July 17, 2018 Miller to De Smet SD

Today was the half way point in terms of days on the road at a total of 32 out of the scheduled 64 day tour, and we reached the half way point in terms of mileage as well.  At 2.1 miles east of Miller we crossed the 2150 mile mark reaching half of the scheduled 4300 miles.  At the half way point there was a large chalk sign placed on the road which everyone signed in chalk as we passed.  In a way it is hard to believe that we are already half way across and yet it seems like it has taken forever to get here. The amount of grinding and labour is unbelievable.  Well the second half is easier. At least I hope so.

In an effort to be more effective with my time I have decided not to be caught up in the first to load luggage game and have started setting my alarm 20 minutes later.  This allows me to load luggage at 6:20 and still have 10 minutes before breakfast.  I don’t see the point in loading luggage at 6:00 am and then sitting waiting for breakfast at 6:30.  As I generally tent at the far end of the campground I am not too bothered by the hustling about. 

I rolled out of Miller and was down the road quickly so as to get my name on the chalk half way point and get a photo and be out of there before the masses arrived.  It worked and I got my photo and was down the road. 

There wasn’t a whole lot to see as we a traveling through the huge American bread basket.  The main sights are fields of soya beans, corn and wheat as far as you can see.  In the little towns and I mean little of population a few hundred there are huge metal silos which dwarf the semi-trucks which are feeding the silos. 

The few photo op’s included this huge metal horse some ingenious soul has created out of railway tie plates, an arrow which missed the target, and how can I forget the world’s largest pheasant.  The Pheasant being the mascot of the town of Huron (pop 12,592).

Huron was the largest town we saw today by at least an order of magnitude and in a lot of cases two orders of magnitude.   It was where we had picnic.  Picnic was in the city park which is located on a local lake and it was very pretty and tranquil.  

The ride down to picnic was very nice as the wind was only in the 3-5 mph range and the temperatures started in the high 60’s and by time I go to picnic at 10:30 it was 80 F.  Even though the we were headed straight east on highway 14 and the wind was directly out of the east it didn’t seem to be too much of a factor.

After lunch there was 33 miles directly east.  However by now it is getting hot and the wind is picking up every minute.   The road shoulder has also turned to gravel and the road is a concrete road with a 2 foot should which has rumble strips so we are out in traffic.  The white concrete might be cooler than the black asphalt but the sun bounces right off it and into your face.  There are a billion huge semis hauling the grain, soya beans and corn to the silos and they are paid the load so they all have their feet glued to the floor.  To say it was more than a little scary would not be an exaggeration. 

At the seventy mile mark my bike odometer seemed to go on the fritz.  I must have looked at it a million times and it never seemed to change.  The magic 77.8 mile mark, camp, and the DQ took forever to come up.  The large DQ ice cream cone was great. 

Terry hot biker