Day 5: Huron to Brookings

Finally. Today was as close to a biker's dream as we're going to get on this ride.
I don't think while looking over the details of Tour de Kota before leaving, I expected the longest mileage day of the week would be the best day, but that is exactly what happened today.

We left Huron at 6:00 sharp, and enjoyed a tail wind almost the entire way. We went through Cavour, Iroqouis, De Smet, Oldham and Sinai before making our way to Brookings. We did head South from De Smet for about 11 miles, changing our wind to a cross wind.

Oldham's lunch stop was one of the best lunch stops we've had all week. The church ladies went all out baking pies. Wags treated himself to 2 pieces: dutch apple and Pumpkin, which he mentioned was not as good as Arlene's pumpkin pie. I limited myself to 1 piece of sour cream raisin because I had 2 hot roast beef sandwiches.

The tail wind definitely kept us going. Our average speed after lunch must have been 17 or 18 MPH, bringing our average for the day to 13.5. As we pulled in to our hotel in Brookings the odometer read 91.3 miles.

Wags and I enjoyed the hot tub at the Comfort Inn hotel before walking down the street to a Chinese buffet, which really hit the spot. After returning to our room, a severe thunderstorm rolled through Brookings with 60 MPH winds. We're sure hoping everyone at the campground is OK, and didn't get too wet. Luckily, the storm moved through at an astounding 63 MPH, so it wasn't here long!

Tomorrow's route is listed in the TDK booklet as 63 miles, but according to Wags' GPS unit, it is closer to 75. I guess we'll find out. We're keeping our eye on the wind forecast, they're saying West wind at 20 to 25, gusting to 30. Thankfully, it doesn't sound like there'll be a head wind, but a cross wind that strong will probably slow us down a bit too.

Well, this is our last post from the road. We hope to be back in Sioux Falls by 2 or 3, and then have a couple nice beverages at Falls Landing to celebrate our accomplishment. I will have a final post to wrap-up sometime over the weekend. Hopefully you've all enjoyed reading the posts, it seems to be a nice way to keep family and friends updated while we're on the road. Look for RAGBRAI posts coming in late July!!

Kyle & Wags.