Friday, July 11, 2008 – Day 19

Start: Newcastle, Wyoming
End: Rapid City, South Dakota
Miles: 82.68 Total Miles: 1,437.78 BRAA Total Miles: 1,339.90
Time: 7 hours 1 minute (avg 11.7 MPH)
Flat tire count today: 0 Total flat tires for the ride: 5

I had a great night’s sleep in the air conditioned senior center. The only things that tried to disturb me were the trains that kept going by and blowing their horns. It didn’t really disturb me since I was so tired.

We were all up and ready to go by about 6:45AM. As we headed out, we ran into a lot of morning commuter traffic. It really slowed us down. In reality, these are the only things we saw on the road as we headed out.

The big milestone for the day was reaching our fifth state – South Dakota. We made it to the state line really fast. It was eleven miles into the ride. It came so quick that a couple of riders actually missed the sign and had to come back to get their pictures.

We then headed into the Black Hills National Park. It was great how the scenery changed. The hills were still there, but now they were covered with trees everywhere. The smell of pine was all around. It smelled really fresh.

The next part of the route took us into the Custer State Park. This was the most awesome part of the day’s ride. We entered the park and immediately had an uphill climb, but the queue sheet told us that we would enjoy a long downhill. Once we reached the top of the climb, the elevation sign read 5,383 feet. It was now time for the downhill that we were promised. It went on for miles and it was beautiful.

Here is a video of the park and how peaceful it is. Hopefully, you can listen to the sound as well.

Here is a picture of some of the scenery. It was so quiet. I could have just stayed there for hours relaxing, but I had to keep moving on.

I did a little riding through the park as I took another short video. It was so nice.

As we entered the park and as our queue sheets warned us, we were supposed to be on the lookout for buffalo. They are dangerous if you get too close, so we were warned to stay back and not approach them. Well, I never saw one, but I did see this guy hanging around in the shade having a snack. Not a buffalo, but still happy to see.

After we left the park, we were so excited from the long enjoyable downhill that we thought nothing could ruin the day’s ride. Well, it was too good to be true. With eighteen miles to go, we made a left turn on to the final road that would take us into Rapid City. The unfortunate part was the wind was coming directly against us at that point. It was almost comical though. I couldn’t help but laugh at times because it was so ridiculous. The sustained wind was coming in our faces at 30 miles per hour with regular gusts of 50 miles per hour. The wind was not our friend today! While I was going up the small hills, I was averaging between 5 and 6 miles per hour and on the flat stretches, I was averaging about 7 or 8 miles per hour. If I stopped peddling, the wind would stop me immediately and actually push me backward. The last eighteen miles took about two and one half hours to finish. Normally, eighteen miles would have taken just over one hour.

Here is a video of the wind blowing. Check out the sound on this one. That is what I was hearing for two plus hours. It was mind numbing.

I am still out here - only I am in disguise. That is six days without shaving. I have been saving it for the rest day.

Tomorrow is a well needed rest day. We are planning to head over to Mount Rushmore to do the tourist thing.