Probably there were more good target cities for today but Sheldon could remind us about Sheldon Cooper from The Bing Bang Theory. There are no connections whatsoever, but that is not necessary for a fan.
But let us not forget Parkston just yet. After yesterday’s post we took the bicycles around the town. Some of the towns we have seen in South Dakota have looked worn out and as if they were built in the 1960’ies or 70’ies and not maintained since, but Parkston was very manicured and orderly to look at. All churches, it looked, were represented and then we found a nice café in which to have our dinner. Schuvers Café had just changed its owner to a lovely couple who had overtaken recipes and goodwill and preserved the chicken dense carte. But why change a winning recipe? The chicken was fabolous, very moist and delicious. I doubt that many of this blog’s readers will be driving on route 44 in South Dakota any time soon, but if you do, you should leave the road in Parkston and go 3-4 blocks north to the Main Street and find Schuvers Café (non-sponsored recommendation).
Energy Preservation and Sustainability
Despite the current government’s lack of focus on sustainable energy sources, it cannot stop good initiatives around the country. In the news we saw that the city of Minneapolis is going to ban, at least new, drive through fast food outlets. There was a calculation that if 50 million (not only in the US) cars and trucks drive through every day and have their engines running for 3 minutes per order then it equates 1,750,000 gallons of gasoline per day. So times are a’changin – at least in Minneapolis. In Sheldon people do not see ready for initiatives of this kind. But somewhere near Sheldon people do seem ready to put up windwills. Three big blades came through town before sunset.
Today’s ride
The lady at Schuvers Café promised us a virtually flat landscape and our total ascent was about 758 meters, so she was right but unlike most of the previous days we had a sidewind, so 121 miles was an acceptable which kept us between 7 and 8 hours in our saddles. And finally got out of South Dakota and into Iowa. South Dakota has been good and we were not desperate to leave but the sign of progress of crossing a state border feels good. The photo does not do Iowa justice. It was our first sign of crossing the border at Sioux River. Later, however, there was a proper “Welcome” sign but having been just off the bicycles to take the photo below we did not bother to get off again.
We had our lunch in Red Barn in Lennox. Here we sat next to a family of which the parents were teachers and their son was in fourth grade. They seemed genuinely interested in the long talk about what we have experienced until now (they might just have been polite like all other folks we have met in South Dakota) and they got the blog address, so they can follow us to New York, which I hope they will do. Theywere marking the final day of their summer vacation as school starts tomorrow. So from now on we will probably meet a lot of yellow school buses.
The centre of the world (for us) right now
popscycletour.com 