Day 23, Pierre (the re is silent) to Miller (the th is silent), 74 miles

Best: Can you say flat with a tailwind?  sure,  I knew you could.

Worst: Karolina went home today after receiving a bad knee diagnosis yesterday.

Most Unexpected: A donkey keeping watch over the cow family.

Last nights dinner was at the local ice creamery where I had a Coney Island Dog to go with my chocolate malt. I found out a Coney Island dog has ground meat on top of the hot dog.  Yech.

Karolina finally went to the doctor to have an evaluation of her knee which continued to hurt her.  The diagnosis was both bursitis and tendinitis with a recommendation to stay off it for 2-4 weeks.  This morning she took a cab to the airport and we were sorry to see her go.

I am also excited to report that Marich Chocolates who is graciously sponsoring our ride with delicious treats (I am living off their chocolates after each days ride) listed my blog on their website.  I am so famous that I will now be charging 25 cents per autograph.

With the time change, we started the day as we would normally at 6:15, but the sun had not yet come up.  Forecast was for a side/headwind, and they were incredibly wrong. We did the one climb of the day out of Pierre and then rode flat for the rest of the way with an 8-10 mph tailwind blowing us along. We rode across construction dirt for less than a mile, and then we hit a section of recently chipsealed road for 14 glorious miles.  This would have been my worst for today except for Karolina. Pictures were hard to take because the ride looked like this.

Then somebody planted a tree.

We did ride past a train for 3 1/2 miles.

If you noticed the five engines, you would assume it was a long train, and as I said, 3 1/2 miles.  Of course the train was moving in the same direction as us and slightly faster, so I guess if it was stopped it might have been significantly shorter than this.  Just guessing.

There are a lot of cracks on the road, A LOT OF CRACKS.  I measured 13 cracks per 1/10 mile, or 130  jolts to the butt per mile.  This is a new scientific measurement and is J/B/M.  

We were moving so quickly today that we hit the lunch stop at 9:00 and were to Miller at 11:00 including stopping for a flat, and pictures.  Basically crusing at 21 mph.  It was so flat today we saw a water tower 15 miles ahead that we eventually rode past. 

Kevin found his 50th bungee cord of the trip today.  Below is the documented proof, or at least proof that he found one.

Kevin asked if I wanted to take the picture toward the wheat field on this side of the road, or the wheat field on the other side.

Which sign should I pay attention to?

I can hear this farmer saying, "I'm not sure which seed to try, how about I plant 30 different varieties and see which one comes up.  Oh darn, they all did, now what.'

My favorite picture below of the donkey guarding the cow family.

Mama cow telling her calves, if you don't eat all your hay you are going to grow up big, ugly and stupid like Francis next to you.