Another day in paradise! The sun shone, the wind blew from behind us, and a variety of low key, but very beautiful, Wisconsin scenery rolled past our bikes. It has begun to feel very much like that. That Tim and I, pedalling our bikes, are the static centre of everything, and that America itself is slowing moving past us. Perhaps that’s why I’m feeling so calm and peaceful. 

Anyway – here’s a picture of Alma, on the Mississippi, next to Lock 4 (a gigantic boat lock next to a hydro weir. I’d have been impressed if Helen and I hadn’t ridden over so many of them on the Danube). 

 
There was no breakfast to be had in Alma, so last night we stocked up with a giant, sticky cinnamon bun each. So fueled, we set off up the side valley of the Buffalo river. The early morning calm was stunning: dew on the grass, deer emerging from the woods, buzzards overhead. The valley had steep wooded sides, but the valley floor was flat and about half a mile wide. The river was totally unmanaged and wandered freely about the natural floodplain. There was willow and alder, and lakes with bullrushes and wildfowl – all in the mellow early morning light. And hardly a car to break the spell. A lovely 25 miles of cycling before a huge pancake breakfast in Mondovi. 

After breakfast the land became more agricultural, but with areas of natural deciduous woodland. Logging trucks reappeared on the road, for the first time since the Black Hills, but this time carrying hardwood logs. At one point we came upon a war vets memorial field with a Cobra attack helicopter stuck, rather incongruously, on a pole.

  
I had a second huge meal at lunchtime in Neillsville. Here a lovely gentleman called John wanted to know all about the trip. He made a donation to Yorkshire Cancer Research and, as we got up to pay, we found he hsd settled our bill as well. Thanks John – we’ll remember your kindness. 

After lunch the scenery changed again. Now we were crossing an area of giant glacial moraines – arable land with cattle in vast sheds – and the road constantly rolled up and down. Wisconsin is, in a quietly understated way, really very pretty indeed. 

Now we are in a very nice hotel just outside Marshfield. 105 miles today in 5 and a half hours. Our 7th consecutive day over 100 miles. I love a good tailwind! 

Early Sunday morning in Minneapolis was very quiet. We found a classic cheap diner as an alternative to the  expensive hotel breakfast, and then we were off again. But, what with red lights, bike tracks with diversions, joggers, walkers, and really intricate navigation – this was not the blast along a straight road that we have become so accustomed to – and it took ages.

The first highlight was crossing the Mississippi, above a weir and some locks.

    
 
 
This section of biketrack followed a green ‘parkway’ above the river and was crowded with Sunday morning athletes. Heading down river we soon reached the twin city of St Pauls.

    
Here we saw a proper Mississippi paddle steamer.

    
We tried to save time by riding the main road, but came unstuck when it turned into an Interstate. We ended up carrying the bikes across a field to get back to legality! 

The best section came in the afternoon, when we reached Lake Pepin. Here the broad river winds between wooded bluffs about 200 feet high – very like bits of the Danube that Helen and I rode. Unfortunately, the lake takes all the valley floor and the road was a rollercoaster on the side. Over 3500 ft of climbing today.

  
The rail line comes through here too – so we are back to the hooting of gigantic trains. I loved the lifting rail bridge across a side river, the St Croix, at Prescott. Crossing this river at lunchtime brought us into Wisconsin, our next state.

  
But its the motorbikes that are the noisiest. This scenic river road is plagued with them. Lets hope they don’t follow us tomorrow when we leave the river.

Just had a lovely sunset on this beautiful stretch of river, outside our motel.

This really is a great city. In many ways it feels quite European. There is a pedestrianised centre, bikes and bike lanes everywhere, and there are slim, beautiful people of all ages and ethnicities. Gone are the exclusively white, wobbling human mountains of the mid west. 

The bike shop, One to One, was fabulous – really helpful – and sorted us out with a service, new tyre and spares, and diagnosed and fixed the bad noise on Tim’s bike. So the bikes are good to go again. I particularly enjoyed the way the bike frames were displayed in the shop. You have to careful riding past those wild animals.   

