Day 26 journal Mitchell, SD to Sioux Falls, SD

I rode 73.55 miles. Great ride. We were all anxious to get on the road and get into Sioux Falls to begin our rest. About 6 of us went to Perkins to eat breakfast instead of waiting until 6:30 for the Bonanza to open up. We got a call from staff last night saying they were going to up the luggage load to 6:15 AM, because of the high winds and heat forecast. Chuck and I were done eating and on the route by 6:35 AM. We did not stop one time for anything until 26 miles down the route. We went into a small store and got a V-8 juice and an oatmeal cookie, and were on the way again. The Sag stop was at 40 miles and we kept on truckn' until that stop. It was very nice riding in the cool, but by 10 I was feeling the heat a little. So long as you don't stop you don't feel your body heating up. I kept on drinking religously every 10 minutes. About 20 miles from the edge of town we stopped again and had some more V-8 and hammered it into Sioux Falls. It was about 12:15 when we got in. There was not much to see except more fields of grains and corn and soybeans. The wind was at our side most of the time, coming from the South as we traveled East. In Sioux Falls we had to turn south and WOW! What a blast of hot wind in the face. Our speed dropped to a near crawl. Thank goodness we only had to head south for about 1.5 miles total. We are staying at the Super 8 across from Empire Mall. A nice touch that the motel did for the incoming riders was serve us Orange Creme Cicles, cookies and cold drinks. That was SO nice, and we really did enjoy that cold treat. After cleaning up I headed over to the mall -- it was 100 degrees outside and the indoor mall was as packed as it is during Christmas rush. They were having sidewalk sales, and people were taking in the sale, plus being an air conditioned mall it was about the coolest place to be.
At 4:00 PM about 12 people headed to the ABB vans to load their bikes and we all went to a bike shop about 6 miles away to have various tune-up and mechanicall issues taken care of. I got a new rear cassette and new chain and a tune up. I also put on my spare set of new tires. We are at that 2,000 mile mark and the bikes were due for a lot of these things.
Rest day -- I'm going to do my laundry and REST!
Hope the weather breaks and we have some cooler days.
God is good, and I am blessed. I am having a wonderful time. It doesn't get any better than this -- out for a bike ride every day, and then a rest day thrown in every 10 days. It is great. Love it!