Thursday, July 3, 2025
Day 33
Sundance, WY to Deadwood, SD

Miles: 48.25
Elevation: 2,454
Time: 4 hours 48 minutes

Total miles: 1,280.79 (1,711.79 w/ Uhaul)
Total Elevation: 59,629
Total Time: 129 hours 20 minutes

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us the chance to show how badly we want something.” — Randy Pausch.

We are going to seize the day!! Checking weather, it looks like we’ll have a tailwind in the early morning so we’re out the door and on the road before 7. The day should be Teles with less than 50 miles to travel and around 2,500 foot elevation climb. Onward east, we travel I-90 that has a broad, clean shoulder. Not only do we have a tailwind but we’re losing elevation. While in Drew’s draft, we’re traveling about 25 mph and I’m not pedaling. Woohoo!!

Until…

Suddenly, the sound of rapid metallic ticking emerges. My focus goes from ‘Living high’ to radar focused. Applying brakes evenly, shouting to Drew ‘Stopping!’ and feeling for any unusual movement by the bike, I quickly come to a stop along the shoulder. Did I break a spoke? Is there an issue with the chain? Did one of the pannier buckles come undone? Once stopped, Drew came to help evaluate. Spokes okay. As we slowly moved the bike forward, the culprit became evident-a tack or nail pierced the rear tire. Riding tubeless tires with sealant allows us to absorb small punctures without notice. The sealant merely seal the puncture and you often don’t notice anything has happened. But this might be too large for the sealant to work. Drew carefully removes the violator and the tire goes flat immediately. But…silver lining—-the tire didn’t go flat until the nail was removed so the nail did not damage the carbon rim. Whew!! The next hour is spent problems solving in layers. While on the shoulder, I am grateful we can get far enough off to be safe. There are no predators and the skies are clear. Although traveling at a nice clip, coming to a stop was relatively easy, not as it would be in a steep descent. And no one was behind me so no crashes. And…it was the rear tire versus front tire…so much easier to control. So much to be thankful for.
It seems I got nailed by the ‘Big Juan’. Once the nail was removed, the tire would not seal. Thankfully, Drew had a spare tire and tube. Resetting the tire bead was a bit of a challenge with a hand pump but he got it done. The next few miles we did a slow roll to make sure the tire was set. This brought us to Beulah, just a mile from the South Dakota for a ‘second coffee’ break. It’s 9:58 am and there is a post office adjacent to the gas station. How can this be? We have a collection of items we plan to ship home now being out of the cold country but didn’t think we would be able to until Spearfish where we have more Deet coming to an Amazon locker. Nice!! We lightened our load by 10 lbs. It probably doesn’t sound like much but it’s huge when riding a bike. So is this why we were delayed an hour changing a tire? Just outside is a sign for 333 Saloon. My lucky number!! Minutes later, we arrive at the Wyoming/ South Dakota state line. Yay!
Rolling along the highway, my heart rate monitor strap comes undone. Stop. Reattach. My arm sleeves are also falling down. And again. By the third time of the heart rate strap comes undone, I realize I need to tighten it. The body is an incredible thing. It has sourced fuel for energy on every part of my body exposing ribs, clavicles, sternum and scapula. It seems we have finally sorted everything out and are back on track. We get to Spearfish and the mapping program takes us off an exit miles from the center of town. A right turn and then a left and what would appear?? A bike store! We stop and find a set of tires that will work and the nicest owner ever-Jesse! You just can’t make this up! Leaving there, we head to the Amazon locker/UPS Store and retrieve our Deet and BCAA. t’s lunchtime so we see a bistro across the street. Looks popular and we can sit outside and keep an eye on the bikes. An hour and a half later, we leave and I once again find myself wondering why the delay. Seriously, 90 minutes for two burgers and water?? Okay Dianna. Patience. What am I supposed to learn?
Belly full, we continue our track to Deadwood. A little climbing and then a turn onto a gravel road. As we meander along, vehicles pass us and then we see them going back. Hum. Seems strange. Until we came across the broken bridge. We are likely 5 miles into the gravel road so if we backtrack, our route is like 15 miles longer than planned. After careful assessment, we decide we can cross. It means descending and ascending a deep ravine. One bike at a time, we take a bike down and push it up the other side. Damn, these bikes are heavy! Once onto a road, trying to determine which direction was difficult. The mapping programs were having difficulty triangulating the satellites. So we went right. And found the beautiful, gravel road…Maitland Road. Riding through the heavily wooded area was beautiful but the climbs were 10% or more at time. Dig deep. Pedaling at a 40 cadence with all my strength, I found myself questioning why. Why did the events evolve today the way they did? Why was I facing one of my toughest rides ever? And then a feather appeared at the side of the road. Wayne. Wayne is a dear friend who saves beautiful feathers for me. I picked it up and felt he was now riding with me. We’ve traveled hundreds of miles together. And today’s message became evident. I was not here riding alone. I am never alone. Wayne was here in spirit riding beside me. And Jerry. And Jim. And I am reminded I chose this day, this adventure. So many would love to trade places with me. And with a deep breath, the road curved and I continued. Each turn, I expected it would level out, or at least be 4% or less. But no. And then the wall. I have no idea what percent it was as I was going so slow, I couldn’t let go of the handlebars to activate the Garmin. Then, my memory of aunt Annie-Fight! Fight! Fight! I pushed each pedal stroke with all my might. I will not give up…surrender. I did not come to fail.
And slowly, the road softened as if understanding I would not be broken.
Eventually we came to the road leading to our camp for the night. Our hosts were delightful although we were not the most engaging guests. I think they recognized our exhaustion.
Today was a day I’ll never forget.

#RoadrunnerTour2025

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