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DAY
21
The ride today is almost a repeat of yesterday in terms of wind
and landscape. There are a couple of communities along the way -
Moorcroft and Upton. Looking at the map I see a railway runs near
the road all the way to Newcastle - that’s an indication that
there are no hills - wrong! If it’s one thing I’ve learned
on the ride, maps are no indication of terrain. The railway went
around the hills while the Americans, taking lessons from the Romans,
went in a straight line over the hills. Along the way I saw road
signs indicating “GAME CROSSING”. Not really sure what
that means, but I imagined lots of huge chess pieces - bishops,
kings, queens and pawns - followed by a family of dominoes crossing
the highway. In the small town of Upton (pop 240) there are hundreds
of US flags on each side of the road - I remember that this is July
4 - a big day in the US. I pull into a small rundown store. I buy
a sugary drink and a couple of tomatoes. The boy sitting behind
the counter asks me about my journey. He’s 15 and tells me
that he would like to travel the world on a bicycle in a few years.
“Upton is OK”, he sighs “but I need some adventure”.
I give him my email address and tell him to contact me when he’s
ready to go, I can probably give him a few tips “but, I added
“don’t let women or motor vehicles steer you away from
your vision.”
As I get near Newcastle the late afternoon
storm springs up again and I battle the invisible enemy one more.
My plan was to get as far as Custer today, but, after 76 miles of
pushing hard, I call it a day in Newcastle. There’s an oil
refinery in the middle of town, a mass of chimneys, pipes, steam
and the hum of machines - it’s another sculpture on a grand
scale. A siren sounds - it must be shift change. Pick-ups race in,
men in hard hats rushing around, then they’re all gone, some
home or to the local bar and the others starting work. I find a
place to camp a few miles out of town. I telephone Streeter Shinning,
a retired physician and very keen cyclist, who lives in Rapid City
- Streeter and his wife Barbara have offered accommodation in their
home for two nights during my rest day. Fireworks celebrating July
4 keep me awake until after midnight.
 DAY
22
I set off early for Custer and Mount Rushmore. The road meanders
up and down wooded hills with meadows. I enter South Dakota after
half an hour, take a photograph and continue. This is the Black
Hills area where wild fires have caused some evacuations in the
past weeks. There is not much evidence of fire in this region. The
road narrows to no shoulder after 15 miles and the route winds through
the forest up and down hills and over rivers. My helmet mirror is
invaluable as some large trucks approach very quickly from behind
- I leave the road onto the dirt as they roar past. Today the sun
is shining and I have an optimism that has been lost for a couple
of days. It’s because Mount Rushmore is a major landmark on
my ride and tomorrow I have a rest day. I pass the Jewal Cave National
Monument and as I approach Custer I find myself on the edge of Bedrock
City instead. This is a Flintstones theme park with people driving
Fred’s car on the shoulder of the road. I look over the wall
- this is bizarre - Bedrock City!! Custer has character, small hills
surround the town, rocky outcrops overhanging wooden buildings and
a tourist atmosphere. I find the ‘Chief Restaurant’
- it’s a large old restaurant and store selling everything
from stuffed foxes to Fred and Wilma outfits. I get ‘all you
can eat’ buffet for $6.00 - hot soup, salad, pasta, fruit
and dessert. I haven’t eaten this well for weeks. After the
meal I go to the city park where I have arranged to meet Streeter
in an hour. I find a shady spot and catch up with the diary. Streeter
arrived; he’s a tall, happy and fit looking man in his sixties.
We talk for a while, he studies my bike and we set off for Mt Rushmore
20 miles away. Before you get to the national monument you can see
Roosevelt’s face in profile. I try and get some sense of scale
to this enormous carving - how big would a man be standing on his
nose? When we get to the official entrance there a re 100’s
of vehicles, a multi-storey car park and grand granite buildings
with an avenue of international flags leading to the focal point.
People everywhere, eating ice-creams, taking photographs and some
asking questions about my small wheeled bicycle and the journey.