So then we continued refueling our legs – an expensive business in this city  – and now I fancy an afternoon nap …. 

Followed by steak and ale pie and an actual real pint in the Brit pub. Its enough to make you feel homesick. 

Another fabulous day’s cycling – thoroughly enjoyable throughout. The weather has been absolutely perfect for the past few days – 60F soon after dawn and mid 80s by mid afternoon and not a cloud in the sky. And yet more westerly tailwind, today running at about 15mph this afternoon. Yippee!

So the 150 miles, or three hours by car, (as explained to us in horror by last nights landlady), took just over 8 hours by bike – at nearly 18mph. And we were still feeling good enough to race the local hard men on the cycle track coming into town!
Place names have been fun for several days. The geography of western europe seems to have been torn up and scattered randomly across the entire area. Tim has always wanted to see Vienna, and I want to see Naples, so when we saw them both signposted down a turning to the right … well! But we were deterred by the fact that, as with all the side roads, it was gravel. And they were probably 200 miles down the road! One day perhaps. Actually, todays maize fields and dutch barns could easily have been in northern  europe. 

Another feature is the way that many roads are ‘sponsored’, 2 miles at a time, by local firms, community groups, churches, or even families, for litter picking duties. They get their names on a board. So imagine my delight when, in a well heeled suburb of Minnesota (called Minnetonka, by the way), a section of road was sponsored by the Explosive Suicide Punk Rock Band! Punk Rock ain’t what it used to be! 

The first 85 miles this morning were a continuation of yesterdays dead straight road riding across not quite flat arable land. This morning we were entertained by ariel crop spraying by very acrobatic pilots.

After yet more chicken salad for lunch, this time in Hutchinson, we left the main road as the Minnesota-bound traffic levels began to increase. First some quiet back roads past lovely lakes. 

  
Then 30 miles of a beautifully surfaced, brand new cycle track following an old rail line. This weaved its way through between what felt like most of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. Many had swimming areas, or marinas, or just posh houses beside the water. This was where we caught up with a huge guy travelling fast on a road bike. He didn’t like being overtaken and accelerated and drafted behind us. But, on reading the shirts, he wanted to chat. Then he offered to work for us, so we stuck him on the front and encouraged him to show us what he could do! As I said, he was huge, and we got about 5 miles of a fantastic tow! Thanks Luke! 

Our final stop was at Wayzata, a posh commuter town beside another lovely lake. The area reminded me of the lakes around Berlin. There was a row of cafes fronting onto the lake, where we had our most expensive Coca Cola yet!

And then the final few miles, down another bike track. Seeing skyscrapers in the distance was amazing since its so long since Seattle!  

 
We are checked into a posh hotel – we’ve eaten the usual huge steak and washed it down with plenty of celebratory beer. We have covered 620 miles across the prairie in 5 days riding. Tomorrow is definitely a rest day.

This was a really nice day’s cycling, through slightly rolling countryside dotted with small lakes, trees and farmsteads. The good news is that the wind is still in the west, but it didn’t get up at all until after lunch, and even then it was just a gentle breeze. So we actually had to pedal all the way! But I really enjoyed it, having reached a state of deep contentment with the rhythm of cycling these long distances. I am still loving my new bike, the excellent fit, and the way it just floats along eating up the miles. 

In Clark (pop. 311) there were a series of metal sculpted art works, including a giant bike. It looked rather less comfortable than mine. 

 And, in a nearby field, some old cars were artistically parked.
   
At lunchtime we rolled into Watertown – the biggest town around here – and stopped at the first cafe. And we had stepped back in time into one of those grand Harrogate tea rooms. There was oak panelling, there were padded chairs and linen tablecloths, and the entire place was full of well dressed women who lunch. What a contrast with our usual redneck gas stations! Once they had recovered from the shock of our entry, and everyone had heard about the trip, they were very friendly and served an excellent chicken salad. We also bought 2 home made raisin cookies for later. They were so big that they would have been useful as a replacement had we broken a wheel. When I eventually ate mine, with 20 miles to go, the huge sugar rush blew me and the bike at speed all the way to the end! 

