Hello everyone! Well, it's been a while since I've had internet access, so I'll do my best to update you on the past week or so's events. We made it across South Dakota! Finally. Good. Lord. That state just goes on and on. Though there were some redeeming factors (Black Hills, the Badlands, Mountain Mike, beautiful sunsets...), I don't feel compelled to pack up my entire life and move myself to South Dakota any time soon. Those that call that state home seem perfectly content that they live there and hardly anybody else does. As one farmer we met put it, "We tell everyone that this is the worst land in the country, so that nobody else comes here..."
After we stayed the night in Pierre, we biked about 65 miles and decided to camp in an teeny-tiny town called Ree Heights. There happened to be a bar there, and apparently about 47 residents inhabiting the smattering of houses gathered around the town's one street. We went inside the bar, only to be met by the curious and hardened faces of about 4 bar patrons and one bartender. They gave us a good long stare, until we exposed that we would be more than happy to try the bar's local specialty, "bloody beer" (homemade bloody mary mix with an ice cold budweiser. They quickly warmed up to us, and we ended up talking for a long while with the 4 old, mostly toothless men and the one bartender, who cackled like a devious fourth grader and told us of all his travels around the West that had eventually led him right back to small-townville, South Dakota. We were fast friends by the end of the night, and the bartender let us pitch our tent right behind the bar.
The next day we biked about 60 miles and made it to Huron, South Dakota, a town of a few thousand whose main claim to fame is that fact that they host the South Dakota state fair (which we missed by two days), as well as the world's largest pheasant (a glorious 3 story tall colorful pheasant replica we hit up on the way out of town). We weren't sure if we were even going to stay in Huron, but our Warm Showers host got back to us just as we were deciding what to do next, so we headed over to his place.
We followed his directions to his apartment building, where we were greeted by a collection of rather derelict, down-on-their-luck looking men, as well as one very clean-cut, very cheerful man who happened to be waving us down. We then met Steven (not his real name), our host, who showed us up to his apartment while explaining that the apartment building was for low-income residents who experienced some sort of mental disabilities. His "apartment" ended up being a tiny room, smaller than my dorm room freshman year of college, in which he had a bed, a closet, a desk and a table full of plants. He also mentioned in an off-hand sort of way that he had found a turtle by the side of the road a week ago and took it in as a pet, but he didn't want to put it in an aquarium so it was just sort of free-floating in the room somewhere.
It took us a while to kind of figure out what wasn't being said...was he a client here, or a counseler? was this his entire apartment? were we supposed to sleep in this room with him? Eventually we discovered that the answers to all these questions were "yes," and he also insisted that we bring our bikes into this tiny room because he was a bit wary of his neighbors and there unpredictable behavior. The whole situation had the potential to be incredibly sketchy, although there was something very genuine and normal about Steven's disposition, so we wordlessly decided that we would in fact spend the night with him.
We ended up having a lovely evening with Steven. Turns out he was actually a professional cellist, pianist and organist who had had a difficult time in life recently and came to Huron to sort himself out. He worked as a music teacher, judged 4-H music competitions at the state fair, and played the piano and organ at the local Presbyterian church. We all went out for Mexican food together and then he took us to the church he attended and played us some beautiful hymns. We ended up going to bed fairly early, he in his bed and Ben and I smooshed together, 2 feet away from him on the ground.
All was well until about 3 o'clock in the morning, when I felt a gentle scratching on my cheek. I was still half-asleep so I shrugged it off, but the scratching continued, followed by what felt like a smooth round disc sliding slowly over my face. At this point of course I was well awake, as was Ben who I had started shaking like crazy. We both rolled over in our middle of the night stupor to discover Derodimus the Turtle clinging to the end of my thermarest, making weird gulping sounds and glaring at us with his beady little eyes.
