7/10/14

DAY 13 - HUMIDITY STARTS

When we got up this morning, I went outside to get an idea of the temperature.   Immediately I was struck by how similar it felt to home. It was a little overcast which we hadn't seen so far on the trip, but that wasn't it. I soon realized it was the humidity. This was the first day that the air was anything but dry. It certainly impacted us later in the day when the temperature approached 90. 

  Dave and I made it to breakfast first, but after almost two weeks together we know what each other likes so we were able to order for all three.  We each got the big breakfast, eggs, ham, hash browns, toast, coffee, but something else caught our eye - cinnamon rolls. They were warm, covered with icing and delicious. I tried to take a picture that did them justice and I apologize in advance to my brother-in-law Charles who does the photography for my sister's food blog, stylishcuisine.com. 

Breakfast is when we finalize our stopping points. Overnight I received intel from Command Central that gave us the distances between towns, the locations of the grocery stores and the elevation profile for the ride. They also recommend places to stay at the destination location.  Command Central is manned by my three sisters:

Gail in Needham, MA,


Lauren (with her 6 week old son Grant) in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 


and Diane in Manhattan. 

We couldn't do it without them, especially now that the route has changed. 

    Now on to the day. We were on the road by 7:15.  Route 20 in Nebraska is called the Butte to Bridges Byway. We were in the Butte section which can be seen through the retreating morning fog 

   The first push was to Chadron, NE about 30 miles away. Although we planned the route West to East to take advantage of the winds, we had a steady headwind.  With a strong headwind our pace will drop to 13-14 mph, compared to a tailwind when we can easily ride 23-25 and when that is combined with a downhill stretch, 30+ is easy.  We've become accustomed to each other's riding and are very comfortable in a pace line at those speeds. If you want an idea of what that's like, here's some video that Justin shot:


Riding between Fort Robinson, NE and Martin, SD. from Justin on Vimeo.

After Chadron we had a chance to practice as the road turned more north east, with a strong tail wind and sloped downhill.  We were at our lunch stop in Gordon, NE quite quickly, smiling and happy for the change in fortune with the winds. 

    We stopped in the local grocery store, bought the standard staples- lettuce, cheese, turkey, blueberries, bananas, and yogurt. We ate a few streets away at a local park. 

 
A town official came over to chat and made sure we knew we could get water and use the bathrooms in the town office across the street. 


   During lunch we checked the weather as we had heard there were thunderstorms predicted. Indeed, there was severe weather alerts for our area, so Justin made sure neither Dave nor I tried to take a nap and we were off. Our  route now took us north into South Dakota. 

     We took one break in  Batesland, SD.


Although this place doesn't look like much, it was truly an oasis. The heat and humidity had been getting to us and this place was very well air conditioned. We bought some drinks and had a seat at a small table set up inside. 


The proprietor was a very nice woman who was originally from SD but lived for many years in Seattle.  She wanted to hear about our trip and in exchange gave us route and weather advice.  It was then that we received NWS alerts on our phones and we started riding again to beat the storm to Martin, SD. We could see the storm coming but we were successful in avoiding it.


Because of the flash flood warnings we stayed in a motel in town instead of the campsite by the river. There were few good options for food in town, so we hit the grocery store, bought some healthy food and a 6-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and were in for the night. We have to get to bed early as we have a long ride tomorrow (142 miles) and we lose an hour crossing from Mountain into Central time. 


7 comments:

  1. That cinnamon roll looks delicious! Glad you stayed inside last night, hope the crossroads inn was ok. That video is awesome and exhausting. I can't believe you do over 100 miles a day. Praying for tailwinds today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That video is amazing. I also love the shot of the cinnamon bun. Looks delicious. I hope the storms have passed and that you have only tailwinds today.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm totally addicted to this blog. What an adventure. Don, when your sisters finish managing this trip, I would like to get their advice re best commute routes into Boston on a daily basis :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the daily posts.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don and friends, I am really enjoying "travelling" across country with you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry about our crazy Midwestern weather! I'm glad you weren't caught in it!
    I was hoping we could drive down from Minneapolis and see you all when you had planned to stop in Mankato, but it looks like you're swinging down to Iowa instead. We are a bit waterlogged here in Minnesota!
    Happy traveling! I think your brave example might help me to motivate my girls to bike the three-mile path around our nearby lake. "Do you know how many miles Cousin Donald biked . . ." :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kathy, I'm sorry we had to change out route. It would have been great to see you and your family. Thanks for following the blog
      Donald

      Delete