the direction of the sun for too long, waiting to see it peek up and my dad advised we stop before we blind ourselves. One of my dad's favorite sayings is, "if god wasn't a tar heel then why'd he make the sky Carolina blue" so that morning, I said "if god wasn't a gator then why is the sky blue and orange?!"
.

Many buffalo were roaming and feeding as they had the night before and we marveled at them for a while. It was still very surreal to be in this beautifully deserted place. We stayed about 30 minutes then drove back to our site

My mom had taken down the tents and gotten everything ready to go so we packed up the car and left our little wonderland in the hills. On our drive away, we saw a flock of wild turkeys, a pack of deer and an elk running beside the road.

We were dropped off where we'd finished on Thursday and my dad and I rode the first 30 miles together. We thought these miles would be through the badlands but we were actually in Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, just south of Badlands Natuonal Park, with views of it to our left. We cruised trough this ride, pedaling into the KOA in Interior, SD by 10am. I had another 30 or so miles to go but it'd be another day of shuttling to lodging, with the campground located at the halfway point for the days ride.

My dad stayed behind to check in and shower while my mom and I continued on. Leaving Interior, the terrain changed significantly. It became incredibly hilly and my mom was not a happy camper. As the temperature rose and my legs began breaking out in their same old rash, I joined her in frustration. When we got to Wanblee, a little town in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, we ditched the last six miles and called it quits for the day. We stocked up on yummy food in their one store and I made myself a tomato, avacado and Swiss Sandwich on the drive back to camp.

My mom and I showered and I almost stayed behind to blog while my parents took another drive through the badlands. My dad wanted me to come but I was totally in the mood to do nothing. Eventually I was convinced and we began the trek. It turns out that we had barely been in the badlands the day before because on our drive, in the heart of the unusual formations, everything was beautiful and I didn't get that same bad feeling that I had on Thursday. My dad described it perfectly: it was as if a giant hand had come through with wet sand and let it drip into pointy little hills everywhere the same way you do when making a sand castle. Most of my pictures are from the window of a moving car so please excuse any blurriness.

We stopped at one pull off to touch the stone. It looked like sand that would crumble to the touch. But it was a more solid, light feeling stone that supported me when I climbed up one of the formations. In my flip flops, I almost slipped and got antsy when my dad pointed out the familiar "beware of rattlesnakes" sign. But I survived through several jumping pictures and slid my way down in one piece.

On the way back we stopped in a touristy visitor center and restaurant for dinner to go. I ordered an Indian Taco, listed under the "Badlands Favorites" section. It was Indian Fry Bread, a thick deep fried bread topped with beans, lettuce, cheese and ground buffalo. I knew in my heart when I heard it was fried bread that this wasn't my kind of meal. But I wanted to appreciate the culture and try the local cuisine so I went for it. It turned out my instinct was right and I did not enjoy this meal at all. It left me feeling grossly oily and full but kind of mal-nourished at the same time. My dad (who had the same dinner) and I downed a bunch of carrots and broccoli afterward to cleanse our palettes and our intestines. The Indian Taco was worth trying but not something I ever care to order again.

Our $27/night campground only allowed one tent per site so instead of forking over twice as much money, we decided to all three sleep in our largest tent. It was a cozy little slumber party with my parents and I fell right to sleep.

Bike America Day 29: Inside the Discovery Channel

Thursday, July12, 2012


Day's distance: 64.15 miles
Overall distance: 1,476 miles




I was sad to leave Custer State Park on Thursday morning without having rock climbed or kayaked but was ready for another day of riding. We headed out from the gas station where we’d ended on Wednesday just after 7:30PM. My mom and I rode the first 30 miles together and she told me stories about her childhood, my grandparents, and their parents. The first half of our ride was on ugly, busy highways but the second half was along a pretty, less-busy road with views of the black hills in the distance as we rode away from them.

My parents switched and my dad and I rode the remaining miles together. We were riding toward the Badlands but our destination for the day, Scenic, SD, was right at the edge of the park. My dad was antsy to get into the park and see the sights that day so we decided to tack an extra ten miles onto the ride and see what was so bad about those lands. We wondered why we were still surrounded by farms when we came to the top of a steep hill and I got my first view of the badlands.

Right at the bottom of the hill was Scenic. We rode a few blocks off route to see the downtown strip which was nothing but a ghost town. A man in a truck stopped and told me some history of the town. It had been quite the party town until the 1980s when it turned into this ghost town. He said, “it was as if aliens had come in and swept everyone out.” He said if you looked in the window of one of the bars, you could see beer cans still sitting on the pool table. Nobody had ever even cleaned the bar.

