Another perfect weather day and nearly perfect traffic day, as in almost none. I started around 7:15 and rode all day. This is a cake walk out here. The tiny county roads are mostly all paved and everything goes north-south, east-west. So all I used is the compass attached to the underside of the mirror. I tried to contact Debs hiking buddy, Flip, but he was in Colorado so I decided to just wiggle all day north west toward Lake Andes where my cousin Greg lives. I had told him Weds so I had plenty of time. Illinois is pretty nice and mostly corn & soy. But I noticed a difference when I got into Iowa. Everything is much tidier in Iowa. Several times I saw people mowing next to the cornfield with no intent of feeding it to anything, just mowing it so it looked nice. The towns are also tidy and well kept. Lots of classic Mayberry RFD scenes where boys with baseball caps and girls with white jumpers were riding their bikes around town. And the businesses in most towns seem pretty healthy. I got a late lunch and kept wiggling toward Sioux Falls and suddenly I was there. It was 6pm and my GPS said Lake Andes was only 2 more hours away so I called Greg and he said come on down.
I took Rt 18 which is a small but smooth road with almost no traffic and 65 mph speed limit. I cranked the beemer up a bit and it ran smooth as silk.
This corner of South Dakota is a real surprise. There is still a lot of crops, but there is also some wheat being grown which looks golden in the late day sun. But there is also a lot of rolling countryside with trees and wetlands. There are birds everywhere and I was surprised over and over with birds swooping in front of me. I stopped 10 miles before getting to Lake Andes and called Greg so he could meet me someplace obvious and I followed him the few miles to his house on the reservoir behind the dam. Greg has lived in SD or MN for a long time so answered most all of my questions. He had cold beer (thank you, thank you) and we sat the rest of the evening catching up on his deck overlooking the water and a few glimpses of the night sky. Perfect way to end the day. Huge thank you to Greg for putting me up.
I rode 674 miles today, and the beemer didn't use any oil, good girl..
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