Day Thirty-one: Yankton, South Dakota to Rock Valley, Iowa

July 15, 2024

I didn't get out until after 8:00. I wasn't feeling very motivated to ride this morning.

I wound my way through some quiet Yankton streets before getting on my route. Yankton was pleasant enough this morning, but I didn't see anything worthy of getting the camera out of the handlebar bag.

Leaving town I was on a county road that was colored red on my map, which meant that it would likely be busy. Fortunately, I'd waited long enough to start this morning that I probably had missed most of the morning commute traffic, and it wasn't terrible at all. Too bad I'd wasted time yesterday evening worrying about several miles of heavy traffic that didn't appear anyway.

Scenery today was probably the least inspiring of the entire trip. Corn fields and hay fields.

Today I saw a lot of the disturbing South Dakota signs that mark where people were killed in vehicle crashes. One side of the sign says "THINK! Drive Safely." The other side says "WHY DIE? Drive Safely."

Another thing that South Dakota does: They leave in place the "Minimum Maintenance: Travel at Your Own Risk" signs even when it's clear that the roads that are being warned about have not been actual roads for years.

I've seen these signs literally in front of corn fields and hay fields. Here's a good example I saw this morning:

The first town of the day was Volin, population 158. Given how dilapidated the place appeared, I'm surprised the population is that high. As is often the case in these tiny towns, I didn't see anyone walking or driving around when I was there.

There was, however, a working pop machine, from which I purchased a delicious, ice cold Sunkist orange soda.

I was feeling gloomy when I arrived in Wakonda, population 347. I'd been a month on the road, and was feeling homesick. As I've often told people, the physical stamina required to ride every day for weeks is not the hard part, at least for me; it's the mental stamina required to get up and do it day after day. Most days are fun and interesting - or else why would I, or anyone else, do it? - but then there are days like this, where I'd prefer not to go anywhere.

I walked into the Eagle Stop convenience store to buy a Diet Pepsi, Gatorade, and some mini-donuts. Catherine, the woman working there, immediately lifted my spirits with her cheerful personality and her interest in my bike trip. I've gotten pretty jaded about this bike tour, so it was nice to talk to someone who was interested in it.

A friend of hers came into the store, a motorcyclist who had toured in all fifty states, I believe, and it was fun talking to him too, since we had done some of the same stretches of empty roads out west, including the very, very empty segment of US 6.

I left the store in a better mood. The sky was overcast now, which made it much easier to ride than when the sun was beating down on me.

The next town was Centerville, population 918. It seemed like a thriving place.

There were some very impressive murals, and most businesses downtown appeared to be open. I liked the look of the place.

I walked into the Seed Coffeehouse and Eatery and ordered an avocado toast and a homemade cookie. Both were excellent. I've been eating so much junk food on this trip, that I might have forgotten what real food tastes like. I was startled by how good this cookie was, and quizzed the baker there about its ingredients.

For a while, a few years back, avocado toast briefly became an element in the "culture wars", when cranky old people criticized young adults for wasting money on it instead of saving for a mortgage down payment, or whatever. So it amused to me to order this dish in what was obviously, based on the usual signs and flags, a very politically conservative little town.

I was feeling pretty good when I left town. I rode onto a paved county road where I'd be for 20+ miles. It was supposed to be very low traffic.

Unfortunately, in a piece of very bad luck for me, traffic from a much busier nearby state highway, SD-46, was being detoured onto this normally quiet back road for some reason. As soon as I saw the "detour" sign, and the first of many, many large trucks, I groaned.

The next few hours were unpleasant. All of the trucks gave me plenty of room, and I usually pulled completely off the road onto the gravel shoulder in any case, but the constant traffic on the narrow country road was a stressful bummer.

Finally the detour ended. I arrived in Hudson, population 311, as it started to rain lightly.

I walked into a bar, Waddy's, and sat at a quiet table in the dark place and ordered fountain pop, water, and French fries.

The Republican National Convention was on one of the TVs. In keeping with my goal of not paying attention to politics while on this tour, I averted my eyes as much as possible.

As I left town, it started to rain. The humidity and intermittent rain all day had caused some chafing issues with my damp shorts, so I tried to adjust my riding position, but could never get completely comfortable this afternoon.

I rode onto a closed road without hesitation. I ignore these signs 99% of the time.

After several miles I arrived at the end of the road to find that it really WAS closed. To motor vehicles anyway. I'd heard that Rock Valley, my nearby destination for the day, had suffered from extreme flooding recently, and I suppose this washed out road was one manifestation of the flood.

I rode into Rock Valley, population 4,076. It was the ugliest, smelliest, loudest, most unattractive Iowa town I've ever been in. Ugh. Of course, my extremely negative opinion about the town was surely influenced by my bad mood. But still: This place seemed terrible.

I found my crappy motel, checked in, then walked alongside a busy highway (no sidewalks of course) in the sun in a semi-successful attempt to obtain food for dinner (no pizza delivery in Rock Valley, another mark against it.)

Later, as I dealt with my chafing issues, and after I phoned my wife to whine, someone tried several times to open my motel room door. I called the front desk to report this, and they told me there had been "confusion" about the room reservations, and someone else had also been assigned my room. How does a hotel screw that up?!

I made sure the chain lock was on, and went to bed while it was still light outside. Surely tomorrow would be better!

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Faith LeeGreat pictures!
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5 months ago

Today's ride: 81 miles (130 km)
Total: 2,089 miles (3,362 km)

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