July 13, 2018 Interior to Philip SD

Today was 64 miles and 2100 feet of climb through Badlands National Park to Wall Drugs and then down the highway to Philip.  I have ridden Badlands National Park before and Wall Drugs while they have a lot of selection they do not sell anything which is on my shopping list.  So I decided to take a short cut and see the Minuteman Missile Silo Visitor Center.  The short cut reduced the ride to 33 miles and 530 feet of climb.   As we are trapped between this low and high pressure zone we are going to have east winds. My route reduced the amount of east on this busy road which had bad shoulders from 35 miles to only 13 miles. 

Before I knew it I had a group of 7 going off reservation and following me up to the missile center.  There was a gas station only 12 miles up from Interior where we were staying and we used this as the first water stop.  This was great as it was an easy spin up there and we still got a good taste of the eastern end of the Badlands National Park.   The next stop was the missile silo. It really gave you a moment to pause.  The Minuteman Missile program had thousands of missiles in harden silos all across the northern US.   It was a very interesting look back the cold war and the nuclear threat which still hangs over everyone’s head.

From the missile silo we had a 9 mile ride down this gravel road to Cottonwood which would link us back to the main route.  There was a fair bit of loose gravel on the road which made sections a little exciting however as it was generally downhill the  distance was covered quite quickly.

The last bit down the SD 14 was as advertised hot with the wind straight into our faces with a lot of trucks and traffic.  The shoulder was in bad repair most of the way.  The best part was that it was short.

Once in Philip we headed straight to the Budweiser Steakhouse. Cold beer and burgers were the order of the day.  Shock Top on tap.  Cheeseburger and cheese curds on special.   Just Perfect!

In the meantime Greg our tour leader has camp set up in the local legion with showers in the neighborhood pool.  We roll down to camp and change into swim trunks.  The pool is perfect we float around laughing and watching Martin doing backflips off the diving board. The temperature is now in the 90’s and the pool is so cool and wonderful.  

Charles who rode through Yellowstone with us is leaving and has bought beer.

What could possibly be better?  I have mail!  Ray J from our bike club has been reading my blog and has sent me a tool for putting tight tires on.  WOW!   Really cool!  TO say I am looking forward to changing a tire soon would probably be a lie. However I did watch a You Tube on it and it does make look putting on a tire look really easy.  Thanks Ray.

What a great day.

Terry hot biker