I don't have much experience with turtles (Ben apparently doesn't either), so I wasn't really sure how to go about getting the turtle off my inflatable mattress. I started lifting the mat, hoping the turtle would crawl off, but then I thought he might start digging his claws in like a cat and pop my precious air mattress, so I stopped. Ben lifted the turtle up eventually, but it started flailing around with its creepy prehistoric limbs, so he immediately dropped it again, and the poor turtle landed on its back. We eventually decided to put it in a plastic crate I found in Steven's closet, which we placed on the only piece of open floor, about 2 feet away from our heads. For the rest of the night we heard the gentle scritch-scratch of the turtle moving the crate slowly around in his little piece of open floor. Amazingly, Steven slept through the entire ordeal, and was a little surprised to find his free-roaming turtle in an upside-down crate by our heads in the morning.
A few more Tidbits:
After Huron we had a solid day of biking to Brookings, South Dakota, where we stayed with our CouchSurfing hosts Josie and Ferdinand and their 4 day old baby, Roslyn. I don't think I've ever held any human that new to the world before. We were surprised they even wanted to host us dirty travelers, what with a brand new baby and everything, but they ended up being incredibly hospitable and friendly and even let us hold tiny Roslyn (there's photographic evidence on Ben's Tumblr blog). She mostly just slept and gurgled and made facial expressions freakily similar to Derodimus the Turtle of the previous night's escapades.
The following day we finally made it to Minnesota, and were happy to leave South Dakota behind. We stayed in a local park in Walnut Grove the first night, a tiny town whose main industry is Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prarie tourism. The following night we made it all the way to Mankato, Minnesota, where we were hosted by Eric and Christie and their 10 month old baby Lolo. They made us an amazing meal of salmon and vegetables and told us all about their travels, which included a 14 month tandem bicycle journey all the way from Mankato to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The next day we biked into the Twin Cities, where we were planning on taking 2 days off (our first day not biking in a month!) to hang out with Ben's huge and wonderful extended family. As a bonus, I also got to see my dear friend Kate, my roommate when I studied abroad in India three years ago. We went to the Minnesota State Fair, ate a bunch of fried food and touched some soft baby animals. That afternoon we headed across the state line to Houlton, Wisconsin, to Ben's aunt Michelle and uncle Dave's house. I got to meet a bajillion delightful people all related to Ben, ate delicious food till it hurt, and drank plenty of local beers.
Yesterday we rounded off our "vacation" quite nicely by kayaking down the Apple River with some of Ben's cousins. We ate pizza at his aunt Joanne's house and enjoyed one more night of precious sleep in an actual bed. This morning we're heading off for more adventures in rural America! Wish us luck. It's been a great time thus far.
After we stayed the night in Pierre, we biked about 65 miles and decided to camp in an teeny-tiny town called Ree Heights. There happened to be a bar there, and apparently about 47 residents inhabiting the smattering of houses gathered around the town's one street. We went inside the bar, only to be met by the curious and hardened faces of about 4 bar patrons and one bartender. They gave us a good long stare, until we exposed that we would be more than happy to try the bar's local specialty, "bloody beer" (homemade bloody mary mix with an ice cold budweiser. They quickly warmed up to us, and we ended up talking for a long while with the 4 old, mostly toothless men and the one bartender, who cackled like a devious fourth grader and told us of all his travels around the West that had eventually led him right back to small-townville, South Dakota. We were fast friends by the end of the night, and the bartender let us pitch our tent right behind the bar.
The next day we biked about 60 miles and made it to Huron, South Dakota, a town of a few thousand whose main claim to fame is that fact that they host the South Dakota state fair (which we missed by two days), as well as the world's largest pheasant (a glorious 3 story tall colorful pheasant replica we hit up on the way out of town). We weren't sure if we were even going to stay in Huron, but our Warm Showers host got back to us just as we were deciding what to do next, so we headed over to his place.
We followed his directions to his apartment building, where we were greeted by a collection of rather derelict, down-on-their-luck looking men, as well as one very clean-cut, very cheerful man who happened to be waving us down. We then met Steven (not his real name), our host, who showed us up to his apartment while explaining that the apartment building was for low-income residents who experienced some sort of mental disabilities. His "apartment" ended up being a tiny room, smaller than my dorm room freshman year of college, in which he had a bed, a closet, a desk and a table full of plants. He also mentioned in an off-hand sort of way that he had found a turtle by the side of the road a week ago and took it in as a pet, but he didn't want to put it in an aquarium so it was just sort of free-floating in the room somewhere.