Here is not a very good picture of one of the small lakes. They are teeming with wildfowl – including pelican, much to my delight. 

   
So here we are in the tiny town of Dawson, in Minnesota, our next state. The raisin cookie marked the border. 126 fairly easy miles today, completed in under 7 hours. Tomorrow we ride 148 miles to Minneapolis. ‘But that takes 3 hours in the car’ said the motel owner. And then ‘Good luck with that guys!’ 

This was Groundhog day. Exactly the same W wind as yesterday, the same mileage, the same amount of northerly tacking against the crosswind, and exactly the same time overall, to within a minute. But this time we ran the first 100 miles out in 4:52 – a new record. 

Today there was less grassland, fewer cows and much more arable. The gas stations are slightly more frequent. At one point our hearts sank at the notice ‘roadworks for 35 miles’. Usually this means gravel or wet tar – both pretty disastrous. But luck was with us. They had just finished the main roadway and were messing about with the verges. The new tarmac was smooth as a billiard table and had almost no rolling resistance. The thoroughbred Bianchis reacted like greyhounds. We cruised at 30mph, on the flat with the tailwind. We had run out of gears and were speed-limited to 30. Another couple of gears and we could have done 35! 

The traffic was being convoyed through, and we overtook the convoy vehicle and sped off! At the end of the 35 mile section, at a gas station, one of the lorry drivers from the convoy bought us ice cream – he was so impressed with our efforts. He wanted to sing the praises of S Dakota, in all its variety. And he’s right. It is varied – and very good! 

Late in the ride we passed some beautiful lakes – I think the first of many between here and Minneapolis.     These were lined with some nice looking holiday homes. Apparently these ‘kettle lakes’ were formed at the end of the last ice age, by huge iceburg-like chunks of glacier ice becoming stranded in the draining meltwater, settling deep down into the soft glacial silt, and then melting. 

But the best news of the day is that we have now passed the zip on our cycling shirts! 

Just had another huge steak for dinner. I don’t normally eat them, but these seem almost like a different product from at home, succulent and delicious.  And they pack some much needed protein to go with all the calories. The restaurant was a very friendly family run place in a converted bank. The salad bar was in the vault! And the home made apricot pie and ice cream was fantastic too.

After catching the edge of a very violent storm last night, we woke this morning to blue skies and the welcome sight of the star spangled banner on the flagpole outside the motel pointing due east. Hallelujah! A return to the prevailing W wind direction. 

With nothing much to detain us, except a couple of gas stations, we knocked out the 117 miles in under 6 hours at an average of 20mph. It would have been faster but for the fact that, on the prairie you can only have 2 directions of road, NS or EW. It must be in the constitution or something. Anyway, the 22 miles heading north took us an hour and a half, battling a 30mph cross wind. Here is a classic shot of a vanishing point on these dead straight roads.

  
The main event of the day was a T junction at the end of the northerly leg – the only junction all day. So we stopped for a photo.

 
After some debate we decided to turn right. 

We reached Pierre and crossed the now very wide Missouri at 2.30, only to find that it was actually 3.30 because we have reached Central Time, our 3rd time zone. It seems ages ago that we crossed the infant Missouri south of Helena.

 
People in the mid west are very friendly. Most are ranching types, busy with a very early harvest. Most of the talk is about the motor bike rally in Sturgis next weekend. This is the 75th, and they reckon anything from half a million to a million bikes will be there. Sturgis is on the I90 about 150 miles west of here – so thank goodness we weren’t doing this a week later. Hawes has nothing to complain about! The last few days has already seen a steady tide of bikes heading west. Locals like the trade, but hate some of the behaviour. Though I have to say that all the bikers we have seen so far have been careful and considerate road users – it seems a very different bike culture from home. 

A red hot and hard day, battling the prairie wind.

Leaving Rapid City we were soon into grassland, though the grazing animals were a little unexpected. (And unexplained!)

  
The wind gradually got stronger as the heat rose, and soon it was pushing 100F and we were straight into a 25mph S Easterly. The 75 miles of it took us 5 hours, which wasn’t at all bad in the circumstances. 

