July 14 2014 Pierre to Miller SD

This morning the wind was howling when we stepped out of the dorm at the Pierre Indian Learning Center.  We had to head over to the cafeteria for breakfast but when we got there the doors were locked as breakfast was late. So everyone stood around shivering in the cold wind.  They finally opened the doors 15 minutes late and by then a bunch of the riders had bolted without breakfast.  I don’t know how good a decision that was as it was 45 miles down to picnic. 

Breakfast actually turned out to be worth waiting for as there were lots of still hot sticky buns of several different varieties.  I can understand why they bolted as supper the night before was pretty C and what supper is so follows breakfast.

The howling wind was out of the NNW and so we had a decent wind coming over our left shoulder as we headed almost due east.  Ed , Ken C And I flew down to picnic very quickly and were there by 10:15, late breakfast not withstanding.  The climbs were pretty short and not too steep.  We are passing mostly large farms which are primarily wheat or sugar beets.  Although a lot of the fields are pastures which are filled with cattle.

During the rest day Wally and Martin had gotten a guide and gone fly fishing on one of the lakes which are behind one of the Missouri dams.  They had caught something like 30 fish which had been filleted.  One of the staff fried the fish up at picnic and they were so good.  We had fresh fried fish tacos with all the fixings.

After lunch the road turned straight north and now this quartering side wind was head on.  I quickly organized Ed and Ken C into a pace line. We each pulled for 0.5 miles before rotating to the back.  The road had turned into a series of stair step climbs. On the climb the best you could do was 6-8 mph and as you crested the hill the wind was so strong you had to fight just to make that.  After about 5 miles we caught one of the sectional riders and we recruited her to join us.  Now there were four of us to do the pulling.  The route ran straight north for 19 miles and what a grind it was.

At the corner where the route turned east again there was gas station so the four of us went in for a coke. It was great to sit down for a few minutes and catch your breath.  We set of towards Miller with 23 miles to go and the quartering wind pushing us along.  The hills were done and the road was dead flat so we made pretty good time.

Ed had done the routing so he knew there was a DQ at Miller and that is where we headed for.  The wind made the 88 miles into a pretty tough day. 

Terry