what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger

Or so I've heard. Today I decided to put the theory to the test.

We ate a breakfast at H & H of delicious biscuits, scrambled eggs, cantaloupe, coffee, orange juice before setting off on another long day (97 miles between Kadoka, South Dakota and Pierre, South Dakota). The day began like yesterday ended -- with large rolling hills as we travelled along the I-90 access road. It was not my ideal way to start the day (especially given my previously described inability to handle mornings well), but I figured they couldn't last forever... right?

I was not loving life by the first checkpoint at mile 20, and I decided that a second cup of coffee could be useful in helping me to enter the land of the living. When I got back on my bicycle, the rolling hills continued. And then the wind picked up and blasted straight against us, so it became much harder riding. And then the batteries died for my speakers that I use to play books on tape, so I had nothing to distract me from the rough riding.

By the checkpoint at mile 60, I was having to ask Rich for my second pep talk of the trip. It was not a good sign that I was already discouraged, and still had 37 miles to go. Less than a half a mile after the checkpoint, I had my fourth flat tire of the trip. And then it started raining. Dick and Noel, the oldest riders (and the only ones behind me at this point), rode up and helped me change the tire. We crawled against the wind to the next checkpoint at mile 80. This actually went quicker than I thought as I played mind games with myself by not looking at the mileage on my bicycle computer, so by the time we saw Rich at mile 80, I thought we were only at mile 70 or so. However, I then got into my mind that we were a lot speedier than I thought, so miles 80 to 96 took forever. I did manage to smile though as we passed the Varmint Hunter's Association (which I can only imagine is a shooting range?) on the outskirts of town.

We crossed the Missouri River as we rode through Pierre, which is actually more like the Missouri Lake it was so flooded. I'd never seen a river so high -- it covered stores, homes, gardens, and trees on either side of the river. Sandbags were stacked everywhere to prevent its waters from spreading even further. Residents wore shirts that read "The Missouri Flood 2011 -- Together we can stand". We had to spend the night in the middle school as the campsite we planned to use was four feet under water!

One high point for the day was that we crossed into the Central time zone -- just one more to go! :o)

I've tried, in general, to watch what I eat on the trip. I know you'd imagine that it would be impossible to gain weight when you bicycle all the time, but we eat an awful lot and several riders have said that they've gained weight. Seeing how that's not exactly a goal of mine for the trip, I try to not get too carried away. However, fighting the winds all day today made me absolutely ravenous. For dinner, I ate a whole meal-sized cobb salad plus a bowl of broccoli cheese soup plus an oreo sundae, and I felt like I was just getting warmed up. Everyone else seemed to feel the same way, so we also shared an order of pancakes. After that, I reluctantly dragged myself away from the table. I hope this doesn't become a trend!