little town on the prairie

Thursday was a 60 mile ride from Watertown to DeSmet, SD home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. A slight breeze from the west didn't hurt at all as we rode some west, but mostly south. I got a reasonably early start and made good time all morning. I stopped at almost every rest stop, usually just to refill bottles and get off the bike for a few minutes. But, I totally missed the location of the lunch stop where they were serving ribeye sandwiches. I heard later that they were delicious.

I might have missed it because I was visiting with other riders. I spent a good part of the morning riding and talking with a just-retired college math teacher from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD. He was wearing a Minnesota Twins jersey and we talked about the fun of being a fan when they won the World Series in '87 and '91. On the ride into DeSmet I rode with a geologist from Lincoln, NE who has worked on different Superfund clean-up sites.

As it turned out, with everyone enjoying ribeye sandwiches I was one of the first couple dozen riders into DeSmet.  We camped in a beautiful park with plenty of trees, and the high school open for showers was less than a block away. Actually nothing in DeSmet was too far away. I walked the couple blocks to the Subway/Dairy Queen for lunch and desert, and spent the rest of the day reading in the shade and visiting with riders and residents.

For dinner some riders took advantage of a shuttle to a restaurant/bar outside of town, or walked a few blocks to the country club. Many of us stayed in the park for a barbecue, concert, and ice cream social. It cooled nicely as we turned in early for one last night. We had an 84 mile ride ahead of us tomorrow, followed, I hoped by a drive home that would get me back to my wife and dogs at a reasonable hour.