We found another statue of Lewis and Clark in Sioux City, Ia.
We met several nice people along the way. One couple riding a Yamaha Venture was from Toronto, Ca. We met up at the first rest stop in SD, swapped stories of the road and shared our travel plans with each other. We were heaading in the same direction, and Zach wanted to ride with them for a while; however, the lady was diabetic and they were going to stop at the next truck stop for some food.
The attendant at the rest stop was very helpful, and suggested that we stop in Sioux Falls and visit Falls Park. Zach really enjoyed this area, seeing that he was extremely bored after miles and miles of nothing but corn fields. He took lots of pictures, I'll post a couple of them on the blog.
Then it was on to Mitchell to visit the Corn Palace, which is actually a small arena. We ate lunch at a small coffee house called "Jittters", good sanwich, and good coffee. We had planned on camping in the badlands tonight, but with the weather being horrible we decided on a cheap room for tonight. The camping will begin tomorrow. I used the wifi @ Jitters to book a room in Mudro, SD. One guy we talked to in said, "you're actually going to stop in Mudro on purpose?" We had a laugh, and then he told us about a good place to camp near Hill City.
After lunch we stopped by the Mitchell Emergency Services center. Police, Fire, and EMS all in one house. The EMS guys were all out, (imagine that) considering they cover 900 sqaure miles with 4 units. The fire guys said that everyone is cross trained, so the FF/EMT's do work on the ambulances from time to time. They transport back to Sioux Falls frequently, and some time the have transport times as high as 10 hrs(for a 911) wow. They swapped a patch with me and we were on our way.
Rain gear works great, as long as you make sure to zip everything up properly. I keep my key on a lanyard, so each time I need it I have to unzip my coat. No problem as long as I'm not using the rain liner. When we left Mitchell, I left my rain liner unzipped about halfway down. Travelling down I-90 in a heavy downpour, I began to feel a cool sensation on my chest. I immediately knew what was wrong. The problem was that we had just entered a construction zone with 2 way traffic, and no exits, distance 22 miles. No where to run, no where to hide. That sensation slowly crept to my hips, then legs. Funny thing, if the gear won't let rain in, it won't let is out. Got off at the next available exit and corrrected my error, but the damage was done. The remainder of the ride was a little chilly.
Even though we had a lot of rain, todays ride was a lot of fun. The ride from Mitchell to Mudro started out just a boring to Zach as the other areas in KS, IA, NB, and SD. That all changed when we reached the Missouri river. As you approach the river there is a 2 mile long steep down grade. The veiw is awesome, I had to really focus on the road. The terrain changes, on the other side of the river are rolling hills, with livestock grassing. In just a short while the terrain was changing again, this time it was grass lands. Up until this point in the trip, it has been a chore to keep Zach from being bored. Now he is just talking about all that he's seeing and trying to point it all out to me.
Tomorrow we travel to the Badlands, the to Wall, the National Minuteman Missile park, and then to Hill City. Pray for dry weather.
If I did this right the pictures should be below this post.
Not sure if I'll have wifi tomorrow night, so maybe no pictures, but I'll still try to post an update.
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