Woohooo!!!

We are in the prairies! and holy cow are they big! We spent a day riding through Spearfish canyon on the suggestion of one of our biker friends from Idaho and a great couple, Peter and Marissa, we met in Greybull Wyoming. The canyon was beautiful, I have a picture below, but I'm afraid to capture the beauty of the stream rambling through the canyon you'll just have to go and check it out =)

Ok, so we were riding along at a nice relaxed pace, enjoying the vast open spaces that occupy the north western part of beautiful South Dakota. We rolled into the town of Dupree, hungry and ready for a night of rest. The waitress, Cindy, graciously offered her front yard as a campsite (Thank you!) and we spent an uninterrupted night sleeping beneath the stars. Yesterday morning we awoke, did laundry, and started out towards the local church, and that's when we noticed something. Andrew's tires that had been rotated the day before because of excessive wear on the back tire were now both very underinflated. The tire that was worn could not be relied upon to be ridden on, we needed a new tire that we didn't have. This was a problem. We were 240 miles from the nearest bike shop going East, the shop is in a town called Watertown.

 So we walked into Dupree Baptist Church looking forward to fellowshiping with fellow believers. We slid into the back row a couple minutes late and were instantly and warmly welcomed. They asked about who we were and where we were going and if we had any prayer request. Well we told them and then we told them we needed a ride to a town 3.5 hours away =) Our plan was to go to the gas station and try to thumb a ride, doable but less than ideal. After the pastor, Lonnie, who unbeknownst to us was going to Watertown the next day and lived an hour West of the city, got up to speak he offered us a ride, and that is how we found ourselves an hours car ride from Watertown last night eating pizza and enjoying good conversation. This morning we drove to Watertown, talked with the bike shop guys and they were able to fix everything up for us. So today we're spending catching up on life stuff, watching a movie tonight (Captain America!) and sleeping at one of the local churches.

After the service yesterday we were invited over for a cookout celebrating one of the kid's birthday. It was nice to relax and see the joy that this large family obviously gained from each other's company. The food was good and plentiful and the company was very amiable. Andrew and I, over the last couple of hours, have learned a lot about farming, ranching, and even a little bit about the sport of rodeo. All in all it has been a full couple of days.

Posting pictures right now has proven difficult, actually impossible would be a better term, but I promise that at the earliest opportunity I will post some from the last couple days. We plan on riding for the next week or so in Minnesota and Wisconsin then going up into the UP of Michigan.

As always your comments and suggestions for how to make the blog better are appreciated.

riding on,
Nate

PS We've pedaled over 2000 miles!! and we're on track to finish the trip =)

* 80% of all funds go to the Christian organisation Living Water International. They bring sustainable water sources to impoverished communities.