Saturday, July 7, 2012

Day 54: Epic Long Haul to Murdo

TREV:
Waking up at the Budget Host Inn was great, especially when we headed into the cafe for the $6 breakfast meal which included sausage, bottomless coffee, and endless sourdough pancakes made from a starter brought in on a covered wagon over 116 years ago. The food was good and I packed away 8 of those pancakes, 3 short of getting my breakfast for free.

We left and climbed back up through the picturesque pinnacles and multicolored ridges of the Badlands, which were especially beautiful in the low morning sun. Once on top we pulled out the jorts and our American flag bandanas for a couple vista pics and hit the road, making a quick stop at a prairie dog feeding tourist trap. Perhaps these people didn't see the sign at the other entrance, warning of PLAGUE! but we kept our distance.

After a bit we stopped in Kadoka for a bite and ran across a fellow tourer. He was smoking a cigarette, no helmet, with heavily leathered skin, obviously not down with the sunscreen movement. We chatted with him a bit about the road and stopped at the local cafe for some much needed fresh food in the form of soup and salad. We got back on the road and headed for Belvidere.

Google Maps had showed a couple gas stations so we were hoping for some Gatorade, but when we got there one was shut down and the other closed. There was a bar offering free camping in the back but after the three people inside gave us odd looks we decided to settle down at the abandoned station for a break and food. We sat there a bit, writing and listening to music, when who should appear but our fellow, grizzled tourer! This time we talked to Fred at length, finding out that he's been touring off and on for 4 years, this time leaving who knows where in Feb. He discussed the frustrations of the road like getting hit by RV step ladders that are left open, the desert water in CA coming out of the ground at 110°, and all the people he'd met along the way: The Fluffy Girls, Lawnmower Man, Gary Fisher Bike Guy, and The German ahead of us. When we vented about the biting horse flies that are amazingly frustrating, he recommended eating sulfur to create a body odor that repels them. "Where can you get powdered sulfur these days?" "Oh it's hard to find so instead you can eat match heads, just a few will do." he replied as he rolled his American Spirit cigarette. As we sat there enjoying the entertainment we saw car after car pull up to the pump only to see the place was closed down and drive off. One car stopped across the street and seemed to be in need of help since the driver started running down the street into what should have been a downtown area. Sitting there at an abandoned gas station in the middle of South Dakota, with Fred rambling about solar panels, watching a Middle Eastern man run down the street of a town that has less than 50 people, we were pretty sure this is as good as it gets.

We finally refilled water bottles at the bar and started riding to Murdo. This is the point at which we had to buckle down a bit since we still had 20 miles to go and time was ticking towards sunset. We pushed into dusk, watching the sun set just outside of Murdo, and finally made it to the appropriately-named-for-the-day American campground where we got a small cabin for a couple bucks more than a tent site. We rushed over to the diner for dinner, pie a la mode, and a couple Budweisers to celebrate the country's birthday. We got to see a few scattered fireworks and celebrated our 75 mile day which included Steph topping 300 miles and myself 3000.

STEPH:
After a great night's sleep we woke up refreshed and ready for a cooler day of riding (93 degrees was the forecasted high). My leg and arm rash was looking better and we had a plan to go either 43 miles to Belvidere, which had a campground, or as a stretch to Murdo, about 60 miles out (we thought).

At breakfast we ran into a few other tourers, one we had spotted yesterday at a campsite and two others. The guy flying solo had scraggly hair and beard, a bright orange lopsided trucker's hat, and a vacant look in his eyes. Fortunately the road hasn't taken the same toll on Trev as he is still able to carry on a conversation without coming across as a serial killer. The other two guys were keeping a quick pace - they had gone from Rapid City to Interior in just one day, whereas we had taken two but we weren't sure if they were actually carrying much weight and they clearly weren't having as much fun as Trev and me.

With music pumping we climbed out of the Badlands and were treated to more incredible views and terrain. Before long we hit old highway 248 which was light on traffic so Trev and I were able to ride side by side for miles and miles, chatting and listening to the Allman Brothers, Bob Seger, and The Band. In some stretches we were bombarded by hundreds of leaping grasshoppers. It was hard not to get the willy-nillies as we heard them plink-plunk in our spokes and felt their hard and spikey bodies ricochet off ours.

Our conversations with Fred were hilarious, what a character! At one point he pulled up his pant leg to show us how his knee pops in and out of the joint and I only saw one tooth in his mouth, though Trev thinks he spotted two or three. He described to us some "lobster claw" mushrooms which, grilled up, taste just like lobster. Something tells me these aren't the only mushrooms Fred has indulged in recently. In the end, we decided he was a pretty good guy. A bit rough around the edges, but deep down he is just a man who loves being on the road, talking to people, and enjoying the land.

Our mileage estimates from the night before turned out to be wrong and it was actually over 70 miles to Murdo. At around mile 55 I was really feeling tired and during a water and snack break, Trev called the campsite to make sure it still had sites available. They did, and Trev said we'd be there within two hours, before 9:00. The woman on the other line mentioned that it actually was already past 8:00 - we had crossed into Central Time without realizing it! With nothing but rolling hills ahead of us, it was time to buckle down and finish out the day. As we approached town, we got to watch a fantastic sunset unfold and a few scattered fireworks sparkled above the trees and rooftops.

Our bellies were screaming, so we hightailed it to the local diner after dropping off our bags in our primitive cabin. Our waitresses were from Moldova and Romania; the Moldovian had been there for two years but the Romanian was on her third day. Once again, I was stunned that an exchange program would send a kid to such a remote area, but I guess that Murdo, SD is just as much the USA as is my hometown of Sebastopol. During dinner I contemplated the state of my legs and arms. The rash had gotten a lot worse although I had been applying sunscreen frequently. My quads were red and swollen, the skin taught and whitish in some places. It did not look good (or feel good) so we decided it would be a good idea to swing by the gas station after dinner to pick up some aloe.

When I originally mapped out a route for this trip, I only had us going about 288 miles total (not going to Crazy Horse or Rapid City) so the fact that our 75-mile day today pushed me over 300 miles total with two full days ahead is pretty awesome. What am I going to do when I'm back at work and not able to exercise for 6-9 hours a day? I think I need to start tapering the quantity of food I'm consuming so that I don't feel unsatisfied after just 4 pancakes in the morning!





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