Day #21, Lusk WY to Hot Spring SD

I am not sure the Covered Wagon Motel in Lusk was ready for us this morning at Breakfast. They laid out frozen French toast and "corn dog style" sausage on a stick with a pancake batter coating, again frozen requiring microwaving. Sure slows down the line when all fifty of us have to microwave something before eating. I left Lusk WY this morning at 6:30, with the Braselton TX crew of four. We rode for a while and then Fred suffered a flat and Warren stopped to help him fix it. Al, Marian and I soldered on and then picked up Max, Laural, and Marie to share the pace line work. We cycled through a fog bank as we headed north. We were averaging over 18 when we hit the first SAG stop. After refueling on energy bars, I got impatient and left the stop early and rode for fifteen miles by myself before they caught me and I rejoined the group. Someday I will learn my lesson. When we turned east the wind started to pick up, and it was in our face again, so it was good to be part of a group. We soon crossed into South Dakota, stopped for pictures and then rode about ten miles to the second SAG stop. We had about a four-mile climb after the stop and I lost contact with the group, (if you haven't figured it out yet, I am slow going uphill). I rode by myself again until I found Marie sitting on the shoulder with a little road rash on her elbow. The shoulder of the road had suddenly gone from being ten foot wide to three foot wide and she had ridden straight into the gravel and fallen. I assisted her getting it cleaned up and we rode on in to Hot Springs. I stopped at DQ for a shake, and Marie went next door to the Best Western to get her wounds tended to. Refreshed by my chocolate milkshake, I checked into the hotel and got cleaned up. Ray Black (a lawyer from London) who I allowed to share my washer/dryer load a couple weeks ago is doing my dirty laundry. We will see if he has any domestic skills. Tonights dinner was at the local bowling alley, not in a dining room, but among the scoring tables. I guess there were not many choices in the small town of Hot Springs SD.

P.S. Ray did lose one of my socks, along with one of his gloves, but did find both after dinner on the laundry room floor.

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