Rapid City to Murdo, SD

First of all, I totally forgot to tell you the song that played last night while we were prepping for today.  It was Van Morrison's, "Into the Mystic", what a perfect song to play after such a great day!

Ok now for today's excerpt!  ;-)

We had a long day, so the start was 5:20 to pump our tires and mix our bottles, breakfast 5:30-6:00, with loading and departure at 6:00am.  For stats, we both did 147 miles with 4,200 feet of climbing!  Yes, I did say - BOTH of us!  I was finally able to keep within ten minutes of the group.  Thank goodness!!!!  These dang FFGs!!!  (Freakin' Fast Guys)  The terrain had a lot of rollers, one after the other, just as you climbed one hill, you had just enough time on the downhill to stand on the pedals, stretch your back and get back into position to climb.  We had 11 hours from the time we started until we rolled into the evening hotel.  There were 5 stops, including lunch.

The morning started with a gorgeous sunrise.  As we rode out the birds were waking up and singing to us as we went through the first 30 miles.  Even that loud mouthed wren was singing away and following us along on the wire above us.  I swear it was the one from our house, he wanted to make sure we didn't miss him too much!  :-)  We also were treated to the fresh scent of cut hay with a slight dew on the rows.  It was divine!  There was also alfalfa fields that were working on their second cutting at about a foot high.

We also met a rider named Bruce who was self-supported headed to Delaware!!!  He was an older gentleman and pleased to have someone to talk to even if it was only for a few minutes.  I had so many questions for him!  Haha!!

When I ride, I usually try to wave, give a head nod or mouth "Hi" at on-coming vehicles and a wave to those coming up behind us.  I would say about 30-40% of the time they will wave or nod back.  I do this to humanize cyclists.  Often, these vehicles only see a bike that is impeding their path.  This way, I'm hoping they have a chance to think of me as a person.

We went through the Badlands today, and had lunch in the park, it was amazing the wonders of this earth!!  We saw many old ghost towns and t mile 82.4 we passed the Prairie Homestead and Sod Home, this is where Craig's Dad, Kenny took them when they were kids on a trip out West.

At the start

 Sunrise, so beautiful!

 The PAC Flag and someones pet dinosaur in the field, feeding on some trees

 Coming into the Badlands

 These are Prairie Dog mounds, they were chirping away at us!

 Craig going along, and a farmer bailing hay

 The Sod House sign

 The Prairie Dog store

 Hee-hee - me and the Prairie Dog - selfie while riding...he's probably 20 feet + tall!

 Rinse, repeat - climb the hill - Craig at the top of the climb by the tan water tank at 95.3 miles

 The long climbs just repeated, not steep just long and one after the other

 A group of cows, they are so cute!

 Yep, general traffic....oh and he definitely waved back!  :-D

 If you are so inclined to enlarge this - please call the grammar police.......

 Contents from my pocket at the end of the day.  Pay Day, Rice Krispy Treat for that extra kick to get in, granola bar.  Today was a long day, so I didn't want to bonk!