Diary

Mileage:  0

Elevation Change:  0

Weather:  sunny and hot, hot, hot!

Morale:  GREAT!

Incidents: Spent a great day at the water park..

Daily Summary:

Ride stats so far:

Total distance:  2120.44  (3435 kms)

Total climbing:  69,394 feet  (21,151 meters)

Total days:  28

 

We had a wonderful rest day here in Sioux Fall (population 125,000—our biggest city yet!).  They are in the middle of a big heat wave and the temperature was over 100 again today.  (Normal temps here are in the ‘80s).  In Pierre today it was 117!!  We slept in, then met up with our good friends Dan and Lynn, who are moving from NY to CA so were driving by.  They took us to a funky little diner from their guidebook of great road food.  What a place!  There were only ten seats in the place, all at the counter, and we took five of them.  The pancakes were the size of hubcaps, and the omelets must have weighed a pound each!  We were hungry (as usual) so polishing off these huge and yummy portions were no problem.   Next we headed out to the Adventure Park to celebrate Christopher’s birthday, which is tomorrow.  First we played paintball, which, though it isn’t the smartest thing to do in the 100 degree heat, was a lot of fun nonetheless.  We jumped in the pools and went down the waterslides to cool down.  We played mini-golf, drove go-carts, hit baseballs in the batting cages, and played with the bumper boats.  A very fun day in Sioux Falls.  We got back in time to change clothes and go to mass, where we had to pray for rain—big church, very full.  Tomorrow we’re on the road again headed for Minnesota. 

 

In the pix below you see Lynn, Ray, and Chris in Bob’s Diner.  Then the three of us after our paintball session.   Finally, Christopher in the batting cage.