Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota

Day 5 - 07/14/2009 - Eau Claire, WI to Sioux Falls, SD

Day 5 - 07/14/2009 - Eau Claire, WI to Sioux Falls, SD

The first part of the day's journey.

The second part of the day's journey.

The alarm went off. I don't remember what time exactly, but it was later than I had originally intended when I first planned this journey. When preparing for the ride the previous week, I wanted to go running two mornings during the trip. I did manage to go for a run in Marquette the morning of the 3rd day. This morning was supposed to be the second day of running, but frankly I was too unmotivated to do it, and too tired to care.

Hours-wise, I had gotten plenty of sleep. It was of pretty good quality as well, as I didn't have to keep re-inflating a mattress. Still, after exhaustion takes its toll it takes more than one day of good sleep to recover.

Looking out the window, it appeared like some wet weather was in my future.

Looks like rain.

I packed up and loaded the bike, then walked over to the motel office to check out the "continental breakfast". This turned out to be a coffee pot and a tray full of small doughnuts. Certainly not enough to sustain a growing boy like myself. I poured a cup of coffee and downed a doughnut just for the sake of it, then revised my plans to hit a McDonalds on the way out of town.

After a quick breakfast at McDonalds, I was off on the day's journey. I wanted to be home that afternoon in time to unpack and clean up before we had to leave for my son's soccer game at 5:15. This wasn't going to be too difficult as long as I didn't dawdle.

About three miles south of Eau Claire, the rain started. That didn't take long. I pulled over and donned my rain gear.

Putting on my rain gear.

The rain let up after just a few minutes, and I was tempted to pull over and remove the rain jacket and pants. The clouds still looked like something was stirring so I decided I'd better leave them on. However, the temp was warming up and my rain gear doesn't breathe too well. I was wearing my jacket underneath it all, and was really becoming uncomfortable. So I finally bit the bullet and pulled over to remove my jacket from under the rain gear top.

Wisconsin scenery.

As I got closer to the Mississippi river valley, the road got more scenic.

Coming into the Mississippi river valley.

There were quite a few of these little bluffs sticking up from the landscape.

Lots of little bluffs like these.

On the edge of Wabasha, MN, I reached the border and crossed into Minnesota.

Welcome to Minnesota.

As I crossed the Mississippi, it was notably larger than when I had last seen it as a small creek in northern Minnesota. It's amazing what a difference a couple hundred miles makes.

The Mississippi, in a grander form than I had seen it two days prior.

In Wabasha, I stopped for a gas and restroom break. The rain started to come down fairly steady, and I was glad I had made the decision to keep my rain gear on.

On the southwest side of Wabasha, I followed highway 60. When I had originally planned the trip, Google maps had routed me north on 61, then over to highway 63. While this was probably a faster moving road than 60, I'm glad I picked this route. Outside of Wabasha it climbs a small mountain, then twists and turns for about 20 miles until it runs into highway 63.

East of Wabasha, MN.

Even in the rain, this 20 mile stretch was the best riding of the whole trip. I did slow down a little bit, as I still haven't gotten over all of the spooks from laying the bike down in the rain on the previous year's trip to Arkansas.

Highway 60 is an awesome road.

Still, I was able to tear through the twisties plenty fast to be enjoyable. There was very little traffic, so I could just enjoy the ride rather than trying to constantly pass other vehicles.

This 20 mile stretch was the best riding of the whole trip, even in the rain.

At the intersection of highway 63, I headed south down to Rochester, MN. I hadn't been in Rochester since I was a very young child. Frankly, none of it looked familiar.

I took highway 14 west out of Rochester, heading to Mankato. The rain had stopped and the wind had picked up quite a bit. Riding across southern Minnesota is always challenging due to the wind issues.

I pulled over and removed my rain gear. This photo sums up how the rest of the trip through Minnesota looked. Not too exciting.

The remainder of the trip home looked like this.

By the time I stopped in Mankato for lunch, the temp was getting quite warm again and the humidity was high. It felt good to sit in an air conditioned building and relax for a little bit. I ate a huge burrito and downed about four glasses of water while I read my book.

Back on the road, it was just a matter of making time the rest of the way home. From Mankato I took 169 west, which turns into highway 60. A good portion of it is four lane and I can usually make good time on this section of highway.

In Windom I stopped for gas. The most memorable part of this stop was that the four glasses of water I had for lunch suddenly made their presence known, in a most urgent way. I (literally) ran inside the gas station only to find the mens room occupied. I hopped up and down for a few seconds, then decided to use the women's room. As I walked over and began to open the door, I became aware that every patron in the station was staring at me. Probably from the hopping. Anyway, there wasn't an easy way to sneak into the women's room unnoticed and I hopped another fifteen seconds or so debating whether I should just go ahead and use it anyway. Mercifully, the men's room opened up and tears of joy streamed down my face as I found an incredible amount of relief.

I was on the final leg of the journey now. Highway 60 led me south from Windom to Worthington, where I caught interstate 90 west to Sioux Falls. This last hundred mile stretch only took about an hour and a half, but it seemed like an eternity.

Back in Sioux Falls, I quick gassed up so as to get my final mileage numbers, then rode the last half mile home.

I made it. Weary and sunburned, but other than that unscathed. Just in time to clean up and take my son to soccer.

Home just in time to take my son to soccer.

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