Big Ride Across America 2011

Sun, July 17 New Ulm MN
Very, very hot! And Humid! We spent 2 nights in the non air conditioned dorm at Martin Luther College. We had 3 fans going in our basement room, which made it possible to sleep. Tonight, we are staying in an air conditioned room at the Microtel in Owatonna--72miles for the riders. The temperature will be in the 90's with close to 100% humidity. The city (13,000) is very beautiful, and the town seems prosperous, with 2 quilt shops only a block apart--Spinning Spools http://www.spinningspoolsquiltshop.com/ has lots of batiks, MN fabrics, and other country-is fabrics--The Thimble Box http://www.thethimblebox.com/ has more MN fabrics, including the 2 state birds, the loon and the mosquito. It also boasts the Sven and Ole bookstore. Before we got here, everyone wanted to go to the Wurst Blast at the fairgrounds (this is a very German town), but we soon realized that the fairgrounds probably wasn't air conditioned, so Noel and Dick drove to a wurst house downtown, which was. I bought sandals to cool my feet.





Now to catch up:





July 9 Rapid City We had dinner with Noel's cousins, Diane and Dave at Diane and Ron's house. Daughter Katie and her husban Darren and baby boy were also there. Their home is beautiful, sitting on a hilltop with a view of the countryside and city, and the food was much better than dorm food! Cousin Mark couldn't come, as he was in Pierre, trying to clean up after the flood.





July 10 Rapid to Kadoka, 102 miles through a section of the Badlands. I'm not sure how to describe the Badlands, except to say that it is beautiful in an eerie sort of way. I recommend looking at Charlie Shuttleworth's pictures, which you can see via the American Lung Associaton Big Ride Across America website. Anothe website of note is Daria Kurkjy's, also accessable from the website. We had dinner and breakfast at the H&H Cafe, and eatery with a definite 50's theme--it even had a picture of a 55 Buick, my car during college.





July 11 Kadoka to Pierre 96 miles. Wow, averaging nearly 100miles per day for 2 days in a row! Pierre was badly flooded, so badly that the quilt shop was empty and closed. We were supposed to stay at the city park, but since it was under 4 feet of water, Charlton, the group leader, arranged with the principal of the high school, to stay there. Well, the principle didn't know that the boiler was broken, so no hot water for showers, very necessary after 96 miles. The maintenance man arranged for us to stay at the middle school, along with the Red Cross and the National Guard. We had electricity, so the fan kept us cool at night. The town was a mess, with sandbags everywhere. Noel was warned not to wear his belt with the Corps of Engineers buckle. I took an "alternate route" today, ending up on dirt roads to get back to the highway What the map did not tell me was that the road was washed out. I'm getting pretty good at backing and turning Baby. On the plus side of my adventure: a golden eagle flew up off the ground right in front of the truck, and I saw a meadow lark.





July 12 Pierre to Miller SD 73 miles with rain and a headwind. Again the countryside is all shades of green, plus it was a 3 pheasant day.





July 12 Miller to DeSmet 77 miles. DeSmet was named after Fr. DeSmet, and it was the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder from age 12 to her death in 1956. The Little House books were published from 1932 until 1943, and then postumhously from 1957 to the present. The town is all about Laura, and Hwy 14 is subtitled LIW Highway. We stayed in a park, it rained, all the tents got wet. Bernie and Daria stayed in a hotel









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