After traveling well past sundown the night before, it was nice to enjoy my extra hour of sleep that I’d earned by crossing into the Central Time Zone when I entered Minnesota. Marvin Bohn’s place was very restful, and I slept right through until my alarm went off at 7:00am.
When I got up, Marv was, of course, already up and about fixing some fried potatoes and eggs for breakfast. He and I caught up on his family, the work on his tractor and my plans for the day’s ride over breakfast and coffee. Before I knew it, it was already going on 9:00am and I, unfortunately, had to go. It was so nice seeing Marv again. Once again, he was a great host, very welcoming and full of stories. Thank again, Marv!
The plan for the day was to keep off of major roads while making my way as far as I could toward the Black Hills of western South Dakota. I’d planned to get at least as far as Pierre (for some reason pronounced “Pier” by the locals, I guess the French pronunciation makes the place sound too fancy?). I plotted the route into Google Maps, avoiding highways, and got back a route that was about 420 miles (670 km). The day was clear, with a nearly cloudless sky and very comfortable temperatures. What I had done to deserve such ideal weather so late in September, I have no idea, but I’d take it!
Marv and I said our goodbyes, and it was out onto the open road yet again. I gave my mom a call from my helmet communicator as I started out to see how she was doing and let her know all was going very well on the trip. Not far down the road, I took a diversion to cross the Mississippi River yet again at Camp Ripley to follow a Great River Scenic Byway route, and took some more back roads before meeting MN-27 West.
The trees started to thin, and the grass and farmlands started to broaden out as I continued. About an hour down the road, I stopped off for a coffee at 110 Coffee Co. in Long Prairie, Minnesota for a coffee and a muffin. While I was there, I knocked out a couple of blog postings about the previous days of travel using their Wi-Fi. Before long it was nearly noon, and I only had about 80 miles on the clock. Time to put the hammer down and get going!
The hills were still rolling up and down as I continued, and Minnesota continued to live up to it’s slogan as the Land of 10,000 lakes as I went through town after town next to picturesque little lakes. The towns of Long Beach and Starbuck, Minnesota along Lake Minnewaska really stood out to me. The temperatures were starting to rise and I was feeling a bit drowsy as I continued, so I started to look for another spot to take a rest and grab a coffee.
I found my spot for a break in Benson, Minnesota at the Benson Bakery and Coffeeshop right downtown across the street from an old caboose that seemed like it’d been parked for display in the old railway town.
After coffee, It took me a couple loops of downtown to find my way back to the highway, but eventually Google Maps and I were able to come to an agreement as I found my way out of town. I zigged and zagged South and West between and county roads until I eventually made it to US-212 West, that was my path for most of the rest of the day.
As I crossed into South Dakota, it was starting to get pretty gusty, with another strong southerly cross-wind, very much like what The Captain and I had experienced crossing North Dakota a month previously. I guess they need to import their hot air in the Dakotas? This time, not being on the Interstate might have been a mistake, as every time a transport went by in the opposite direction, it blocked the cross-wind and sucked me in the direction of the opposing lane of traffic. Scary! I started to get pretty good at moving to the far edge of my lane as the trucks approached and easing up on my cross-wind counter-lean just as we’d pass, but even still, this was not the most pleasant riding, to say the least!
I went by field after field of corn, sunflowers and canola for as far as the eye could see. The wind was absolutely relentless and I was really getting worn out from all the white-knuckle riding. By this point, it was nearly 3:00pm, and I stopped in Clark, South Dakota for another rest and a snack. Realizing at this point that I wasn’t going to make it any farther than Pierre, I booked myself a motel in the South Dakotan capital.
Back onto the road I went, and finally got off of US-212 in Redfield, South Dakota for US-281 South. As 4:00 became 5:00, the wind finally started dying down and the ride started becoming less battering, which was a great relief. At this point, all I had to bear through was my increasingly sore butt! One last turn onto US-14 West and before too long, I started to see the rolling hills leading downward into the Missouri River Valley outside Pierre as the sun started getting low enough in the sky to give everything a bit of a golden light.
I took a route through a nice, quaint residential area of Pierre higher up on the valley hill, which was quite nice; but the area where all the hotels and motels were along the highway, closer to the river was anything but. The road was super-wide, full of loud traffic, devoid of trees, shade or any un-paved features whatsoever. Regardless, I was happy to have a place to get off the bike and have a shower!
I grabbed dinner at a local Mexican place that was within walking distance, along with a tasty treat at the Dairy Queen across the street from my hotel before calling it a night. Did I mention this day had been a bad one for any concept of a diet? Tomorrow should be a better day; I planned to see a few sights around Southeastern South Dakota and having a much shorter ride to go along with it.
