Selby SD to Pierre SD 2

This will provide an indication of how hard the wind blows in this part of the country. Also note the basketball hoop shadow on the right side.

This was interesting in that what they list is county seats and ghost towns.

Instead of sticking with route 1804 along the Missouri I chose to take route 83 which is a more direct route to Pierre. It was going to be a 90 mile day and I wanted to make sure I finished where I wanted to finish when I wanted to finish.
Route 83 is like route 127 in Ohio except for the berms--there really are none. I tried to stay on the right side of the while line but it took concentration because getting into that gravel is a show stopper--the front tire startes skidding and all hell breaks lose--not a good thing.

What was wonderful yesterday was the courtesy of the drivers on this road. I could not believe it. Probably about 100 times when a vehicle was coming up behind me and there was traffic coming from the other direction the car from behind would slow down and wait for oncoming vehicle before passing me. That is very unusual but seemingly commom place here. I suspect there is some type of state ordinance (like Ohio's seat belt laws) in SD where you have to be nice to Old Fat Guys on recumbents on Sundays--it certainly was refreshing to me.

Also wonderful waas all the waves I got yesterday--probably 95% of all who passed did some kind of wave. -There was the usual 1-2-3-4 finger upraising from the hand on a steering wheel, and also the thumbs up and V signals as well as that thing they do in hawaii with the little finger and the thumb. There were fist pumps and salutes and finger points. What gets me excited is when oncoming motorcycle guys do that thing where they take their hand and put it about knee level with an open palm--dang that makes me feel like a real biker for a few seconds anyway. Many times whole families would open windows and there would be a bunch of arms/hands waving. I am guessing that there is not very good radio reception on Route 83 so these folks needed something to break the monotony. Whatever the cause it was cool.

The corn here is much shorter than home because they plant it later and this year it was too wet for too long to get an early start. What is significant about this is that it is definitely not tall enough to hide and do a #2 when the urge strikes. Sinhce there is very little cover along these roads , sometimes you ahve to get creative when it is time to do your business. More on that later.