9/6/10 – Laboring Through the Cold Windy Prairie

I’d like to start-off today’s blog with a request. As much as I like to ride by myself, eat by myself and write about myself, it kinda feels like a one-way street. I was wondering if you readers would do me a kindness and post some comments, feedback, stuff you liked, stuff you don’t like. For example, you could write: “U think UR funny, but UR not” or perhaps, “Today’s post made me LOL” or “Who is Bessy and what’s a whore-bath? Does Kelly know?” Also, please feel free to join my blog so I know who’s following along.

OK, back to me talking about me and my Labor Day ride across the Mt. Rushmore State. After a beautiful sunny weekend, thunderstorms rolled into SD last night and it poured with lightning until around 11:00 a.m. After the rain stopped, I dried-off Ole Bessy, put on my winter gear and hit the road. As I rode the 3 blocks to the highway on-ramp, the fierce cold winds nearly knocked me over twice. I throttled onto the freeway heading east and the cold wind was coming directly from the north and pounding me and Bessy on the left side. I leaned hard into the wind just to keep the bike headed straight. There were big white-caps on the little ponds and watering holes that are everywhere in the Great Plains. At times when the road jogged south, the strong tailwind was unnoticeable. Even riding straight into the wind wasn’t bad, but most of the day it was hammering my left side and trying to rip my head off. The worst thing are the gusts, when all of a sudden it blasts you at 60 MPH, instead of the constant 40 MPH gale, sending you 5 feet to the right. After about 100 miles of nature’s fury, I got used to it, sort of. The ambient temperature was around 55 degrees, but when you add the wind chill factor, I think it was approximately 10 below. Luckily, my gear kept me warm.

At mile 127, I met Big Jim at a rest stop. He’s headed home to his family ranch in Mitchell, SD after spending the weekend riding with his buddies in the Black Hills on his fake Harley Yamaha 1800. He used to have a Harley, but it always needed service and he prefers to ride more than working on broken bikes, so he got the Yamaha Fake-Harley. Jim is a glass half-full kinda guy. I was lamenting the cold wind and Jim said “You ever ridden in a hail storm?” Then he proceeded to explain that this wind ain’t nothing compared to stuff he’s ridden through. Apparently hail here is big, really big, like softballs. I don’t want to see it. Then we chatted about what a Pinko Commie State California is and how all the environmental whackos and do-gooders are trying to do the same thing in SD. Jim was chewing tobacco and spitting with the wind. Have you ever witnessed someone hock a loogie into a 50 MPH gale-force wind? It’s something to behold. After about 20 minutes we said goodbye and I was back riding in the wind.
Lest you think my ride today was miserable, it was not. I have numerous blessings to count:
1. I saw the Badlands National Park, which is a beautiful landscape of jagged rock formations and it’s the windiest place on earth;
2. The scenery was actually fantastic: Grasslands, rivers, lakes, sunflowers, corn, wheat fields, cows, rolling hills and a gorgeous sunset;
3. It didn’t rain, snow or hail on me;
4 I witnessed the world’s only Corn Palace; and
5. XM Radio’s Classic Vinyl station didn’t play any Janis Joplin music. I hate Janis Joplin and I’m glad she died young before she was able to create anymore shitty Classic Rock.

I arrived in Sioux Falls, SD at 7:00 CA Mean Time, but when I checked into the hotel, I realized that somewhere today I lost another hour and it was actually 9:00 local time. I got directions to a local Laundromat, because I had no clean clothes left and my underwear have already been flipped inside-out. I wrote this post while doing my laundry.