I noticed yesterday a sign or two that said Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway. Today I saw several more. It turns out in 1995, Minnesota and surrounding states designated U.S. Route 14 as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, to mark the family's path. On a map, it seems like a simple journey — almost a straight shot from Pepin, Wis. to De Smet, S.D.: 300 miles and change. More on this in a bit. All the way to Janesville, our first fuel stop, it was foggy/misty/sauna- ish riding. It wasn't raining per se, but similar to the Iowa phenomenon, it feels damp out but there's nothing falling from the sky. It felt like we were riding in a giant greenhouse. A quick check of the stats at the gas station revealed it was 71 degrees and 93% humidity.
I was happy to get through Mankato without rain. Based on the weather reports I reviewed that looked like the most likely spot we could get hit with rain. Luckily we cleared the area without rain. The next stop would be Walnut Grove. It just sounded like a nice place. When we pulled into town we saw the sign marking Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthplace. It is also the home of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. No wonder it sounded so familiar to me. We weren't off the bikes for 1 minute when a rain shower passed through. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but it was enough to get everything wet again. Luckily we were stopped and off the bikes. We stood under the canopy over the pumps while it passed through. We also found a store with collectibles in it. It was aptly named Junk with a Purpose. Torrey said he needed a picture of that sign so Cami made it happen. Following the pics in we were again on our way.
The roads were fairly wet through the next several miles but by Florence the road was dry and we almost were too. And the greenhouse effect was starting to lift. It was clear and nice through Lake Benton and the South Dakota state line. US 14 changed from a concrete road, common in the mid-west, to a black asphalt topped road like we are used to in Idaho. It was nice riding, in the dry air with clear sunny skies. As we approached Brookings there was a huge thunderstorm coming in on our left. We were riding perpendicular to this storm. It was going to be a race to the gas station.
We made it there just in time to grab gas and make a quick elimination stop inside. As we pulled away from the gas station the rain was coming down where we had just come in from and was only about 80 yards away.
As we hustled west the skies got clearer and there were no more threats of rain. As we passed through DeSmet, the "Little Town on the Prairie", I felt confident we were in the clear of that storm.
Just a few miles more we were into Huron and off the bikes to find our hotel rooms. Did you know that Huron, SD is home to the largest pheasant? It turns out it is! With today being Labor Day, almost all the restaurants were closed which made grabbing a bite to eat tricky.
It was 81 degrees and sunny upon our arrival.
Total Miles traveled today: 312
Time to travel that distance; 5.75 hours
Cumulative Mileage for the trip: 3516
Blog Addendum:
Cami-O
What?! No mention of the excitement for the day; breaking the law!! ::As I go searching for an emoticon of Beavis::
The first time I have been "allowed" to go out venturing on my own without Nicki leading the way, and then this happens.
In all fairness Torrey made the same choice I did, and consequently received the same written warning I did!! Doh!!
Apparently the suicide lane is not a merging lane in South Dakota. I got pulled over because you are not allowed to turn into the middle lane and then merge into traffic going the same direction. That's how we use it back in Pocatello, but now I know not to do that here in Huron. Whatever. Thanks for the written reminder, officer. Torrey and I will be on our way now.
Hope you do d as well with the rain today! We sure didn’t, got another 150 miles of swimming in our shoes again today!
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