Day 21: Lusk, Wyoming to Hot Springs, South Dakota

July 11, 2004
Miles: 92

Another state and I'm now over 1500 total miles. Again, tailwinds were predicted but didn't materialize. I left near to last as usual. After a few miles, Andrew caught up to me and we decided to take advantage of the morning coolness to put away as many miles as possible. We roared up to the first SAG at 35 miles, averaging 21 mph. The only photo we stopped for was this one:

After the SAG, we vowed to slow down a bit but I don't think we did as we caught up with the "fast" group at the South Dakota sign. Mike snapped this shot of the two of us:

Our welcome to South Dakota was this innovative road design where the rumble strip takes up most of the shoulder area to the right of the white line:

There wasn't that much traffic and we were able to ride in the small gap just to the right of the white line but there is definitely room for improvement in this design.

I was expecting to see more railroad activity on the trip but so far we've seen only a few trains. Here's a very long coal train seen from an overpass. The cars stretch further than the eye can see in both directions. I'm glad this stuff is heading east and not to California.

My room was ready when we got to Hot Springs but Andrew's was not. We rode across the street to the Dairy Queen for milkshakes. Then I took a bike tour of downtown. There are a lot of well-kept old buildings constructed of red stone blocks, including a grand hotel that now is used for senior housing.

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