South Dakota? More like, Hot-as-balls Dakota

Hi friends! Lee here with his very first post to the blog. Delayed, I know. But better late than never. I've got a lot to cover, and I'm extremely tired, so let's see how this goes.

I believe that Mike left off from when we were on the border of Minnesota and South Dakota in Pipestone. We are now nearly in Wyoming, so I have all of South Dakota to cover. Let's start off with Sioux Falls.

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After enjoying a lovely breakfast in the House of Darwin and Kris, we kind of putzed around for a little while. We were so appreciative for having them put us up for the night. It turns out that there was a pretty bad storm that night, and their backyard looked like a swimming pool the next morning. So staying indoors was key.

After getting a late start, we started to head out to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Golly, a new state! Since Mike had not retrieved his wallet in Minneapolis due to postal difficulties, he had it forwarded to the post office in Sioux Falls, hence our visit there. I can't remember the ride too well, but me thinks it was OK.

I wasn't expecting much from Sioux Falls, it being South Dakota and all, but it was still a pretty big city. I remember getting nearer, and there was actually more than one car every 5 minutes. Hell, there were actually houses on the road now. Before we knew it, we were a few miles outside of downtown (colloquially known henceforth as DT) and needed to know how to get to the post office. And fast. We asked this kid, but he was a nuisance. We asked this man in a car, and he said "next right, next to the Falls...about a few miles down the road." Brief aside: All day, I had been saying that post offices typically close at around 5pm, so I kept reminding the crew "hey, let's get there before 5pm so we're not stuck in Sioux Falls for a day." That said, it was 4:45, and we had a few miles to cover before our destination DT. We started pedaling like the dickens. And by the dickens, I mean we were going fast. Lightspeed fast. I got stuck behind a little bit - some things fell off of my bike into the middle of the road. I narrowly escaped the barrage of speeding dump trucks and bullets to retrieve my can of dog pepper spray. I pedaled my ass, feet, and ears off to catch up with the other guys......only to find out the post office was open until 6. But, Mike got his wallet! After weeks of Lenny and I having to cover his ass for food and shit, I imagined Mike holding up his wallet in the fashion of Link from Zelda. You know, Ba na na naaaaaaa.

We still didn't know where we were staying in Sioux Falls. We decided to randomly ask this guy on a bike if there were any parks in the area where we could pitch a tent. He gave us a few spots and then sped off. In about 3 minutes, we were still at the post office trying to decide what to do, and the guy comes back and says "you know what...you guys can stay at my place. My name's Chris."

He looked maybe a little older than us. Nice clothes, trim hair, clean look. A real business man. But the kind that knows how to have a good time. And what a good time we had later that night.

We rode to his house, which was a few blocks away, showered up, and went out. He took us to Mama's Lada's, a cool little enchilada place. We then decided to get a few beers. This is where the night got great. He took us to a place called 'stogeez.' Now, if the name doesn't say it all, I will. Upon entering, the smell of fine cigars and brandy grazed my nostrils, an aromatic sensation that a middle-aged business man is well accustomed to. The crowd? Well, middle-aged business men. The scene was literally like something out of an old Looney Tunes. We start off with a few drinks, and our host introduces us to a couple of people. One of them happens to be the South Dakota representative for Jagermeister. The other is a friend of the former, a local liquor distributor. To keep things short (which I realize I haven't been doing in this blog post), the night went on, many drinks were had, and I must say, many good conversations too. It's interesting talking to people who are so envious of your trip. The business men who never did crazy shit like this when they were younger. Every word they said to us had envy and regret all over it. Rick Ruane, the Jagermeister guy, ended up covering our tab. I had enough Jager shots to remind me of freshmen year of college. Gross.

They also talked about how South Dakota was expecting a heat wave tomorrow. We kinda just shrugged it off. Rod, Rick's friend, kept drunkenly bellowing throughout the night, "you guys are entering the PERFECT STORM!!!!"

We drunkenly hopped on our bikes and fled the scene back to our hosts abode. After we ordered a pizza and talked about the rat race of every day life, we passed out face first.