The hamlet of Scenic offered a gas station, and some light relief. The wooden shacks were almost falling down.

   
 At a second gas station, at Interior after 75 miles, some people were eating a meal. Me: Can we see a menu? Saleswoman: It’s goulash. Me: Tell you what, we’ll have 2 goulashes. 

Then the piece de resistance as we entered the Badlands National Park. Luckily, at this point our direction of travel changed dramatically and the wind came round behind us, because the road through the Badlands was furnace hot and involved about 1200 feet of fairly steep climbing. But the rock formations were spectacular, with incredible coloured layers, pink, yellow, purple and gray. All from the bottom of the shallow sea that once covered the interior of the USA. A pair of beautiful golden eagles were cruising up and down the scarp, on the uplift, often close above our heads. It was well worth the detour and all the effort.

Now we are in a very poor motel in Wall, with aircon that can’t keep up. Not sure where our evening meal is coming from. Stop press – a fantastic 8oz steak in the only restaurant in town. And a hot night ahead. Actually the biggest, windiest thinderstorm of the trip so far has just started up. The joys of long distance cycling!

By the way, just to give some idea of our calorie requirements, here is yesterday’s (day off) food diary. Breakfast: 2 yoghurts, large bowl of diced fresh fruit, large bowl of porridge with sugar and raisins and milk, scrambled egg, bacon, 2 slices of french toast with lashings of maple syrup, loads of fruit juice and coffee. Lunch: big plate of fish and chips with a mountain of coleslaw, and beer! Dinner: green salad, large plate of pasta with sliced chicken in a rich sauce, creme caramel, beer. Between meals: about half a kilo of grapes and 2 oranges. For me, that’s huge, but I was hungry all day! 

Rapid City is a medium sized town with a lot going on. A good place for a day off. The town has cashed on on being the gateway to Mt Rushmore by commissioning a life sized bronze sculpture of each of the US presidents. They are on each of the street corners throughout the town. 

   
There was also an alley with the most fantastic street art. I haven’t seen anything quite like it since Berlin.

    
But the highlight is, without doubt, the Firehouse Brewery and restaurant. We have eaten there twice already – excellent IPA. The building is a great conversion – complete with loads of old fire stuff and a slippery pole! 

In the afternoon we did a tour – but it turned out to be mostly a tour of the brand new wine making and bottling plant attached to the brewery. It must be making some money!

This was a second relaxed day cycling across the Black Hills. This is a truly lovely area. I would very much like to come back and do some of the hiking trails. 

Hill City is another old gold rush town from the 1880s. It was described as ‘a church at each end and a mile of hell in between’! The churches are still there, but we found the mile in the middle to be full of tourist shops and some nice bars and cafes. The chain saw art was very good.

   
   
This morning we took the road to Mount Rushmore. This had some very steep ups and downs, past Horse Thief Lake. 

   
We soon began to see huge granite outcrops towering over the trees. The area is a bit like Brimham Rocks – but a million times bigger! The road winds through the beautiful forest, up and down in between the outcrops. 

We stopped to watch rock climbers on enormously long and exposed, bolted routes up the granite. The blip on the top of the second photo is a climber reaching the summit.

     
A short distance further on and we realised that the climbing area was, in fact, the back of the granite outcrop of Mount Rushmore itself! We obtained the iconic photos, and some coffee, but quite honestly there was little information and not much to do other than gawp at the very familiar view. The climbers round the back were much more interesting. Just imagine the disappointment if we’d cycled half way across America to see it!

    
   
I managed to find a lovely sequence of back roads leading to Rapid City. More low alpine scenery with alp-like meadows and woods. We had a final, distant view of the presidential heads – centre of the photo below the slyline.

   
Skyline Drive, on the edge of Rapid City, followed a ridge with great views of the town. This was really only half a day’s cycling so, with a rest day tomorrow, we should be in good shape for the longer, flatter days ahead. 20 days and 1784 miles done, 20 days and 2216 miles to go.