We took off from Pierre after a good break for the 4th of July. We had a few problems though, and didn't get on the road until 4:00 PM. Riding was a little tougher west of the river due to all of the hills that we encountered. We made it to Midland, SD at about 11:00 PM without any real big problems. We found a spot in the city park under a shelter and made camp for the night. It rained, but we didn't get too wet. We rode 60 miles today. On the 6th of July we took off at about 10:00 AM. We rode to Philip, SD and stopped for lunch. It started to get pretty hot out, but we decided to ride to Cottonwood before taking a break. We found a tree in Cottonwood with some pretty good shade and took a 2 hour break. Before leaving we stopped at a house to get some water and then we were back on the road. We rode until Wall, SD and stopped and had supper at Wall Drug. After loading up on the free ice water in Wall, we hopped onto the Interstate and rode to Wasta where we stopped for the night and camped in another shelter in a city park. A great motel in Wasta unknowingly let us use their swimming pool at about midnight, it was very refreshing. A pretty strong thunderstorm rolled through town while we were sleeping, but we didn't get too wet, until the sprinkler system in the park turned on. We rode 67 miles today. We left Wasta early on the 7th excited to make it to Rapid City. There was a very strong wind in our face the whole way, and the hills on the Interstate really started getting to us. We were pretty worn out when we made it to Ellsworth Air Force Base, but we decided to skip the 2 mile ride to the front gates, and instead continued on to Rapid City. Rapid was definitely a "sight for sore eyes" after fighting the wind all day. We were pretty tired and stopped at the Flying J for lunch. Along the way Mike realized that biking all the way to Las Vegas wasn't what he wanted to do anymore, and decided to stay in Rapid City to spend some time with his Grandparents. So we parted ways with Mike, picked up some supplies and headed out of Rapid City, and into the Black Hills. We were going at a pretty slow pace through the hills, and were pretty low on energy when we rolled into the Sheridan Lake Campground. Ben's friend Susanna Marking met us there and brought us some food to snack on. We were looking forward to showers, but instead had to settle with taking baths in the lake. We set up camp and had a fire, and for the third night in a row, it rained. We rode 67 miles today. When we woke up on the 8th, everything was wet. Our campsite was flooded and muddy, and inside the tent was pretty wet too. We got everything packed up and started on the road again. We biked through hills to Hill City, took a small break and then kept going until we got to the Crazy Horse Memorial and took some pictures. A short ride from there took us to Custer where Susanna met up with us again and showed us around Custer. We are currently at Susanna's house in Custer and her family is taking good care of us. Finally, we got to shower for the first time since leaving Pierre, it was much needed. We rode 24 miles today.
So we got a little later start than we thought on the morning of the 1st. We left around 7 am, on only a few hours of sleep, probably not the best start. Then Michael got a flat tire before we even got to Volga, only a few miles from home. The whole day was pretty tough after the wind picked up. Michael ended up getting another flat tire and we had to try to fix the actual tire on the road. We made it to Huron by that evening where we decided to stay. Megan and the rest of the Marvel family graciously took us in for the night, and treated us great. Thank you very much. We rode 75 miles today.
The next day we took off a little before 7 am and started off making great time, even though we were sore from the day before. The wind was more on our side today. We had lunch in Miller SD where a good friend, Hilary made us lasagna, and her family treated us very nicely. Today we took a nap in the small town of Harrold, and since we were feeling alright we decided to keep going and try to make it to Pierre. Ben got a flat tire 4 miles from Harrold which put us a little behind, but a very nice guy named Tom stopped to help us out. We made it in to Pierre by about ten at night. We rode 135 miles today.
We got to hang out with Michael’s family for the 3rd and the 4th. It is a great break to have even though we have barely started. His family treats us very well and feeds us too much food. Pierre is a great town and we have been having a great time playing out on the river.
