Another day along the Highway 14 began at the later time of 7.00am as young McNamara in his own words” required the extra 30 mins beauty sleep”.Cylced through Cavour ,Iroquis,de Shmet .Hardly metropolises but nice all the same as we are still in the agricultural area in South Dakota “the real America”

These are parts the average visitor to states would not see and the people could not be any friendlier.

When you’re biking along the i-90 its best not to know of the monsters that are coming within inches of you. We see trucks carrying houses(no jokes),aeroplane parts, We ve had many a near encounter with them but generally they overtake us on the other lane if there is enough room.

In short ,pretty much a boring day cycling,Today was one long long day ,we rose at the ridiculous hour of 545 and were on the road for 630 ready for the long day ahead. we met the support team twice today.We followed the highway 14 (not the I-90 thankfully).The road itself was painfully boring,and straight as an arrow

Young McNamara was hoping for a dog attack to mix things up a bit. No punctures to report and no wind ,which was a relief positive After passing through the likes of Blunt,Highmore,Miller, and Wessington where many a quick break was had we made a final stop at Wolsely before finally rolling into Huron ,South Dakota some 12 hours at approximately 7pm. After that all I can remember is I slept like I haven’t for as long as I can remember ,despite the incessant bear like snoring of room-mate Kerwin

After the relatively flawless day we had yesterday our luck was to change somewhat and so too was the wind direction unfortunately for us.The heat and speed of the winds had picked up dramatically

The wind was no longer blowing from west to east pushing us on but from north to south.One may ask the question why would this effect us as we are going east?True but not completely.Today we were forced to go north as there were literally no towns on the interstate within a reasonable distance.So,to the unknown of the backroads it was.

After cycling 30 miles east along the  I-90 where the wind didn’t cause too many problems apart from Eoin nearly falling into the ditch and a couple of punctures, the fun and games began when we departed the I-90 at a town called Viviane and hit the “backroads” or “frontage road” north through Fort Pierre National Grassland

For the next 30 miles we averaged a pathetic 8MPH and just 14 MPH on the downhills.Even McNamara ,famous for his downhill speeds felt that had he not pedalled downhill he d be pushed  back up the hills by the strong gusts.We had been literally battered by the headwinds for the guts of  a demoralizing 3-4 hours where there was literally nowhere to cover despite trying to draft. We hadn’t experienced winds like it before.At one point I was practically forced  to persuade Kerwin and McNamara from flinging their bikes into the ditch and walking the remaining 25 miles

Even the support team-member, driver Donal Lucey summed up the sheer ferocity of the winds when he was quoted as saying  he “thought he had hit a deer” when driving against the full force of the wind  and he was  was forced to vary his driving style from the  usual 1 hands to the more sensible 2.

After taking the battling through the winds the remaining milage was plainsailing in comparison and we arrived approximately 6pm a long 11 hour day cycle.

On a positive note we are now today approximately halfway across the U.S.A. which is an achievement in itself in terms of distance and days cycling .Also,upon arrival in Pierre which is South Dakota’s state capital a quaint sleepy  town of approximately 18,000 inhabitants we were advised to swim in the Missouri River and duly did.

What better way to relax the tired legs,and a lot cleaner than the river Liffey

The usual early morning wakeup call from the human alarm clock that is William Kerwin arrived at 5.50am. “Leonard, find out do they do breakfast across the road and get Macker up”

With the healthy option consisting of hash browns, bacon and sausages in our bellies we were on our way just an hour after rising and back on the dreaded interstate road I-90 which we have been following virtually every day of this cycle. Each day we leave as early as is possible to gain the advantage of the cooler temperatures Rather than launch into a William Kerwin–esque rant on the day in question, today was just as the song goes “a perfect day” all things considered. At the same time, today was quite an eventful day.

The temperature although warm was a great deal cooler (just in the 80’s ) and for the first time on our cycle we had the wind at our backs which made a huge difference and allowed us to keep an average speed of approx 18 Miles Per Hour and a record breaking 46 M.P.H. on the downhill. Not a puncture was had between the 3 of us which was a first and just what the doctor ordered. We also crossed the time zone and have clocked up approx 1,600 miles ,which was another landmark and are now just 6 hours from Irish time.

What’s more for the first time on this cycle we came across a fellow cyclist on the interstate which broke the usual boredom of the long day of cycling .On first sight young McNamara couldn’t believe his eyes and dismissed the dot on the landscape of the hard shoulder as a “motorbike”.The cyclist in question was a Scottish gentleman by the name of Dan , whom has been travelling to the U.S each summer for the past 12 years from Edinburgh to “bike for fun” all at the young age of 65 would you believe.He was a joy to converse with and we cycled along side him and before we knew it we were at our final destination of Kadoka, where the COA team joined Dan for luncheon . An inspirational character and it was fantastic to exchange war stories about our respective trips.