July 13 2014 Pierre SD

Today was a rest day in Pierre SD.  Pierre is the capital of South Dakota and is the smallest state capital.  For some odd reason it is pronounced either Pair or Pier.  Being a Sunday the place is locked up tight with not a single shop open anywhere save the burger joints along the main highway.   There would appear to be an excellent National Guard Museum here (open Monday –Friday).  There is a very nice park with a beautiful little lake around the capital building and several war memorials.   On the west side of the Missouri River is Fort Pierre which is in Mountain Time and on the east side is Pierre which is in Central Time.  Cross the bridge and lose an hour.

We are staying in the Pierre Indian Learning Center Dormitory.  This is a residency school for children from the reserve who need to have a place to go to school.  It is a beautiful facility and we are very lucky to be here.  It has very nice rooms, huge free washing machines which automatically dispense the soap, and a big screen TV.   

Ed W was off to do routing for tomorrows ride and offered to take me along to ride shot gun.  However as he was leaving at 7:00 am I elected instead to sleep in. 

Ken C and I had hung our towels over the windows so the room would stay dark longer. This enabled us to sleep until 7:00 am.   We walked over to the gas station convenience store for breakfast sandwiches and coffees.  We then took our bikes and rode around town.  We looked over the state capital buildings, walked in the park, had a burger and ice cream at Burger King, and rode down the bike path which follows the river. There is huge railroad bridge there which was built in 1906 and is still in service.  After returning to the dorm I lay down to read, however after only a few pages I fell asleep and had a nap (darn).

The week coming up is a pretty long week at 490 miles however there is only 7200 feet of climb the whole week.  The word flat comes to mind.  Weather for the week looks great as well, at highs forecast for only the low 70’s and winds out of the NW.   This is probably at least 10-15 degrees below average but great for us. 

Terry