Day 3 – We made it to Sioux City, Iowa last night. Before we headed out of town, we shopped at Walmart to stock up on supplies and stopped by a bike shop, Albrecht’s Bicycle Shop. It is 105 years old. It was a Schwinn dealer back in the day and still had Schwinn signs. The place was huge. They had a basement with new and used bikes and parts. On the main floor, they had a large inventory of bikes and all things bike-related, plus an area with coffee and beer for group rides. I took lots of pictures. Non-cycling friends can skip past them.
Next stop was Sioux Falls, SD. They have a park called Falls Park that highlights a section of breathtaking falls on the Big Sioux River. We stopped and strolled through that area. We didn’t ride there, but it is part of 36 miles of paved greenway that would be fun to explore. Another classy town!
The interstate speed limit in SD is 80 mph. I love it! There is so much to see and do, but only so much time, so we’re trying to balance the “driving to” with the actual “seeing and doing”. But we are even enjoying the interstate. We cannot stop and photograph every interesting, beautiful thing we see. We have seen so many old farmhouses, old barns, unusual trees, windmills, ponds, lakes, and one very old rusted Pacific locomotive that had been put out to pasture decades ago.
We could not pass Mitchell, SD, though. We had to stop and see the world’s only corn palace. It is definitely CORN-y and a-MAIZE-ing. The place smells like popcorn. We purchased two caramel corn cobbs to try later. It’s a fascinating historical place. They have a book for you to sign, and the farthest place someone listed on the page we signed was Switzerland!
SD has very nice rest areas. We stopped at one overlooking the Missouri River. It was a place where Lewis and Clark had camped. It had an enormous Native American statue and a stunning view (trying to use verbs other than beautiful, lol). As soon as we crossed the river, we started seeing a few random small black hills.
We made it to Kadoka, SD, and are staying at Grandpa Joe’s Place, an old motel run by a nice couple. It is very old-fashioned, in an X-Files sort of way, but quite lovely and possibly the cleanest place I have ever stayed. There is one restaurant in town. Just after we were seated, crowds of people, with funny tan lines, a certain physique, and some of the men had shaved legs, bombarded the place. We knew they were serious cyclists and wanted to learn more. They were a Trek Travel group cycling from Portland, OR to Portland, ME. I would love to be back in good enough shape to do that. It was once a realistic dream. Oh! And the weird picture at the end is of a place called Firehenge, near where we are staying.
Another great day behind us. Tomorrow we will reach the Badlands.
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