TDK Day 5 Huron to Brookings

Huron to Brookings went without incident. I rode with Mary Jean. Bonnie was still sore and went home to get checked out. That was a bummer. She was a lot of fun to ride with and was missed on one of the best days of the week.

It was a gorgeous day and we had a tail wind for a good portion of the trip. The slated miles were 88 for the day, so we thought maybe we could do a century if we still felt good in town.

I did enjoy the road graffiti by the Billy Super Club. I would've stopped to take an example photo, but that wouldn't have worked. Whomever it was must have gotten out early and quickly to mark various roadkill along the road.

Again, we were on highway 14. At one of the first stops, the name of the town escapes me, I decided to not stand in line for the porta potty. Instead I went across the street to the gas station to use an actual facility, as long it was available. It was a gas station/mechanic shop and apparantly the place where a few local men stop for coffee. So, you can imagine the looks from the half dozen fellows sitting inside. Another lady came out of the bathroom, so at least I wasn't the first they'd seen.

They ask where we were going, wondering if we were heading for the black hills. I said no, we'd started in Sioux Falls and were making a big loop. I filled them in on the rest of the route. Then one of them ask if any of us had jobs, how do we get the time to do that? I say, well... a lot of people do have vacation time. He then said that he could think of a helluva lot of things he'd rather be doing. I was cool about it, he probably wanted to get me going a bit. I said, "YEah, well... I guess we all have our thing that we're interested in, huh?" The guy behind the counter nodded in agreement.

I can see why other people might think that we're crazy. But, it's not really any more crazy than going for a hike, or a walk... It's just a bigger time involvement. I do get that not everyone is into biking. And, there's a lot of things that I just can't get in to. Hunting isn't for me. I've sort of taken a stab at golf and can't quite get into that either. I do recognize that it's a game of skill. But, I'd rather be on the bike.

There was gorgeous scenery was everywhere. The pie in Oldham was YUMMY. I had a rhubarb merange type pie. I'd never seen rhubarb pie done quite like that before. Usually it's like an apple pie sort of fillin. Delish. As I was putting my glasses and helmet on, a little boy asked what was on the side of my sunglasses. I explained that it was a mirror and what I used it for. A person really takes somethings for granted and wouldn't think of how truly odd they may look to someone else.

Mary Jean and I also skipped the 1.7 miles of gravel. Butch was right there, so we didn't really see the point in dealing with it.

We got to Brookings, I felt filthy. My butt hurt. And decided to just go and get cleaned up. I stayed in the dorms. The showers were ice cold. BIg thumbs down. I guess it takes 10-20 minutes for the water to warm up.

I biked back down town. Mary Jean was still working on her 100. When I saw her she was at 98 and finished. I was at 90, but wasn't interested in spending another hour on the bike. I didn't plan to do much more than bum around town. I looked around the local bike shop. And grabbed a snack at Nick's Hamburger shop. There was a guy playing an electric piano outside. I sat and listened to him for awhile.

Mary Jean went to hang out with her husband and I didn't know where the other people that I knew were. SO, I got back on the bike and finished the last 10 in my street clothes, bumming around residential Brookings. Which maybe wasn't the best idea, my butt hurt some more, especially without padded shorts. I saw several other TDK cyclists going up and down streets too. I think that there were a lot of people that hit a century that day. The whole time there were huge clouds building. I got back to the dorm in time for a storm to hit. 88.73 miles, 6:39:58, 13.3 mph avg... 100 miles, 8:05:20, 12.4 mph avg (cruised around residential areas).