Day 36 - A Capital Ride to a Capital City and a Capital Dinner
Chamberlain, SD to Pierre, SD
We got going and encountered some of the best downhills, not in terms of grade or speed, but in sights we had seen. I was thrilled because (for once!) I had remembered my GoPro. Woot! We were moving just fine but we finally reached the rolling hills one might expect from South Dakota and Jess T. started to get a pretty bad headache. She ended up getting in the van because she didn’t feel well while we were at the water stop. While there, the next group pulled up. Ev didn’t look so hot and I told him he should get in the van…it probably didn’t do anything because he would get out later anyways but it is hard to realize when your body has had enough and this trip really pushes people to the limit. I know I would be really annoyed if someone told me that too so I could see why someone would get upset about being told to get in the van – oh well. We adopted Mia and Jackie from their group and continued on. It was a smooth ride, if a bit hilly, and we arrived at lunch in no time. Ev rejoined us there making an almost super group of Bailey, Jaya, Jackie, Steph, Mia, Ev, and myself after lunch. It was so gorgeous after lunch – we came back to the river on a gorgeous downhill and would cruise with it the rest of the way into town. We took a quick dip in the river at a little fishing pull-over before we would finish our ride into the capital of South Dakota.
Despite a pretty great finish (minus a huge a$$ hill at the end) to a difficult day, we weren’t in the best of moods pulling into the host. But that would all change very quickly, We arrived at the church to find out we were late for our Italian dinner reservations! Oh dear! Our bikes were graciously taken from us by our quality wait staff and we were seated at an elegant white tablecloth covered table in the main hall of the church. There we got to meet our servers and staff more closely. (You may be confused right now, I was too…) Essentially, the people who had vanned or been grabbed by the van had organized a spaghetti dinner and had all drawn mustaches on and were speaking in Italian accents. I died it was so funny. To see Elli, Kevin, Erin, Dana, Chey, Matt, and Rachel parade around as subservient Italian waiters and waitresses stunned me. It was AWESOME and probably one of my favorite 4K memories. Kevin (or Pepe, as he is referred to in the industry) was so into it while Dana could hardly keep a straight face. It was absolutely perfect in every way and I was so thankful to have such thoughtful and incredible teammates.
I was up late working on routes because I have basically become paranoid about gravel, shoulders, traffic, and well, everything. But eventually it was too hard to look at the screen so I showered and passed out. Night!