Michael Richardson
We delayed our departure by an hour this morning (until 7:30) so that I could visit the post office and pick up my replacement tent piece. While this meant we would spend more time in the heat of the day, it also gave us more time to enjoy the Midland town park where we camped last night. It has plenty of water, electricity, clean bathrooms, and a jungle gym to stretch our legs out for the coming miles. The sprinkler system also gave my helmet a good douse so that I would start off with a cool head.
Michael stretches out his legs in the Midland city park jungle gym
After covering ourselves in a thick layer of sunscreen and locating a missing Friend, we headed south into some serious wind. The hour or two we spent in a diagonal formation had me thinking about all the different ways I’ve been calculating the wind direction. This is crucial knowledge for us to maintain an efficient pace line and take turns “pulling” each other through an unfortunate breeze. Rotating your head until the sound in your ears matches, wetting your finger, and monitoring the sway of the grass are all effective methods of determining wind direction, but my favorite (and most reliable) is to watch the birds. Birds of prey, like the American kestrel I saw above HWY 63, like to point their beaks directly upwind and hover while searching for food. This gave me some answers as to why I was huffing and puffing at the back of the pace line and I adjusted accordingly.
The gang fights a 10 o’clock wind by riding in a diagonal pace line
Before hooking a left into a gentle tailwind for the remainder of the day, Brian noticed a strange beast on the side of the road. Were my eyes deceiving me? A camel in South Dakota?? Actually, it made sense to see a desert animal today after melting in the 97° heat. Down the street, we picked up some snacks at a gas station, only to be snuck up on by a pack of goats hanging around the pumps. At this point, I was legitimately concerned about heatstroke and delirium.
Camel and goats in “1880 Town,” SD
We ate lunch at a small park in Murdo, sharing the picnic area with a bible study group. While we soaked our jerseys and buffs under a cold spigot, they inquired about our trip and shared some kind words for our journey ahead. Unfortunately, the biggest dangers we face are the ones we pose to ourselves—more specifically, the incompatible lunch items we’ve been eating like Usher’s quart of chocolate milk and mountain dew.
Friend and Usher recover from a serious lunch in Murdo, SD
Normally, we don’t stop in every town we pass through in order to stay on schedule, but the beating sun left us no choice when we passed the Sinclair dinosaur in Vivian. I turned 21 this past February and was thus able to enjoy a few minutes inside the walk-in beer fridge, cooling off with Brian. After some strange looks, we realized we only had an hour to make it to Presho before the grocery store closed for the night. Unless I wanted animal crackers for dinner, it was time to kick it into high gear and get moving. We made great time to the campground and even had enough sunlight left for me to repair my tent. It was fun to exercise my engineering brain after it had been dormant the last month post-graduation. I’m proud to say that after two patch kits, three zip-ties, one miscellaneous metal spacer, and one replacement piece from Big Agnes—my tent can now stand on its own again! Just in time to shield myself from the horde of mosquitos, too.
Michael escapes the Vivian, SD heat in the Sinclair walk-in beer fridge
These South Dakota Mosquitos are no joke