Sunday, July 09, 2006
Day 21 - Hot Springs, SD - July 9th 2006
Weather: Rainy, intermittent showers all day
Location: Hot Springs, South Dakota (from Lusk, WY)
Miles per day: 92.5
Average miles per hour: 13.88
Elevation climb:
Blizzards/Ice Cream to date: 15
Flat Tires to date: 1
Today was rainy from the start. The good news on that is that we were properly dressed for it as we knew what to expect: Rain. The previous nights' 'route rap' predicted a 'downhill' day. I would beg to differ! My personal experience was that the day was quite a bit harder with lots of rolling hills (translates to too much pedaling!).
"Vast seas of grass as far as the eyes can see" wrote the migrants traveling west in the 1840s. As we headed towards South Dakota, the landscape began to change. Gone was the dry, desert like environment and on came the rolling 'prairie' lands. Much richer and much greener. Our last six miles were challenging as we climbed into the Black Hills of South Dakota.
As we pulled into town, things could hardly get better. There was the DQ (Dairy Queen) right next to the hotel! Apart from that, Hot Springs was very quiet as the town is closed on Sunday - nothing was open.
