June 15
67.5 miles, Snake Creek to Chamberlain
Today was the polar opposite of yesterday. We had to re-ride the infamous 14 miles into Platte in the opposite direction of yesterday, but with just a hint of wind. I must say, I enjoyed the hills a great deal more than yesterday, but after Platte, we didn't see many hills.
Shortly after Platte, I met a guy named Verne from Brookings and rode several miles with him. We had some good conversation and parted ways at Academy where he was stopping for a "second breakfast". Academy really turned themselves inside out for the Tour. The town consists of about two houses, a fire department and a church, but they threw a big shindig in Academy and had at least three other booths set up along the long stretch of nothing that followed. The oddest stand of the day though was the lamb kabobs one that a former senator from Pukwana set up. There he stood in all his glory in his three piece black suit on a barren blacktop surrounded by farmland, holding a ceramic sheep. Only in South Dakota.
I rode for a little while with a nice couple from near Avon. Mary knew Amy's mom, Marilyn and we enjoyed a bit of conversation before they had to stop for an energy bar. After that, I rode with a guy named Chad from Sioux Falls for a little bit. Turns out he's a huge Colts fan, so I found myself talking Indianapolis football in the middle of South Dakota.
After a rest stop with Amy about 40 miles into the day, I decided to get serious about riding. The wind was a gentle cross wind helping to keep us cool and the road was almost arrow straight all the way to Pukwana. After we turned at Pukwana, I wound up finding a group of five riders doing a draft line into Chamberlain. I latched onto the back and found that the other riders were basically just drafting off of this guy on a recumbent bike that we had taking to calling "Recumbent Guy." He was a guy that, everyday, had a small group drafting off him as he flew across the countryside. Right place, right time. In a draft line you can save about 20 percent of your effort when you are in somebody else's slip stream. It can be difficult to be in a draft line with people you don't know though, since you have to be very close together, keep a tight line and not brake if somebody is behind you. I gave a little more gap than I would normally give in a line that consisted of riders that I trusted. I was holding onto these guys at roughly 21 mph at the end of a long day and benefited by being towed into Chamberlain.
When we hit the edge of town, we had a huge downhill that Recumbent Guy shot down. All the other riders were of different sizes and descending skills, so the group broke up, but we were only about two miles from the campground. I wound up passing the group one person at a time, but one of the riders drafted off of me as we came through town. Turns out she is from El Paso, Texas and she was kind of the poster child for the Tour website. She's done a lot of tours throughout the country and some of the bigger one day rides like Lance Armstrong's Ride for the Roses.
We were in fairly early and would have a rest day the next day in the same place, so we settled in and looked for stuff to do. Amy had parked the van right near the river with an unobstructed view of the bridge coming out of Chamberlain crossing the Missouri. Amy and I relaxed at the camp for a little while before heading into town on bikes. We wandered through main street and stopped to top off the tanks a bit at 3:00 with some cheese balls and jalepeno poppers, you know, health food. We decided to head to the south side of town to the South Dakota Hall of Fame where Amy has some relatives in with the likes of Tom Brokaw and Joe Foss (the WWII pilot, former governor, former president of the American Football League, host of "American Sportsman", and past president of the NRA). Turns out, Joe Foss was a friend of Marilyn's Uncle Curley and Aunt Rose who are in the Hall of Fame.
We headed back to camp, grabbed a nap and then joined the rest of the riders for free burgers, brats and hot dogs. Had some more conversation with Verne and a few other guys who we would wind up going across the river to Cedar Shore with later for beer and more conversation. A guy named Tim from Terrell, IA turned out to be the life of the party, throwing one liners left and right and spouting off about whatever subject happened to come up. He kept us well entertained for the evening before we headed back to camp.
We also met a guy named Warren from Indianapolis who works at Ivy Tech. Warren is near retirement age, a bachelor and a tour veteran. He told us he was going to get home from South Dakota, put in a few days at work and then head off to Bike Virginia for a week with a friend and his friend's son. Later this summer he's headed to the Pacific Northwest to ride. I really enjoyed conversation with Warren on a number of topics.
Today was different for me on this ride as the people grabbed my attention more than the ride did. It was a good day on the Tour.
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