Bicycling the Lewis & Clark Trail
East Whitlock to Pierre, SD
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Distance Cycled: 56 miles
Average Speed: 15.5 mph
We decided that Scott would do the writing today because most of the story is his to tell. So, here's what happened:
| 6:00am | The alarm went off and the shower turned on. |
| 6:30am | Our SW wind shifted to the NW at 20-30 mph. |
| 7:00am | After a continental breakfast of cereal and doughnuts, we hit the road. |
| 7:05am | We rode to the gas station and Jim noticed Scott's rear tire getting soft. |
| 7:31am | After about 5 miles, Scott's rear tire was flat. Jim and Scott changed the tire while Mary Kay and Barb held onto the other bicycles in the wind. |
| 8:39am | We have now traveled about 9.5 miles with a really strong tail wind. We rode down Hwy 1804 at 20-28mph. We made great time until we noticed Scott had another flat on his rear tire. |
| 9:39am | We were pretty excited, as we pedaled 13 miles without Scott getting a flat tire. However, the excitement was short lived as Scott's rear tire went flat again. As Jim and Scott changed the tire, again, they discovered the rim tape on the inside of the wheel was off and the spoke holes were cutting the tube. |
| 10:10am | As Hwy 1804 turned west, we experienced some very strong cross winds. As we fought the cross winds, Scott's rear tire went flat again, So, Mary Kay and Barb held the bikes in the wind and Jim and Scott changed the tire again. |
| 11:23am | By this time, we rode about 31 miles. Can you guess what happened? Yes, that is right-Scott's rear tire went flat again. He parked on the side of the road, in front of a farmhouse. But, there was no hiding from the wind. Scott took the tire to the farmhouse and he was permitted to submerge the tire in the wading pool to find the hole. Scott and Jim patched the tire again and we were on our way. |
| 12:05pm | We arrived at our turn and were very hungry, so we had a lunch of peanut butter, bagels and bananas, which we were carrying with us. |
| 12:30pm | You will never believe what happened next. Scott's rear tire went flat, again. Upon close inspection, it was deduced that he ran over something sharp in the road. So, once again, the trailer was unhooked, the rear tire was removed, patched and put back on the bike. Jim gave Scott one of his tubes because it seemed like Scott's patches weren't holding. So, Jim's tire now has 7 patches on it. |
| 1:05pm | On our way to Pierre, we stopped at the Oahe Dam. It was a big reservoir and power plant. We didn't take a tour because we would have had to ride our bikes down and then back up a really big hill, which didn't sound like fun to us. But we did have a good view of the Missouri River. |
| 1:30pm | We had hotel reservations at the Days Inn in Pierre. We arrived and checked in and walked around the outside of the building to avoid having to negotiate stairs. We walked Barb's bike through the hall to the room and were surprised at the strong smell of stale cigarettes. The room smelled even worse and was small and poorly furnished, so an executive decision was made to check out and walk down to the Comfort Inn, which was advertised as a smoke free facility. |
| 1:45pm | Jim decided he needed to replace his brakes, due to lots of use. This simple task became a major problem. The cover holding the brake got stripped and we couldn't get it to go back together. He ended up calling the factory that manufactured the bike for new brakes to be sent to us in Wagner, SD. |
| 5:00pm | We showered and went to a Mexican restaurant for a great dinner. |
| 8:00pm | In summary, we learned that George and Jane had 3 flat tires today, with the first two changed before they left the motel. So, we totaled 9 flat tires for the day. This is a new flat tire record. We didn't have the worst day, as we still had the terrific tail wind and sunshine all day. Scott and Jim changed so many tires that they definitely had a father in law and son in law bonding experience. |
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