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The theme for the day: "gee I guess I see why they call it the badlands". This morning we woke up a little early to get an early start on the day. We expect today will be pretty hot. We also had to bike back to the restaurant for breakfast.
We then took off through the Badlands. If go to the following URL you can follow our path from the "city" of
Interior to Wall through the Badlands.
The twenty eight miles through the badlands was filled with climbs, drops and unbelievable views. Some parts were almost as if they were movie sets of Mars. Just add some more red colors, some astronauts and... Presto!! Mars!!
By 9 AM I was at 28 miles into the ride and the heat of the day was already being felt. Lance, one of the trip routers (the guys who go out the day before us in a car to mark out the route for the bikes each day) had mentioned to me a couple of days ago that it was amazing that when we looked out as far as we could see on the horizon, that we will be traveling under our own power to the horizon and beyond. Today was one of the days that you could really feel the horizon. Kinda strange, but true.
At the end the badlands, the town of Wall awaited us. If you ever been within 300 miles of Wall you've likely seen the roadside billboards of Wall Drug (
http://www.walldrug.com ). Wall Drug
is the hub of the town and today was the town's birthday from what I
understand. There was a parade dancing in the street, but what I'll remember
is a church ice cream social. It was held in the basement of the Lutheran
church. All the ice cream was homemade and with cycle America in town, well
attended.
After Wall, we rode the remaining thirty three miles to the
town of Philip. When we arrived it was 3:15 and 103 degrees. The town
consisted of four square blocks and at least four bars. Several of us
heading into one and had sodas. Finally on to the High School to set up the
tents and to have dinner.
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