Streeter and I take photographs, get a huge ice-cream each and take
in the atmosphere of Mount Rushmore. We arrive at Streeter’s
home (22 miles from Rushmore) late in the afternoon. It’s
beautiful house on an acre of garden in the hills behind Rapid City.
They make me feel very much at home. Streeter has a large collection
of bicycles in the basement - mountain, touring and racing.
After a shower and sumptuous dinner we
sit outside in the shade. The house is secluded, with a wood next
to the garden where we watched Squirrels trying to reach the bird
seed. We drank homemade lemonade and ended a good day in good company.
Tonight I slept in a real bed!
DAY 23 - Rest day - Rapid City
Unfortunately I didn't sleep well - I think I've become accustomed
to sleeping on the ground instead of a comfortable bed. We had pancakes
for breakfast - Streeter's speciality - he kept producing them and
I kept eating them! After breakfast I caught up with my diary and
laundry. As I was writing Streeter was playing the piano - sitting
at the table in the garden, music, birds singing, mottled shadows
of trees on the lawn. I was taken back to my childhood in our English
country garden. We lived in an old picturesque cottage surrounded
by a maze of laneways. I knew them all. My wanderlust and the joy
of cycling would take me further afield until the maze encompassed
the whole county and then the west of England. Anyhow, this moment
in South Dakota is recharging my batteries for the ride ahead of
me.
Streeter and I download images from my
camera onto his iMac. For 15 minutes or so the images have disappeared
and I quip "Don't worry, I'll cycle back to Washington and
retake them all." But we are both like swans - serene and calm
on the surface but paddling like crazy underneath. Eventually we
find the images and we burn them onto CD. We go down to the supermarket
to get some pasta, noodles etc for my ride. I'm always amazed at
the size of these places in North America. "Excuse me, can
you direct me to the pasta?" "Oh yes, aisle 67, you'll
have to catch a bus!" We look at the candy bars like a couple
of kids. "That's a good one," Streeter explains. "It
doesn't melt in the heat." "I like Snickers." "Oh,
do you? I like Milky Ways." We eventually leave with a bag
of stuff that is fairly bulky but very light. I bought another helmet
mirror in the local bike shop - it's the third I've had since the
start of my ride. The first I lost in a hailstorm on the Lolo Pass.
I bought a new one in Missoula. The second one is reflecting the
image of the presidents' heads somewhere around Mount Rushmore.
I have a bad habit of dropping my helmet on the ground - it's a
bit battered but I like it. Streeter explains that neurosurgery
is a bit more expensive than a new stack hat but he can see that
I'm not going to give in. I'm not convinced that you should replace
helmets every two years - it's just clever marketing.
 DAY
24
Streeter and I get up at 5 am. I pack the bike and we eat breakfast
quickly, eager to get on the road early. Streeter is cycling with
me for a while. Cruising through the streets of Rapid City we end
up on a quiet road heading east. It runs by the interstate freeway
for a while then veers off into undulating farmland. There's a wind
on our left shoulder with low cloud blurring the horizon. I discover
another of Streeter's talents - he's a keen ornithologist. I get
vivid and enthusiastic descriptions of all the birds we see. He's
enjoying the ride so much that he decides to come to the east coast
with me, "but Barbara would worry if I didn't come home today!"
After 25 miles we shake hands, promise to keep in touch and Streeter
disappears down the hill back to Rapid City. I continue on down
the quiet country road for another 15 miles before joining Highway
90. This is a busy interstate freeway, huge trucks roar past and,
after the peace and tranquillity of bird watching this is not much
fun. The town of Wall, 56 miles from Rapid City, is famous for its
drug store - Wall Drug. It has been operating since 1936, giving
free iced water to travellers. I call in for a late breakfast/early
lunch.
