Day 26 – We’re all ears.

July 13, 2018

Day 26 – Chamberlain to Mitchel, SD – 71 miles, 910 feet vertical

We didn’t realize until our afternoon Rap talk that today was Friday the 13th.  No black cats.  No mysterious hexes.  No witch’s covens.  Just a nice, wonderful, relaxing – and FLAT – day for us to lick our wounds and recover from yesterday.  

There was no doubt about it – yesterday was a brute, … between the overall length, the relentless headwind, the hot sun sapping your energy and … oh yeah … the FLIES.   And, we lost an hour of sleep.  No doubt about it, yesterday kicked our butts.  

So, it was relief all around when last night’s thunder, lightning and rain storm cleared out this morning and gave us a top ten weather day.  The only effort was a short climb out of Chamberlain to start, and fighting through the morning humidity.  (I will apologize right here and now for some haziness in the early photos.  It was just so humid and the lens kept fogging up.)

But after the burn off, we had sunny skies filled with beautiful white puffy clouds.  The cloud cover provided us with mild temperatures that were just so much better than yesterday.  And the roads were dead straight and flat as a pancake.  

Today was all about recovering from yesterday and so we all took a breather for a relatively easy 71-mile day.  This gave us ample time to stop and visit the Tractor Museum in Kimball – a fascinating time warp exploration of farming, past and present.  Most of the day was spent riding past miles and miles of corn. 

On arriving in Mitchel, we visited the Corn Palace.  I thought this was going to be another hokey tourist trap, but it was actually quite interesting and historic.  The giant murals on the exterior and interior of the building are all made from real corn cobs, sorted for color, sliced down the middle and nailed to the appropriate spot.  Corn cobs by the numbers.  And, they tear it down and redesign it every year. 

That’s it for now folks.  One more little 72-miler tomorrow stands between us and our third rest day in Sioux Falls.  

Please enjoy these photos (and again, I apologize for the humidity-induced halos).  Don’t forget to check out all the green growing at Where’s Jeff at jeffblye.com

Thanks for following.