Wednesday
Wanblee SD to Winner SD
102 Miles
Travel Time 10.5 hrs
Saddle Time 8:15 hrs
Knocked off another time zone!
Got on road at 5:15am and was followed by both house dogs! Then saw a rainbow. I was going to bike to the rainbow to find the end of it, but I decided I didn’t have enough time.
Got to first town after 50 miles and hoped for a good late breakfast/early lunch. (Can’t really call it brunch because nothing resembles brunch out here). The only restaurant said “closed” so I was forced to buy food at a gas station…..again! I’ve decided that when eating my meals on the road, I eat outside instead of in air conditioning. I have found I don’t tighten up as much. So once again I was sitting on sidewalk when people came up to talk to me. One messed up looking guy steps out of a beat up truck and asks if I’m busy doing anything. I say no (I begin to get a little worried). He asks whether I can take a picture of he and his wife, they just got married. He offers to pay me $5. I ask if he is wanting me to use my phone. He replies that he has an IPad and his wife is inside in the casino. All buildings have casinos out here. Now I’m convinced that he wants me to go inside so he can grab my bike. I suggest why doesn’t she come out and I can take a picture outside with the nicer background. He thinks it is a great idea. They come out, with his best friend and the other wedding witness, and I take their picture with their IPad and of course my phone. They had been dating for 12 years! So much for my NY paranoia!
As I was biking I saw something in the distance that I couldn’t figure out what it was. As I got closer, I saw that it was 22 buildings lined up next to each other in a perfect row. Maybe because I had visited Auschwitz last summer, but these buildings gave me the creeps. Plus it was sealed off and no one was around. I later found out that is a deserted hog farm.
I push on. Through a rain storm that turned into hail. Happened to be near a store when the hail came, so I ducked in until storm passed. My goal for the day was to make it 100 miles to Winner, the only real town around. I wanted to find a motel so I could shower. As I got closer, my goal changed to trying to get there while World Cup was on. As I entered Winner there was a sign for a Holiday Inn. I figured they would have ESPN so I made it to the hotel and got to my room with 5 min left in regulation play. Watched the end of the game. Then walked to restaurant around corner. They happened to have an all you can eat spaghetti night. It was the best spaghetti in the world and I was in heaven. 180 miles to Sioux Falls.
I think I would have been just as paranoid! Best pasta? Really???
Enjoy your Holiday Inn stay. Hope they have a nice breakfast in the AM.
I’ve made it a minor hobby to figure out WTF is near the places you are at (hence the Continental Pole of Inaccessibility at your last stop). So what’s up in Winner, SD? Why the Wiley Cock Lodge! “Biggest cocks in the Dakotas” and “Come Push the Bush and Rock the Cock!”. Really.
Robert!
Ken,
J Strauss turned me onto the blog, very entertaining. Safe travels the rest of the trip. I will continue reading
Did you really take the $5? !!!!! Hope you didn’t give him your blog address, cause you called him “One Messed up Guy” What’s with ALL the dogs following up? Are you wearing milk-bone underwear? Hey you saw The Partridge Family’s Bus….. remember.. sitcom in 70’s-74!
Ya know there was a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow, we placed it there, awe sorry you didn’t have enough time. So people come up to talk to you and dogs & birds follow you! Things that me go hmmm! Cheers from the cube farm!
This is why I said, I could never do this by myself. Can you say,”Deliverance”.
You were supposed to have a chicken dinner in Winner. Just saying…….
You do realize that all of these people are writing on their blogs going “saw this scruffy homeless man outside of the store today….”
How did you manage to overexpose an iPhone/iPad photo? I didn’t think that was possible!