 We turned around and headed into the park. My dad had been to the Badlands on a cross-country road trip in the 60’s and I had asked him earlier why they were called the Badlands. He said he thought I’d know when I got there. I don’t know what it is but he was right- there was something dark and foreboding about the terrain that gave you kind of a bad feeling. It was incredibly desolate and a little depressing, with what looked like strange sand dunes all around. It wasn’t pretty like I’d imagined it.

My mom picked us up and we drove down a long, bumpy gravel road to Sage Creek campground. This was a free camp in Badlands National Park, but outside of the rock formations, that sat amongst vast bison ranges. The things that stood out from the reviews we’d read were:

1. No showers, running water, or flush toilets
2. Best views of stars and sunrise you’ll see on your west coast trip
3. Buffalo will roam right through your campsite

Sure enough, 30 minutes after our arrival, a lone buffalo wandered within 20 yards of us, amongst the tents and cars in this open field. It made me a little uneasy, given the size and strength of this supposed friendly animal, but nobody else seemed concerned so I played along.

Before making dinner, we drove up to Wall Drug which was cool but a little too touristy. We made sure to try the maple doughnuts, per the recommendation of Amy, our host in Rapid City who’d worked there in college. I’m not a doughnut fan but I did think this one was pretty delicious. It rained while we were inside and then cleared up and got sunny instantly. The weather sure can be strange out here. On our drive, I got a picture of the rain from a distance.

Back in our quirky campground, we set up for what we called “cocktail hour”. We drank beer and wine and eventually stayed put for dinner of turkey, tomato and cheese sandwiches.

 As time passed, we noticed the bison in the distance migrating north. Massive herds of them were slowly roaming in a pack and eventually splitting up to feed in different places. A group of them jutted down a hill to a creek and back up toward us, where they ate grass just across the gravel road from the field that was our campground. It was very surreal to be watching them that way. It was exactly the kind of thing you’d see on Planet Earth or the Discovery Channel. We joked about being inside the discovery channel, watching the nature and wildlife unfold before our eyes. It was truly remarkable and I was really sad Josh wasn’t there to watch with us because I knew how much he would have loved it. He’s the one of us who actually watches the discovery channel at home.

It made me sad to leave the west part of the country because I couldn’t imagine anything like this happening as we headed east. I told my parents that, even though it sounds like more of an accomplishment to have ridden your bike all the way across America, I wished we’d considered spending the same amount of time riding around different places out west. There is so much to see and so much that I haven’t and this trip is making me crave so much more adventure in this part of the world.

We also got a kick out of our neighbors who were having a really hard time setting up the oldest tent I've ever seen in my life. It was bright and old fashioned, with stripes making it look like a circus tent. My dad made jokes about it being a prop from the set of Lawrence of Arabia. He also said that they'd be setting up their falafel stand in the morning. I was very sorry to not have any falafel for breakfast the next day. Shame on him for getting my hopes up...

Behind us we saw that the sun had set over the hills. I wanted a better view so I took off running up one of the steep hills on the west side of the campground. My mom said that I shouldn't do it in flip flops but my dad yelled after me, "she is born to run!" (I gave him the book for Father's Day and he loved it even more than I did, if that's possible.) Had I known there'd be cactii atop the hill, I may have reconsidered the shoes. It was the most running I'd done in a month and it felt wonderful! From the top, I had a good view of the sunset and an even better view of our cozy little campground.

I took this to give you some perspective as to the steepness of the hill. It just kind of falls away down to the flat ground below. Walking down without tumbling down on my face was actually harder than running up.

On a bigger hill next to mine, I saw two little bodies walking along the ridge. You can see them as little dots right in the middle of the picture. I'm sure they had an even better view than I did.

There were buffalo pies everywhere in our campground, a very clear sign that they walk through often. I took a picture of one with my swollen foot for size reference. I wear a size 9 womens, in case you want to get really specific.

 Then we walked over to some feeding bison to get a few pictures with ourselves in them. I decided to jump for one and as soon as I did, the animals scurried away, startled by the movement. I thought that I was supposed to be afraid of them, not the other way around.

Wednesday may have been one of the best days of the trip but Thursday turned out to be up there with the best nights. I still can't believe that the whole scenario was real and if I'm ever back in the badlands, I will surely stay in Sage Creek Campground. I highly recommend that you do the same. I'm really not sure how you could  get the same experience anywhere else.