Day 31 - Tuesday September 22nd

Wall, SD to Rapid City, SD
57.49 miles
5:14.28 hrs
33.1 max
10.9 avg

It was just the previous day that I found out that it was legal to cycle on the interstate in many states. That is what happens when a state does not make roads along all major interstates. Other states that allow this include, but are not limited to, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, California, etc. This was very fortunate for me because today's journey was going to be nearly all highway! I do have to say that traveling along the highway on a bicycle is not my favorite thing in the world, specifically through SD. It is boring, there is not much to look at and traffic goes by very fast! What is nice about it is that the roads are well kept and there are very wide shoulders to ride on.

The Weekes family hooked me up once again with a place to stay in Rapid City, thanks again! And a huge thank you to the Korb family for being so patient with me at the bike store, putting me up for the night and feeding me a great meal! It was much appreciated and left me in a great place the next day to attack the Black Hills.

When I got into Rapid City I went straight to the bike shop to get my spoke fixed. In forecast of the potentially cold weather ahead, I could not resist from stocking up on cold weather gear. I spent quite a bit of money and was feeling like I could potentially have gotten a better deal somewhere else and maybe I should have waited to make those purchases... boy was I mistaken!

As I was riding that day I dislocated my rear brake because it was rubbing so bad on the rim. It was both annoying and inefficient! When the bike shop in Rapid City looked at it they noticed that the rim had been bent pretty bad and the rim had actually been worn away for some odd reason. This is potentially a manufacturer's defect in the rim and I was advised that I may want to take this up with Trek. I also purchased new brakes in anticipation of wanting to change them out before I started hitting the Black Hills and Big Horn Mountains. I changed the rear breaks out that next morning before taking off towards the Black Hills.