72 miles ridden – 1270 feet climbed

Another day and another state. We crossed the state line 25 miles in to our day and immediately fell in love with Minnesota as the road surface improved dramatically the moment we crossed the line. 

We had enjoyed a beautiful 10 mile start to the day on a bike path that took us through parkland across the city of Sioux Falls via the falls themselves which were small but still striking and well kept. The rest of our time in South Dakota saw the  landscape become greener with more trees and by the time we were in Minnesota everything looked very different than on our way in to Sioux Falls just 40 miles previously.

I think this picture could have been taken in the UK – sadly no pubs.

Murray wasn’t able to ride with us today as he has tonsillitis – a diagnosis that Peter (one of three doctors on the trip) was fortunately able to confirm – which is why he wasn’t at the state line with us.

Nearly all of us feel there is a real difference between South Dakota and Minnesota and it seems so marked that we all wonder if it’s real or just a perception. One of our group – Lon – is from Minnesota and he explained that one of the very real differences is that Wyoming and (particularly) South Dakota are strongly Republican states and as such avoid any spending (like upgraded road surfaces) which enables them to reduce the tax burden on their citizens. Minnesota is a strongly Democratic state and is seen as more philanthropic with its priorities and, while that manifests itself in many ways, we have benefitted from significantly better quality road surfaces. I have been told to expect that as we travel further east roads and provision for cyclists will continue to steadily improve for the same reason – let’s see…….

Our SAG stop was in a delightful park in Luverne and the next 30 miles were punctuated by small towns which really does make the miles pass by more quickly. The scale of agriculture was made evident when we passed a grain transport train that was nearly 2 miles long – 2 miles! – it just seemed to go on forever which actually had a benefit for us as it was softening the impact of the crosswind that we had all day. None of us were too concerned about the crosswind because the road surface was good – simple things…..

We arrived in Worthington about 1:15 PM and as tradition now dictates went straight to Dairy Queen for burgers and milkshakes. Then we arrived at the hotel to find it is almost certainly the best hotel we have stayed in so far which was confirmed when they opened a free bar at 5PM. They must have lost money on a few of our crowd.
Overall a lovely day’s cycling with us all commenting on the fact that we considered it to be ‘only 72 miles’. ONLY?! We may be losing touch with reality.

Not all the farms have smaller fields. The entirety of the greenery in the picture below – left to right and all the way to the horizon – is one field of corn (maize).