Here's a shot of downtown Rapid City on my way East:
I took 14 to hopefully see some small towns along the way and came across Cottonwood - Population 12!
So I turned in to see the Jail:
Here's Main Street:
And stopped to chat with Matthew (he liked the FJR!):
He was sitting on the steps of the town hall reading a newspaper when I pulled up:
Which was right across the street from the old Bank building:
He told me the town used to be bigger, but after the "fires"
most people moved away. Even the church was abandoned:
It was great talking to him and he seemed to appreciate me stopping to talk to him. He was sad because his father had just passed away unexpectedly three weeks ago, so he was taking care of his mother and three dogs. If you look past him, that's his home in the jumble of buildings. He was a genuinely nice person and shared a few stories with me. One was that his cousin was a sniper in Vietnam and they found his sniper rifle (had his name engraved in it) at a pawn shop. He said it has a "kick" when he fires it.
Talking to him has been one of the highlights of my trip.
Then, I was off down the road again:
look, a TREE:
I got to talk to the traffic guy at one of the three VERY LONG construction stops:
Once again,
I got to do some gravel:
The after crossing the Missouri River into central time, I stopped in the Capital, Pierre:
After that, my ride was straigh and WINDY! By the time I got to Brookings, I just pulled into the first hotel I could find and grabbed some food. The wind really wore me out today. I'm going to sleep now and may try to get to Chicago tomorrow so I can spend some time with my sister before heading to Toronto.