Sioux Falls, South Dakota

We have taken a rest day here in Sioux Falls before beginning our trek across South Dakota. It's a very nice city. Many parks and a bike trail that loops the city. It's hot and getting hotter but I guess that's what you have to expect for late July in South Dakota. We will be making room for lots of water and sports drinks in our bags. We are heading for the Badlands and the Black Hills before heading over to Wyoming to see Devil's Tower.

We made a great discovery on our way into town yesterday. One of our favorite groups, The Cowboy Junkies is playing TONIGHT and there are tickets available and they are in our price range! How lucky is that. So we will have a night filled with good music, good food and good libations before heading out tomorrow.

A quick recap on the last few days:
Friday: Humbolt, Iowa
Saturday: Spencer, Iowa - a new record today - kind winds and a specific destination for the evening helped me beat my mileage record AGAIN. I am now up to 87 miles traveled in one day. I'm not sure if I have 90 in my legs, but only time will tell.
Sunday: Spencer to Rock Rapids, Iowa
Our goal was to be here by Sunday morning so we could meet up with the first day of RAGBRAI and we made it. We started out about 8:15 am on our way to Rock Rapids and we saw our first cyclists at about 9:15. That meant that they had traveled almost 70 miles already! Of course they were biking at an incredible speed and looking quite the serious cyclists, but they had time to give us a big smile and call out a good morning greeting as we were slowly going west. At first the cyclists came in small packs, but within the next hour it was a steady stream. When the main pack was coming through it was an incredible sight. The westbound lane was being used as the passing lane and the eastbound land was packed solid. We were hugging the far white line and praying that there would be no head on collisions. Luckily everyone out there were competent and experienced riders so no one got hurt in the process. I don't think they minded too much that we were out there, we got lots of greetings and my face started to hurt from the constant smile I had plastered on my face.
Now it was starting to get late in the day and we began to see all sorts of bicycle people. Some were serious, but moving slow and some were just there for the beer! I saw one lady ride by wearing pink pajamas and pink fuzzy slippers and she was having a great time. The preferred greeting from this group was "You're going the wrong way!" There were all sorts out on the road and somehow they needed to travel 77 miles to the end of day one. But we had the feeling that the various sag and party buses would start their sweep and many would be riding most of the way to Spencer.

Monday was a tri-state day. We left Iowa, traveled north into Minnesota for about 15 miles, went through Hills, Minnesota population 525 and then crossed into South Dakota.

Out of time again. Tomorrow we're off on the road again. Hopefully the winds will continue to be kind!