June 13, 2018
Day 26 Forest City
Forest City, SD
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We had another long day ahead of us, so we were out at the breakfast area of the hotel when it opened at 5. Or was supposed to open. It was continental style, and some things were already out, like bagels and jams. At 5:10, the proprietor comes out in her bathrobe and slippers to get everything thing else set up: cereal, milk, danishes, coffee. We weren’t the only guests out there early though; a couple of other guys were also there waiting. We set off after breakfast to another day of long ribbon-y roads along grasslands. Only the winds changed direction today. The winds started out from the south, so we had a side wind at first, then it changed to SE, so more of a headwind. Bummer. We stopped in North Eagle Butte, at the edge of the Cheyenne River Reservation. We had several people at the grocery store ask us about our trip and wanted to get pictures of us. They all wished us safe travels. Only 55 miles to go, with a headwind and similar scenery. It was slow going at times. 9-10 mph. We took a few breaks on the side of the road. Once, a guy stopped and handed us 2 grape Fanta sodas. Hey, I’ll take the sugar! Finally, we saw the bridge that crosses the Missouri River, our destination just on the other side. It’s a very narrow bridge, no shoulder; thankfully only 5 cars passed us in either direction. We were headed for Bob’s campground “resort”, 1.5 miles up the hill from the bridge. We thought maybe there was a shortcut, but it was dirt road and petered down to nothing so we dragged our weary butts up the hill into the wind. We had intended to camp, but got to the entrance and found out they had motel rooms also. Neither of us was super excited to set up camp in 25mph winds and we were already whooped. So we chose beds over sleeping bags. The room looks right over the river (this section is damned lower down, so it’s also referred to as Oahe Lake). There’s a restaurant here as well, so we had a nice dinner with salad bar and watched the sun set over the river. After that we washed clothes and hung them to dry in the room. Hopefully they dry a bit by morning! Late bedtime at 10:30, but that actually because we crossed into the central time zone when we crossed the river! Yay!
Today's ride: 97 miles (156 km)
Total: 2,281 miles (3,671 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |