Day 25, DeSmet to Tyler, 78 miles of riding

Best: Riding behind Cathy in the headwind.

Worst: Riding the rest of the way in the wind.

Most Unexpected: Enjoying the breakfast at Wards especially the cheesy hash browns.

Last night we ate at Wards after visiting the exciting DeSmet museum and then the library.  We were meeting at Wards at 4:00 for dinner, and after the museum we didn't want to walk all the way back to the campsite, so we were the total nerds by killing time in the library.  Dinner was Lasagna, salad, bread (2 pieces if you wanted), and dessert consisting of chocolate covered Rice Krispie treats, and left over donuts.  The donuts were actually quite good as I ate a jelly filled one that I kept from exploding.

This morning after loading the truck with our gear, we all stood around going over the q sheets (our travel directions) while providing breakfast for 10,000 mosquitos with healthy appetites.  We rode our bikes to Wards where the breakfast was quite good, and then off to ride in low wind conditions.  We made it to the Brookings, the home of SDSU, for our lunch stop in a nice park.

After lunch, the gods decided it was time to stop playing nice, so they created a 13-15 mph sidewind which became a headwind on some turns.  I rode with Cathy and Paul, and when there was a sidewind, there wasn't much of protection from riders in front and it slowed us down quite a bit.  When it was a headwind, we could get right behind Cathy on her cruiser and actually travel faster than the sidewind. We made it to Minnesota for our last check in with around 20 miles to go, and the roads went to crud.  The terrain changed also, but then reverted back to flat with corn and soybeans. 

We are staying in Tyler in the high school with most of us opting to sleep inside in the cafeteria. Dinner will be catered and I am hoping it is not lasagna again.  Charlton says it will be chicken. (it was Lasagna two years ago creating the unique opportunity of digesting back to back lasagna dinners). 

Temperatures are still playing nice with us reaching into the low 80's.  The mornings start off cool with a cloud layer that burns off around 10:00.

Another red sun, this time with a barn to look at.

All of the towns have these signs listing their past winners of events.  This one lists both a Nobel Prize winner, as well as a Miss South Dakota, and a high school band winning a contest a long time ago.

Dino's diner suprisingly has a dinosaur in front.

You got to love the group responsible for cleaning up the road.  They probably stay at home and just wave their hands to make the litter go away.

A huge soybean oil processing plant.  You don't see these in California.

This cool South Dakota house is right next to ...

This South Dakota house.  Just a little different architecture.

Time to take down the Christmas lights.  Oh wait, time to fix up the whole house.

Wind turbines after we hit Minnesota.  They are spinning pretty good at this point.

These are the blades on the wind turbines located along our route indicating their is some wind through this part of the country.

Lets all meet back here in May for this music fest. Larry probably plays his CD real loud.

Your test below, which picture is from South Dakota and which is from Minnesota.  Answer below.

The bottom picture has a clue on the horizon, wind turbines.  This is from Minnesota.