Tuesday, May 26, 2009
- Start: Yankton, South Dakota
- ATW: Lewis & Clark Rec Area, Tabor
- End: Tyndall, South Dakota
- Day Miles: 41.7 Ride Time: 4hr 59min Total Trip Miles: 1542
Our host, Rick, left early for work then came back a time or two. We finally got ourselves together and Rick geared up to ride us out of town. Our tour took us through Yankton to the bike shop where his son works then our to the Lewis and Clark Rec Area where we rode along the river on a paved bike path. Just before the long hill that would take us out of the rec area and out to Rt50, Rick said goodbye and headed back to work leaving us to our route.
We pedaled up that hill at steady low gear trek forever (maybe longer, because it seemed like time was standing still). When we finally ended at the top the wind was pounding us as we rode miles to the next turn. We intended to head to Springfield for the night but wanted to give up sooner. We saw a sign that said 2 miles to Tabor so we took a chance. Small towns don't always have provisions, but we could survive with the food on the bike and we were ready to find a building to shelter behind. The South Dakota countryside is wide open with sparse trees. Beautiful but windy.
In Tabor we were pleased to find The Keg, a small bar that served food. We ordered up a couple of burgers and fries and chatted with a few of the locals having a drink. A few were interested, the rest just over heard the conversation. After spending an hour out of the wind we were revived enough to try to push on to Tyndall another 8 miles further.
Tyndall is a nice town that surprised us. Gas station, grocery, bakery, a few restaruants and a city park with pool, hot showers in a bath house open all night and free camping for tents. No signs anywhere told you what to do in the park so we set up near the showers and enjoyed a hot shower and a peaceful evening before we slept.
