Wednesday, July 16th: Watertown, SD or … Say hi to the ol’ folks.

 “Hey woman, it’s 6 am. Don’t we have to get up?” “No”, she says “We can sleep in for ½ hr!” But for some riders it’s hard to sleep in and soon we hear the footsteps, the wheels of bags rolling on the concrete, and the voices. The start of the ride takes us along Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder’s homestead. Well – the house is gone but the hill is still there. 

The terrain doesn’t differ much from yesterday – it’s just a bit more rolling. My woman has this fixation on taking pictures of trees. Here it's sometimes not so easy to find trees, but this one is a good one.

 Temperature is a bit higher than yesterday too and soon my woman does her stripping act. It’s 20 km straight north on hwy SD 25. Here is our turn on the rolling road. The cracks in the road are so big, I cannot hold the American flag -  it jumps out of the bag. My woman has to return to fetch it. Well, I guess it’s a good thing I held on to the bag… I do not like to fly out of the bag! At the waterstop we get off the Sweet Machine. My woman takes me into the Bryant Parkview Care Center: a housing complex for elderly. They welcome us with cookies and coffee. My woman talks to some of the folks who live there: 101 years old is Margaret! I would like to jump into their lap but maybe they do not like dogs. After talking for a while, it’s time to get back outside. The next stop is the small town of Hayti.

Oops, there is that noise again…cover your ears ‘cause it’s 12 o’clock and the siren sounds. The next part of the ride I see lakes I would like to jump into for a swim, or just to chase the birds away who are taking their afternoon nap. 

Way up ahead is the Shuli woman cycling and my woman does her very best to reach her. The last few miles we bike with the food woman to town. My woman says:”Let’s all have an ice cream. We deserve one”.

 Reaching Watertown scares me at first: so much traffic and the all American strip with Mc. Donalds, DQ, banks, … It’s so different! My woman needs to do some shopping, which takes us a bit off route. But there is plenty of time left. At last we reach the school, which triggers no memories from years before.