The Things You Notice

At the speed of a bicycle, there are things you notice that go by too quickly — or can’t be noticed at all —when you are driving. As I rolled across eastern South Dakota on Saturday from Mitchell to Sioux Falls, there were few new landmarks or changes in terrain (though farms, lakes and forests cropped up more regularly than ranches). But I was able to reflect on a number of things I have noticed traveling at the speed of a bicycle.

Some things are not even seen. There are the sounds of singing birds, most recently meadowlarks, blackbirds and killdeer.

There are also smells, some pleasant, some less so. The pleasant include a browned-butter smell that may be the smell of warm alfalfa, fresh cut hay, and wet earth. Verging on unpleasant is fermenting silage and hayage. And decidedly unpleasant are feedlots and yes, the occasional road kill (sorry, but it is definitely a part of riding in the country).

There is plenty of wildlife that just goes by too quickly to capture, but the vision stays with me as I ride down the road. These have included eagles and other raptors soaring above the road, a few crows that dipped so low over the road I had to duck, two deer that crossed in front of me so close I had to slow down, hundreds of ducks in the wet fields inundated by recent rains, and today a great blue heron that was startled out of a roadside slough and flew gracefully over nearby fields.

And turtles. This one was just by the side of the road, and I managed to coax it back into the grass (others I have seen were not so lucky).

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There are also the oddities that you might see from a car, but jump out at you at the speed of a bicycle. So far on the trip, these have included:

  • this “junk sculpture” outside of Murdo, South Dakota;

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  • old abandoned farm equipment of all sorts (this near Belvidere, South Dakota);

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  • repurposed farm equipment (?) (near Chamberlain, South Dakota);

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  • and innovative fencing (near Canistota, South Dakota).

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Sometimes even the litter (and it is EVERYWHERE) is interesting.

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And of course, there are barns. These two were from Alexandria, South Dakota and just inside the Sioux Falls city limits, respectively.

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The technical stuff:

79.3 miles

1,581 feet of climbing

Average speed 15.3 miles per hour

Weather: Hazy sunshine in the morning (due to smoke from fires in Canada); bright sunshine in the afternoon; temperatures around 45 to start and low 70s in the afternoon. Tail winds or left rear quartering winds about 10 to 15 miles per hour all day.

You can see the entire route to date here.