Day 4: Most people probably won't understand...

...how it could possibly be enjoyable to bike 110k from midnight to 6am through the Black Hills of South Dakota at near zero degree temps along with having to contend with rain off and on...but it was...

The opportunity to ride through the Black Hills with the entire road to ourselves is rare. We enjoyed the peacefulness of the ride uninterrupted by vehicles. We enjoyed riding through small towns in their complete darkness. And we enjoyed seeing the wildlife active in Wind Cave National Park when people are normally sleeping. The herd of 25-30 elk streaming across our path was an awesome sight.

So far...this ride is tops among all the ones we have done so far.

Some photos from the day:

Our breakfast restaurant in South Dakota...the animals were staring at us from all the walls:



Team 5 at lunch - Shae, Vanessa, Erik, Joy, and Peggy:



Team 1 at the start of their day's ride (yes, I was hanging out the side of the van to take this shot...) - Alison, Tom Z, Tom E, Darrell, and Richard:



Team 1 has had a number of very tough rides - we left a bottle of wine for them on the side of the road...hopefully they found it!



Quick stop at Mount Rushmore with our RV volunteer drivers Greg and Rick:


Team 2 at the end of their ride - our transition point (notice the rain) - Laurel, Lavina, Kathryn, Steve, and Gavin:


At the start of our midnight to 6am ride - in full rain gear and smiling at this point:


- billy