29.3 miles cycling, 1343′ of climbing (1988.7 tot) – to read from the beginning, click here.
Today’s ride was a mercifully short one given the last three days. We lumbered into Spearfish and stopped at Rushmore Bikes to see if they and mountain biking or touring shoes in my size. My old Tomasso’s had over 9000 miles on them and even Shoe Goo couldn’t rescue them anymore. There weren’t any my size, but they recommended Two Wheeler Dealer in town as another place to check.
We continued into town and Dana went on an activity scouting expedition while I went to the bike shop. Fortunately, they did have one pair my size and my feet sighed in relief that they wouldn’t be tortured by the old shoes any longer.
I reconnected with Dana and we headed to the campground which was run by the city. Nice spot and very reasonable. Dana wanted to go on a hike, but I was content to work on my shoes and go to the grocery store which was a few miles away. It didn’t take long to realize my old cleats weren’t going to come off, so I added another trip to the bike shop to replace them.
Spearfish was holding their last “Downtown Friday Night” of the year and we went back into town for that. Good band Judd Hoos & Denham, an acrobatics demonstration, and multiple food vendors lining three or four blocks of the closed-off main street. We got a bottle of wine at a liquor store, iced it up, and took to the street to find something to eat. Sadly, all the vendors were meat-based, so we ended up at the local Chinese buffet (one of the saddest ones we’ve been to) to fill up on rice, fish, and veggies (and some chicken for me). After dinner, we sat and listened to the band until they closed up.
Tomorrow we’re headed to Deadwood and maybe further if the auto show is a complete bust.
