Monday 7-16 Day 22

Start Kadoka, SD
End Pierre, SD
Scheduled 95.5
Actual 94.7

Today was the most boring day ever. Picture you bed quilt loosely placed over unmade sheets, and that should give you an idea of the type of terrain we are going through. Some rolling hills, but as I look from side to side, I see lots of gullies and valleys between the hills. Once again I am amazed that settlers traveled through here with wagons and horses. We have had engineers, cut off the tops of hills and used the hill tops to fill in the valleys to give us a relatively flat road that the settlers did not have. Lots of prairie grass lands and fields and fields of wheat yet.

We started out with a bit of cloud cover, but that dissipates quickly and then the temps go up. With temps getting hot, we stop at a grocery store, and I almost step on a rattle snake that was in the gravel. My foot could not have been more than 18" away from the little guy. We told the store owner who than went out and killed it. "Plenty more where that came from and we don't want any to get hurt".

The heat and head winds are really getting to people, Jodi, had to sag in the last two rest stops, and about 8 miles from the end, Greg D almost gets heat stroke. At this point, Kari, Alison, Mike and I ride in with the Dimmits, to keep an eye on each other. Tonight we camp on the east banks of the Missouri river, we are in Central Standard Time!

Today was a tough day again, the heat and the monotony almost get to me, but helping out others minimizes it.