Crash and burn!?

July 9, 2010
These creative titiles are designed to draw you in. Today we cycled out of North Dakota into South Dakota! One of the first towns we got to there was Lemmon. Two days prior, I (Tim) had given some information to a motorist about our tour, and he then explained that we ought to stop in his town (Lemmon) for a visit and some publicity. Since we had a big day ahead, we could not stay long, but a reporter from the Dakota Herlad was there and interviewed Josiah and took some team pictures for their issue coming out next week. (It is a weekly paper.) While there, we enjoyed visiting the Grand River museum and seeing the fancy art work made from scrap metal...very cool.
Shortly after leaving Lemmon, Zach had a crash...he just lost concentration for a few seconds and went down. Pretty nasty scrapes on his left elbow and knee, as well as a few other places. When he got to the lunch stop he was pretty bloody, but he is fine and did not miss any of the cycling. The "burn" part refers to the burning heat that we have been experiencing, along with some sunburn. We miss the clouds and rain that we had at the beginning of the tour!
Most of our day was spent on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. At the end of the day, we stayed in the high school gym in McLaughlin, South Dakota. We DID get to use the swimming pool before a nice dinner by some of the team members in the kitchen of the school. Altogether, it was a 93.5-mile day.