July 15
Sunday, July 15 Sioux Falls, S.D. to
Worthington, MN 65
miles
And here we are in
the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota.
Eighteen miles out of Sioux Falls this morning we crossed the line and
said goodbye to the prairie lands of South Dakota and were greeted by lots of
green corn fields of Minnesota. It was another short ride today,65 miles, and I
was here by noon. I forgot to put
sunscreen on this morning. Thought
since I wouldn’t be out longer than this morning, I wouldn’t get sun
burned. The sun is hot here in
Minnesota. I am red as a beet. I stopped at Wall-Mart and got some burn
relief lotion. I had been so good about
applying sun screen every single day, but I can see now I must not miss even
one day.
Our rooms weren’t
clean when those of us who hammered it over here this morning. But the clerk said we could set our luggage
in the room and it would be cleaned soon.
When I went up to the room it was reeking with stale cigarette
smell. We are all supposed to be put in
non-smoking units. When Christine
arrived she said she would check to see if we could get the room changed. No problem.
We moved our bags and bikes down the hall. Much better.
I was running on empty and so I went
across the road to a Perkins Restaurant to have lunch. That hit the hungry spot! The manager at the restaurant asked a lot of
questions about our bike trip. Others
too in the motel lobby were curious and amazed at what we are doing.
I enjoyed the bike
ride this morning. I left by 6:45. The sun was shining and going through Sioux
Falls it was nice quiet ride with hardly any traffic. In fact, after we got out
on the country roads, some times it would be half hour to forty five minutes
before a car would come by. About four
miles out of Worthington there was a little more traffic. It
was so nice to roll along looking at the healthy crops. There seems to have had been plenty of rain,
yards were nice and green.
I got plenty hot this afternoon. Report says 94 degrees.
When we crossed the state line this
morning, we couldn’t take the usual photo to show we actually made it. The sign was missing on the back country
road we were on. Doug had told us about
that at route rap. He said when we
cross into Wisconsin we can just turn around and go to the “Welcome to
Minnesota: sign across the road.
Dinner
is early tonight, 5PM, and it is right here at the Expo Inn. Tomorrow will be a much longer day. 97 miles to Mankato.