Tour de Kota: Day 1 - Sioux Falls to Mitchell

After surviving my nephew's wedding and a trip to Monk's House of Ale Repute with Snakebite, Hellimat and his girlfriend on Saturday night, we drove out to the starting point of the ride. The sky was filled with lightening and we barely got the van situated for sleeping arrangements when the sky started to let loose. As we cozied up in the van we were thankful that we were in a "leak proof tent" that we didn't have to take down in the morning. It rained about three times on and off during the night and the morning was cool and humid, but it ended up being a nice day of riding.

The plan was to rally at the Irish Pub in Montrose with Snakebite and thE kErnEl in the morning. I left solo from Sioux Falls and hammered at a pretty good pace. When you leave a little later, this becomes a sporting event as all the slower riders who got out early become excellent bunnies for you to chase down.

My frustrations mounted when people were riding four abreast, up a steep hill, with cars behind them. I was literally screaming "CAR BACK!!" at the top of my lungs as they merrily went on their way, not moving over. I was so torqued off that as I rode by the one group I said "YOU guys are part of the reason that motorists hate bicyclists". It may have been rude and I'm sure that they took offense, but I had to tell them how I really felt about their lack of caring. Just because you are on a tour does not give you the right to be a complete ass and act like no "laws of the road" apply to you.

Life was much better once that traffic was cleared. I bypassed Hartford dreaming about a cold brew or two at the Irish Pub in Montrose, conveniently owned by my brother and sister in law (for the next month anyway). I caught up with Dave H. and Brent A. (fellow MS Bike Tour riders for Team Road Kill) and decided to hang with them for a bit. Snakebite called me when I was hitting the McCook County line and said he was in Hartford and I said I was nearly to Montrose and would wait there. A couple miles later, Laura called me and said that the Pub was still closed. Apparently the wedding was too much and they couldn't find anybody to open. Bummer. So we ate at the high school where they were raising funds for the pool and headed on our way. The breakfast burrito was way good gals! The hard boiled eggs were good too, but the Coke/boiled egg burp I produced down the road I could have done without.

As we were nearly in Salem, Snakebite called again (oops, forgot to call him back) and stated that the Pub was closed. Yup, knew that, moved on. Told him we were about to Salem and that we were going to roll on and I'd hook up in Mitchell with him. We pulled into Salem's park where they had tons of food. However, after just eating ten miles ago, I wasn't quite ready to eat so I waited for Dave and Brent and then we rolled on.

We stopped at a rest area at Spencer where I met up with an old friend from Jaycees. After short pleasantries we rolled on once again. Dave and Brent stopped near Farmer and I told them I was going to roll on and I turned the last 18 miles into a pretty decent hammerfest.

It was a great day of riding as there was very minimal wind which is so rare in South Dakota. I also got to meet up with a friend that I worked with at USD and his new wife and we went out to eat after Laura and I showered at their place. The eating part deserves, and will receive, its own separate post. Let's just say it was a less than impressive story in the history of good customer service.