2 down, 1 to go

In January I set a goal to ride to each of our parent's houses or home towns from Sioux Falls by the end of the year. Last month, Mitchell hosted the Tour de Kota which proved a perfect opportunity to knock that one off the list. On Wednesday, I added Yankton to the list.

Wednesday was my day off and I wasn't due to the store until noon on Thursday, so we decided to take the day to head to visit Jim and Marilyn and spend the night. I kept an eye on the weather and planned to ride there if it would cooperate. It turned out to be almost ideal. I rolled out of the driveway at 5:30 am with no wind at all and headed southwest for what I assumed was to be between 80 and 90 miles.

I rolled through Tea, Lennox and Centerville before the wind started to come up a bit out of the west. Not bad, but just enough to remind me that the day wasn't going to be a total gimme. I stopped off in Irene after 53 miles to get some more gatorade, a couple of nutty bars, a to go pack of Corn Pops and a Starbucks Frappuccino. One of the things I love about longer rides is being able to eat a good amount knowing that I'll still burn more than I take in.

I hit the road again and texted Amy to let her know where I was. It turns out she was probably within a mile of me when I set out again. I headed south to Volin and hit some roads that I got to know fairly well when we lived in Yankton while we made the move from Indiana to South Dakota three years ago.

Once I turned west, the wind was in my face the rest of the way. It still wasn't bad, but I knew I'd have it for 15-20 miles and I was starting to get a little tired. I rolled into Yankton still going strong but still had to head out west of town to the far side of Lewis and Clark Park. By the time I hit the horse camp at the far side of the park I had logged 86.6 miles and was feeling pretty well ready to be done. Amy drove down the hill from the house to pick me up rather than have me ride the last half mile of steep, gravel road where I almost certainly would have had to walk or risk falling down.

The great thing was, I made it in under five hours leaving a good amount of time for hanging out on the boat which is where we spent most of the afternoon and early evening. We then headed back to the house where we lit up the chiminea and watched the stars come out.

Now the only big ride I have left on the radar is the ride to Mom and Dad's south of Hartley. I expect it to be the longest of the three rides at around 95 miles, but it will have the most familiar roads since I started riding some of them over 20 years ago. I'm not exactly sure when I'll get the ride scheduled, but I suppose it had best be soon or I'll have the logistical nightmare of having to work around school schedules.