Day 18 – Mobridge to Aberdeen, South Dakota

South Dakota – in large part – is an enormous, green, empty space filled with farmers’ fields and not much else. Such is my analysis after two full, long days of cycling across it. Today I followed the straightest of straight lines due east for 100 miles, with barely a deviation. You could generally see very far ahead. I would be lying if I said it was the most exciting of all of my days of cycling so far. The very long and straight nature of the route, which lacked in real variety, meant it was, in truth, verging on being a little boring and dull. Even the big skies went grey for a while, as if they agreed. I wouldn’t fancy cycling today’s route on a regular basis. That’s the Great Plains for you, I guess.

The holy trinity

That said, it was a mostly beautiful day again, and the road was broad and quiet, with a safe, wide shoulder should I need it. I had a slight headwind blowing in my face today, so that meant harder work. There were just about sufficient refreshment opportunities along the way: the small community of Selby after about 20 miles had the Dakota Maid diner for a late breakfast; then after another 35 miles was Ricky’s Restaurant and Lounge, for a late lunch, in tiny Roscoe. In the interest of time, I didn’t stop in between at the small town of Bowdle (home to South Dakota’s tallest water tower, or so it claimed); but I did take ten minutes to pop into a supermarket in Ipswich, an hour after Roscoe, to take on energy for the last 30 miles to Aberdeen. These mundane facts were actually some of the main highlights of an adventure that was turning into more of an Ag-venture!

Visible from outer space… probably

What all of these neat communities had in common was their enormous grain silos, visible from far, far away. I might see a sign saying, say, Bowdle 7 miles, and see far ahead along the dead straight road the glint of silver towers that looked about two miles away. No, that can’t be Bowdle, I thought, it’s too close. But it was, and seven straight miles and half an hour later, I would reach these hulking silver masses that provided the main interruptions to today’s distant horizon. This pattern repeated itself several times.

One other brief highlight was what appeared to be an aeronautical display in the early section of my ride. A small plane kept diving low behind the near horizon, caused by a low rise ahead of me, and then reappearing on the other side, twisting around and repeating the manoeuvre. It was only when I was almost underneath it that I realised the plane was spraying a field of crops every time it dived low down, coming back around for regular squirts on different parts of the same field. It looked a lot of fun.

When Aberdeen finally arrived, it turned out to be quite big, with a collection of important looking buildings in the main downtown area, including a domed courthouse and a huge YMCA. It is the third largest city in South Dakota, apparently, although there are fewer than 30,000 inhabitants. Two of these, however, are my very kind and welcoming hosts from the Warm Showers community, my third such overnight stop in someone’s home. Chuck has already cycled coast to coast in 2017 and we had fun comparing routes and looking at his map collection. They also provided a delicious home cooked meal of spaghetti bolognaise followed by ice cream. I was mighty impressed, and very grateful.

After more than 750 miles in the last week, I have given myself a relatively short day tomorrow. I think I have earned it.