Heading out of Wall I make a bad decision
- instead of going north on 44 to Pierre (pronounced Peer) - I'll
stay on 90 for a while and turn north later, The shoulder of the
road turned into a goat herder’s track - potholes, gravel
and wide expansion joints every 10 metres. Every now and then, to
avoid a hazard, I hit the rumble strip and it took all my concentration
to keep going at a reasonable speed. After a couple of hours it
improved and I decided to stop for lunch. This is where the film
'Dances with Wolves' was shot - no landmarks to speak of (Kevin
Costner lived in the house next door to Streeter while making the
movie). I pushed the bike through the grass, leaned it against a
post and ran up a hill where I could enjoy the break away from traffic
noise. Down below the vehicles were like toys speeding backwards
and forwards. Every now and then a driver would see me, honk his
horn and wave. When I finished lunch I lay back in the dry grass
with a damp flannel on my face and drifted off to sleep for half
an hour. When I awoke I needed a reality check - took the flannel
off my face and there was the blue South Dakota sky - how lucky
I am to be on this adventure. With the wind on my left shoulder
I got into time-trialling mode down the freeway, passing a cowboy
'theme town' and up one slope, down the next. Each crest had the
same view, a snapshot repeated a hundred times. I love this bike
- the suspension takes all the vibrations. Unfortunately I had three
punctures within two hours. Shredded tyres are all over the shoulder
and the wire reinforcing pierces the tyres easily (even with a protective
strip inside). I stopped at Belvedere for a light dinner and continued
on to Murdo. It was getting dark when I put the tent up but I was
content, having completed 142 miles today.
DAY 25
I was woken early by a police siren. Not looking forward to Highway
90 today, I was slow getting started. One of the first things I
do in the morning is make a mug of tea - the small butane gas stove
is lightweight and compact. My tent is on a small hill overlooking
Murdo, a town with lots of small industries and wide streets but
no distinctive character. As I set off down the freeway the wind
is from the north-east and the large blue sky promises a hot day.
The shoulder is covered with two-dimensional animals, flattened
by the incessant stampede of vehicles. Racoons, skunks, prairie
dogs, cats, birds, tortoises (what chance has a tortoise crossing
a freeway!) On one stretch of road a whole army of a few hundred
frogs made an interesting design on the bitumen.
Today's journey is nondescript so I should
talk about the bike. The front panniers (waterproof vaude) weigh
10lbs each when packed. They contain mostly clothes to keep the
weight off the front of the bike, with easy access to items that
I will use during the day - sun cream, lip balm, snacks, compact
digital video camera on one side, still camera on the other, maps,
notebook (I make short notes during the day so that I have reference
for my journal entry), a damp flannel in a plastic bag and an MP3
player. I carry a small hydro backpack (without the bladder). In
here are emergency items - tools, tubes, my wallet and disposable
gloves (for keeping my hands clean when fixing a puncture or working
on the bike). The rear bag weighs 20 lbs. It contains a self-inflating
mat, walking shoes, stove, canteen, first aid kit and all the essential
stuff that you need for two months on the road. The sleeping bag
and tent add another 8 lbs, so once I have three litres of water
'on board,' my total load is about 55 lbs. After a long day on the
road it's a bit like dragging an anchor up the hills sometimes.
The Moulton has been perfect. Apart from lubricating the chain and
the usual minor maintenance, I can't fault the bike. I started the
journey with two new Continental tyres. It has been important to
keep the correct pressure with a heavy load and long, hot days on
the road (front 85 psi, rear 120 psi). After over 2000 miles the
front is well worn. The rear was changed in Montana after I ran
over a bolt and that will have to be replaced soon.
After 60 miles of monotonous riding I
descend a hill and cross the Missouri River. Time for some late
lunch in Chamberlain. I have crossed into Central time but my watch
is an hour behind. I am optimistic at the thought of leaving this
freeway tomorrow - it's 95 deg. in town, so I would say the temperature
is quite a bit more on the road. Every day, dozens of people ask
me questions about my journey and the bike. Having spare tyres is
a sure sign that I'm not going for an afternoon jaunt. Of course
riding a Moulton adds to the questions - wheel size, gearing, weight
etc. Today most people questioned my sanity for riding down the
freeway in this heat. I ride as far as Plankinton (107 miles), put
the tent up under a tree, cook some macaroni cheese. I'm feeling
well - just a bit tired!
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