Sunday, Jul 9, 2017 Day 21 Across America North

Goodbye Wyoming, and Hello South Dakota!

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After a spartan breakfast in Lusk, Wyoming, we left the hotel early:  first group at 6 and second group at 7.  Leaving at the crack of dawn allows us to get on the road before a lot of traffic would be on highway 18 and we also get a jump on the heat wave that is sweeping the west.  The temp was 67 degrees when we left and we had a light tail wind early on.

I felt rested and good as I enjoyed the cool temps and push from behind from mother nature.  About 10 miles from the first SAG stop, I caught up with Mike Munk and Karen Bauer and tagged along with them for the next 10 miles.  There is endless open range and rolling hills along this sparsely populated route.  While there were few cars along the way, it was obviously a prime truck route, validated by the 18 wheelers blowing by at 70-80 mph.  Most of them give us a wide birth when we are riding on the white line because the shoulder is either extremely narrow or covered with rumble strips.  When we are able to use the shoulder to ride, the 18 wheelers really are not close at all.

After the SAG stop, I headed out alone and unafraid until my Garmin computer started malfunctioning.  After riding slowly and trying to get it to work correctly, I realized that I could complete this ride with a grease pencil and my palm!  In other words, there were few or no turns ahead and I knew how to find the hotel without a computer.

As I completed the last climb of the day and rolled down the hill into Hot Springs, the heat from the town below started to hit me right in the face.  By the time I rolled into the hotel at 11:13 am, I am sure it was 100 degrees. Whew!

After most of the other folks arrived, Greg Pryor and Tom Menley stopped by to ask David Holloway, my new room mate, and I to join them in checking out the nearby "hot spring."  We walked about a quarter of a mile and saw a number of people in a nearby creek/spring.  We eventually waded in ourselves and decided that this "hot spring" was about 75 degrees and quite a bit cooler than the hot springs that most of us had experienced.  Nevertheless, this got us out of our hotel room and gave us a small glimpse of a natural wonder that is the prize of Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Lusk, WY to Hot Springs, SD GoPro Video by Dirk Lohry

Lusk, WY to Hot Springs, SD

Stay Healthy,

Steve

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