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Woke up the next morning trying to get on the road rather early. But when does that ever work? We went to this outdoor store to pick up a few supplies. One of the workers said, "You have to see the Falls if you're in Sioux Falls!" On that premise alone, we decided to spend a little while in Falls park. Here is a kewl pic:

So, on the road again. Our next destination was the Badlands national park, which was about 340 miles away. We knew this would take a few days, with towns few and far between. the good news is that we need only take one road all the way there: State Highway 44.

After some pedaling, we quickly realized that those guys from last night weren't kidding about the heat wave. It was....dare I say it: hot-as-balls. Almost too hot to bare. I think this was the day that Mike got pretty sick from the heat. Might have been a precursor to a heat stroke. We ducked inside an old couple's house asking to use their water. They were delighted to have us in. We ended up pitching a tent on the side of the road in this little park next to a lake. I remember it being so hot, that I went to sleep without a sleeping bag, no tent, and just underwear, and I was sweating so much that I couldn't sleep.

A lot of these next few days sort of meshed together in my mind. The only thing I recall, really, is the heat. Everyday, the locals kept saying "and tomorrow's supposed to be hotter!" Every person we talked to said we were insane for biking in this weather. The highest I heard the heat index get up to was 124 F. It was so hot, that after 5 miles of biking, I was drenched in sweat. And the WINDS! We had decent amounts of headwinds and crosswinds this whole time. You would THINK that they would cool you down a little bit. But actually, it was more like getting blasted in the face with one thousand hair dryers, each hair dryer having the force and the heat of roughly six suns. One day, we had to duck under an abandoned tractor to find some shade, because there were absolutely no trees. We're lucky we found it, because we were all feeling pretty dizzy and sick. After two days, we realized we couldn't ride between the hottest hours of the day, roughly 1pm-6pm. Long breaks at rest stops, trees, and whatever we could find filled the void.

Maybe it's because of the heat, or maybe because we are traveling by bike, or a combination of the two, but benefactors whom we had met along the way were more than willing to give us support. A couple by the Missouri river invited us in for dinner one day. The middle-aged dude at a bar in the middle of nowhere put us up in his place in Winner. We didn't even have to ask.

Also, some really amazing views came out of mid-South Dakota. One we hit the Missouri river, it was all gravy.

After about 4 days of this heatwave, we were getting really exhausted. No sleep, no showers, no towns. Towns and rest-stops were getting more sparse. Maybe about 40 to 50 miles in between towns. It was even rough to tell if we could do that much in a day. I don't mean to dramatize the situation, but it was certainly a trek and a half.

So fast forward, and we arrive at Interior, a town just outside of the Badlands. We get some nice huge burgers and some beers at the only bar/restaurant in town and then set up our tents in a field behind the elementary school and pass out. Just for the record, we have paid for camping/accommodations on this trip a total of three times: twice in New York, and once in Michigan.

I won't say much about the Badlands, other than that it was fucking gorgeous. Here are some kewl pix:

And after riding through the badlands, we experienced why the name was given. No water, treacherous winds, and dry atmosphere makes for what the French Trappers called, "Bad lands to cross." We took some empty bottles from a recycle bin and filled them up for reserves, and decided to do a 35 mile ride to the western side of the park, where there was supposedly a 'primitive' campsite. It got dark by the time we got to the dirt road, and it was a hell of an adventure. Terrible roads in pitch black darkness kept us from getting to the campsite until nearly midnight. I invented a new dish of corn, beans, torn-up bread, flax seeds, and thousand island dressing. I call it: the McSlurry. Ate some McSlurry's and passed out. The sounds of bison, coyotes and prairie dogs lulled us to sleep.

The next morning, guess what happened? I wake up to a fucking bison walking next to my tent!

He's a big guy. It was pretty amazing seeing a wild animal so big up close.

After leaving the campsite, we rode for 60 miles today to get to Rapid City, where we are right now. Mike got a flat today. I got some swamp ass, but what else is new. Lenny achieved smelliest fart all trip. Ok, so today wasn't so eventful. Except for the fact that we nearly ran out of food and then this family gave us a bunch of groceries. But they were assholes.....they didn't even give us cheese for our turkey sandwiches.

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So I think that seems to be it for now. Lots of details left out, but I'm too tired to even care. We will most likely hit Mt. Rushmore, crazy horse, and the rest of the black hills tomorrow. The last week has been the most challenging part of the trip by far, but it's nothing the Bad-Ass Biker Boyz can't handle.

-Lee