Today we hit the point of no return. We are now closer to our destination than our beginning. Of course, it is even closer to give up and go home;)
Before leaving Miller behind, I want to acknowledge their high school. Schools tend to give lip service to honoring academic achievement but make heroes out of their athletes. Miller has a large banner in their cafeteria honoring their high scorers on the ACT:
We hit the halfway mark for miles this morning and for days at the end of today. We celebrated the halfway mark in St Lawrence, SD this morning with a little chalk art.
The last one is a selfie – that’s my foot. In purple, it says “Halfway/across the USA/Half-fast/Cycling Club”. I know; you can’t read it.
From there we went to see a 30 foot tall horse sculpture. Unfortunately, my camera froze at that point and there is no picture. The work reminded me a bit of the work of Dr Evermor.
At our morning water stop, the farmer whose land we were at the edge of stopped top chat. He asked Michael and me if he could take our picture and did so. I couldn’t reciprocate due to my frozen camera.
We had lunch in the home of the “World’s Largest Pheasant”. I sort of got a picture of that.
”It’s a slog” – Kevin
After lunch we continued on a slightly uphill trend, into what at rest was a refreshing breeze but while moving into it felt like a headwind. (If you add 10mph wind to whatever speed you’re going, it feels like pushing a lot of air.)
We spent most of the day going in a straight line down US 14. Changes in pavement and shoulders (concrete, asphalt, brand-new asphalt, chip seal, gravel; different configurations and locations of rumble strips) helped keep things interesting.
We are spending the night in De Smet, SD, the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
We’re camped in a nice little park which they had just irrigated before we arrived, so laying things out to dry was not possible. All my gear is in the tent to keep it from getting wetter.
I strolled to a local watering hole for a taste of local libations. Nothing on tap, nothing regional. I drank a Pabst. Nobody sitting at the bar. Two groups of friends at tables. Three TVs on different channels, no one watching any of them. (Competitive beanbag tossing on ESPN, America’s Got Talent, and NCIS.)
This place calls itself “The Little Town on the Prairie”. Folks drive their 4-wheelers around town for transportation.
Half-fast Cycling Club 