It took us a while to kind of figure out what wasn't being said...was he a client here, or a counseler? was this his entire apartment? were we supposed to sleep in this room with him? Eventually we discovered that the answers to all these questions were "yes," and he also insisted that we bring our bikes into this tiny room because he was a bit wary of his neighbors and there unpredictable behavior. The whole situation had the potential to be incredibly sketchy, although there was something very genuine and normal about Steven's disposition, so we wordlessly decided that we would in fact spend the night with him.
We ended up having a lovely evening with Steven. Turns out he was actually a professional cellist, pianist and organist who had had a difficult time in life recently and came to Huron to sort himself out. He worked as a music teacher, judged 4-H music competitions at the state fair, and played the piano and organ at the local Presbyterian church. We all went out for Mexican food together and then he took us to the church he attended and played us some beautiful hymns. We ended up going to bed fairly early, he in his bed and Ben and I smooshed together, 2 feet away from him on the ground.
All was well until about 3 o'clock in the morning, when I felt a gentle scratching on my cheek. I was still half-asleep so I shrugged it off, but the scratching continued, followed by what felt like a smooth round disc sliding slowly over my face. At this point of course I was well awake, as was Ben who I had started shaking like crazy. We both rolled over in our middle of the night stupor to discover Derodimus the Turtle clinging to the end of my thermarest, making weird gulping sounds and glaring at us with his beady little eyes.
I don't have much experience with turtles (Ben apparently doesn't either), so I wasn't really sure how to go about getting the turtle off my inflatable mattress. I started lifting the mat, hoping the turtle would crawl off, but then I thought he might start digging his claws in like a cat and pop my precious air mattress, so I stopped. Ben lifted the turtle up eventually, but it started flailing around with its creepy prehistoric limbs, so he immediately dropped it again, and the poor turtle landed on its back. We eventually decided to put it in a plastic crate I found in Steven's closet, which we placed on the only piece of open floor, about 2 feet away from our heads. For the rest of the night we heard the gentle scritch-scratch of the turtle moving the crate slowly around in his little piece of open floor. Amazingly, Steven slept through the entire ordeal, and was a little surprised to find his free-roaming turtle in an upside-down crate by our heads in the morning.
A few more Tidbits:
After Huron we had a solid day of biking to Brookings, South Dakota, where we stayed with our CouchSurfing hosts Josie and Ferdinand and their 4 day old baby, Roslyn. I don't think I've ever held any human that new to the world before. We were surprised they even wanted to host us dirty travelers, what with a brand new baby and everything, but they ended up being incredibly hospitable and friendly and even let us hold tiny Roslyn (there's photographic evidence on Ben's Tumblr blog). She mostly just slept and gurgled and made facial expressions freakily similar to Derodimus the Turtle of the previous night's escapades.
The following day we finally made it to Minnesota, and were happy to leave South Dakota behind. We stayed in a local park in Walnut Grove the first night, a tiny town whose main industry is Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prarie tourism. The following night we made it all the way to Mankato, Minnesota, where we were hosted by Eric and Christie and their 10 month old baby Lolo. They made us an amazing meal of salmon and vegetables and told us all about their travels, which included a 14 month tandem bicycle journey all the way from Mankato to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The next day we biked into the Twin Cities, where we were planning on taking 2 days off (our first day not biking in a month!) to hang out with Ben's huge and wonderful extended family. As a bonus, I also got to see my dear friend Kate, my roommate when I studied abroad in India three years ago. We went to the Minnesota State Fair, ate a bunch of fried food and touched some soft baby animals. That afternoon we headed across the state line to Houlton, Wisconsin, to Ben's aunt Michelle and uncle Dave's house. I got to meet a bajillion delightful people all related to Ben, ate delicious food till it hurt, and drank plenty of local beers.
Yesterday we rounded off our "vacation" quite nicely by kayaking down the Apple River with some of Ben's cousins. We ate pizza at his aunt Joanne's house and enjoyed one more night of precious sleep in an actual bed. This morning we're heading off for more adventures in rural America! Wish us luck. It's been a great time thus far.
Another great blog and a great laugh! Thanks for such a vivid description of your adventure!
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