Day 3 May 29, 2009
We had another great day of riding from Atlantic, IA to Murdo, SD. The weather was beautiful .. sunny all day with temperatures in the 70′s and 80′s. The scenery again today was breathtaking. We rode over 400 miles in about 11 hours. I’m happy to report that we actually got up and around and were on the road at 8:45. That’s just more than impressive for us!
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| From Day 3 Leaving Atlantic, IA |
We had breakfast with some fellow bikers who were from Iowa and traveling north for a weekend trip. They’ve ridden in this area for years and gave us a lot of good information. I took a picture from the parking lot which is a good example of how beautiful the ride through Iowa is.
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| From Day 3 The view during breakfast this morning |
Our ride through the rest of Iowa was so pretty. The rolling hills just go on and on and on with more farms as far as you can see. Not too far west of Atlantic we passed a wind farm right along I-80. In a stretch of about 5 miles there had to be more than 100 wind turbines gracefully turning in the wind. It was amazing to see them. Unfortunately there was no good place to pull off to take a picture. I wish I could take pictures with my eyes!
We came upon an scenic overlook along I-80 just north of Omaha and stopped to take a look. It’s so beautiful from up high, it’s hard to take it all in.
Again today we were on a search for signs for the contest. We managed to find 15. Some of them have been right off the freeway and others have been quite a drive. We drove 43 miles south to Yankton, SD because we needed a Y. Those little side trips are so much fun. Like I said yesterday, it gives us a chance to really see the countryside and some of the little towns along the way.
And some of our side trips are a bust. We tried for Little Sioux and River Sioux, Iowa and neither had a sign. River Sioux was pretty much a 4 way stop with a tiny grainery and a couple of houses. And Little Sioux was a tiny little place about the size of Hanover. A lot of the houses were empty and quite run down. It looked like a place that time had forgotten. The business buildings were very old and most were empty and the ‘downtown’ area was pretty much deserted. I wanted to take a picture but decided against it. It seemed like we were invading their privacy as it was disturbing the peace and quiet with our noisy bikes. We rode through town hoping to find a post office so we could use that picture for the contest. We didn’t see one so decided to head back to the highway. As we turned off the main street we had a choice of 3 directions to go .. all 3 were gravel roads. As we made our way out of town, we found all the streets were gravel. I thought of you Teresa. (Mark has a knack for finding gravel roads.)
Speaking of gravel roads, as we scouted the city signs in Iowa we noticed that only the main roads are paved. It was strange to see long clouds of dust trailing behind the cars we couldn’t even see from the freeway. If it weren’t for the trail of dust we wouldn’t have known there was even a road there.
It doesn’t take long to get from one place to another in South Dakota. The speed limit on the freeway is 75 and the side roads are 65. The roads are good though and traffic is light.
We were amazed to see how flat western South Dakota is. You can see for miles and miles and miles. And it’s pretty much nothing but fields and pastures. And when I said the fields in Iowa were huge, the fields in South Dakota made them seem tiny. South Dakota is so big and green and grassy and untamed. It made me feel like a tiny speck in the middle of it. I thought about how long it was taking us to get this far on motorcycles .. and how hard it must have been for settlers traveling out here. I thought about herds of buffalo and Indian tribes and wondered if this was what it looked like even back then.
After traveling for miles of flat land we came to Chamberlain, SD. We went around a curve and suddenly there in front of us was the most amazing sight.
After Chamberlain the terrain was more huge rolling green pastures. It was just mesmerizing. We passed by ranches that were just huge. One had a sign that said it was established in 1880. Again, I need to take this trip again either riding on the back of Mark’s bike or in a car so I can takes pictures .. LOTS of pictures!
The rolling pastures went on for quite a way. And then suddenly we were back to flat land again.
As we rode though this beautiful pasture land, enjoying the peaceful serenity of it all, I glanced back at the road and realized something was flying through the air at me .. I couldn’t even tell what it was. The biggest part flew past me, but a big puff of something fluffy went all over my face and stuck to the chapstick on my lips. I thought at first it was straw. I pulled up alongside Mark and asked him if he’d hit something. He said he’d hit a pheasant! Ewwww ! Those were feathers stuck on my lip! Luckily it didn’t do any damage to Mark’s bike that we can see. It hit right on the lower wind deflector of his bike and his right front fork. It’s going to be a mess to clean up. There’s blood and feathers splattered everywhere. Time to find a car wash.
Earlier in the day I hit a chipmunk. The poor little guy. He just wasn’t fast enough. I hit him not long after I was thinking how there weren’t many road kill animals on the roads.
And there is some kind of weird bugs here .. I think they’re little flies or gnats. Everytime we stop to take pictures or stop at a red light in town they swarm us. And they’re splatted all over the front of our bikes and the cars we see along the way. And they bite too. Hopefully it’s just a South Dakota thing and we’ll leave them behind soon.
We had a great dinner tonight in a little restaurant bar about 2 blocks from our hotel here in Murdo. As we walked back it was dark and off in the distance we could see a beautiful lightning show from a thunderstorm we’d watched forming off in the distance all afternoon. It looked like what we see on the Weather Channel all the time.
So it was another amazing day of sights and experiences. The people we’ve met along the way are all so nice. We’ve had great meals everyplace we’ve eaten. We’re having a blast!