Day 34, July 11th, Pierre to Chamberlain 85 miles

Pictures: Kevin

Our Picnic, sandwiches with ranch

Susan's leftover sandwich

Backbreaking hill near Chamberlain

video: Diane Riding Speed Racer at the Laundromat

We planned on rotating driving the Tahoe in 20 mile segments. During the first 20 miles of the ride Susan and John went to Walmart to buy some essentials as well as food for a picnic lunch. We fought a respectable head wind then I caught a break by being the next driver. First John and I went back a few miles to try and find an arm pad that had fallen off Kevin’s handlebars then we headed past the riders to a spot on top a big hill 20 miles out. Just as John and I topped the rise we saw another cyclist. We pulled up to her and offered her water and Gatorade knowing it was at least 15 more miles to the next town. We stopped. She jackknifed her BOB (like a pro) and we exchanged the basic info on our rides. She started in Oregon and was riding solo to RAGBRAI. She had began the morning in Pierre, too, and was headed to Chamberlain, also. As she ate a banana and drank Gatorade she told me she was a grade school teacher near San Francisco and grew up near Council Bluffs, Iowa. She gave me the empty Gatorade bottle and empty banana peel and headed on her way. John and I waited for the others to arrive for lunch. When they got there I told them the story about the cyclist. They ribbed me cause I didn’t have any photos of her. I figured I had creeped her out enough by offering her unwashed strawberries and acting like I hadn’t seen another person in weeks. I’m sure a photo would have been grounds for my institutionalization. I parleyed for the next driver to catch up with her, Kamla, and offer her the Susan’s leftover half sandwich. Susan nipped that idea in the bud refusing to yield any of her sandwich and the group was thoroughly convinced that I had imagined the whole thing.
Kevin, Sylvia and John drove the SAG wagon for the last leg after they secured a campsite Kamla arrived met them and set up her tent…she wasn’t a mercyclist after all and I wasn‘t crazy. After showers and a beer we all went to dinner, Kamla joined us for dinner and hit it off with the group. I bumbled around and decided it was better if I just kept my mouth shut. Driving back to camp she asked me when we wake up in the morning to leave. I muttered something along the lines of 5:15 to 5:45. She said that was way too early for her and fled to her tent. Kevin, Sylvia, Diane and I finished laundry and had a blast playing with the free children’s rides and gumball machine while the clothes dried.