72 miles ridden – 1129 feet climbed

It was almost cool today. Many had long sleeve tops and jackets on but for me it was a bit like a cool spring day but without any sun. The sun started to show itself around 11:30 and it quickly warmed up to somewhere around 26C which was very pleasant.

Great breakfast at the Anchor Grille in Chamberlain – go there if you are ever in that town – followed immediately by a relatively gentle 2 mile climb out of town onto quiet country roads. We are starting to see changes to the landscape and also more towns. Most of today we were following a railway track which firstly meant it was relatively flat and secondly that there was some sort of town or village every 10-12 miles.

The first town was Pukwana famous for hosting the lawn-mower version of the ‘Indiannapolis 500’ – funnily enough not many stopped there. A little further in the town of Kimball we visited a tractor museum which was run by a very welcoming couple. Tractors aren’t really my thing but the place felt like it was stuck in a time warp.

We had a headwind for most of the day which wasn’t too bad but for about 20 miles we were on a road made from concrete sections with seams known as a Ker-dunk road. We get them at home but rarely for more than a mile or two so over 20 miles backsides and elbows took a bit of a pounding.

Over the last few days we have dropped in altitude and the air humidity has increased. We spent the last three weeks around an average 5-6000 feet above sea level which seemed to affect most people in one way or another, it had some effect on performance but most people found it affected their sleep. Now we are around 1500 feet up it will be interesting to see if we notice a difference. Also up in the high plains of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and the west of South Dakota the humidity was about 15% which with the heat made our mouths and skin very dry indeed. 

Apart from a train running very slowly and followed on the track by a truck there was not too much to see as we cycled through the towns of White Lake, Plankinton and Mount Vernon although as we neared Mitchell there were more and more trees breaking up the landscape and taking a bit of steam out of the wind.

Mitchell is the centre of a major corn growing district and of course therefore has a Corn Palace;

It is a concert venue and basketball arena with outside decoration all made from various parts of the corn (maize) plant. I did not bother going inside as I don’t like Willy Nelson and I don’t believe Elvis lives but apparently many do.