the black hills

Today we entered South Dakota and had a gorgeous ride through the Black Hills National Forest and the Custer State Park.



Unfortunately, it seems that a pine beetle epidemic has hit the trees pretty hard.



Today's ride was pretty hilly, but the glorious 15 mile descent out of the Custer State Park made it all worth it.

Today I had my third flat (I always seem to get these when I'm about 10 miles from camp -- right at the bit of the day when you're the most tired!), but I took care of this one by myself, and all went well.

I also had the realization today that it doesn't actually get easy. In my mind, I'd envisioned that the first several weeks would be very difficult as our bodies adapted to the challenge, but then I had envisioned a point at which we'd just get the hang of it and glide the rest of the way across America. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. While I'm sure my body has gotten stronger, each ride is a lot of difficult work. Also, the trip planners count on the fact that we're becoming more fit, and as such, plan longer rides and fewer rest breaks. But I suppose at least we're building character.... right??

We are staying in the South Dakota School of Mines dormitories in Rapid City, South Dakota. I had a talk with a lady who worked at a restaurant near the campus and she told me that the main industries for the area are tourism and agriculture (mainly sweet corn). She said that the legal drinking age used to be 18 in South Dakota but that the federal government threatened to cut South Dakota's highway funding if they didn't raise the age to 21. She said that they were just “country mice” who couldn't get by without the highway funding, so they gave in and the drinking age everywhere in America is now 21. She also invited me back and said "We start serving breakfast at 6, and start serving beer at 7". Well that's very good to know.

The town definitely has a western flair and you'll see stores such as the "Trading Post" and "Frontier Boot Repair".