Day 25 DeSmet to Tyler

Rain, rain go away, come back another day! Whew! We began the day with a torrential down pour! Just as John and I got the rain fly off of our tent SLAM! rain began to pour. (at a rate of 3 inches per hour we later found out) We hurried to finish up putting the tent in its bag and dashed our bags to the truck. We were drenched! I ran into the women's bathroom for cover and laughed as each person came in cursing the weather. Living in Michigan, John and I have ridden in our fair share of rain storms. We've grown accustom to the damp, but usually the rain comes after we have been riding awhile. To purposefully leave a dry place and go out into the rain seems a little looney... yet that is exactly what we did.

Our breakfast (and dinner the night before) was provided by the DeSmet Chamber of Commerce. It was delicious and the women who prepared our food could not have been more gracious as we dripped all over their floors and ate them out of house and home. DeSmet is a lovely town and Ward's, the shop where our food was served, was warm and inviting. It was filled with all sorts of items both decorative and useful. My mom would have gone crazy in the place.

The whole group headed out route 14 for another day of head winds. The terrain was flat and the rain let up shortly after we got on the road. We stopped in Brookings for lunch and had some time to look around town. We stopped in Sioux River Cycles and Fitness and I found a cool jersey that I had to buy. 

At mile 62 we crossed our 6th state line into Minnesota. Almost immediately the terrain went from flat fields to rolling hills. It was weird, like the Minnesota land decided it wanted to differentiate its self from "that other state".

Toward the end of our day we met another tandem couple! (picture later!) They began their trip in Michigan. Talk about a small world! They where on their way to Brookings where we had just been. It was great meeting and talking with them. Eventually we had to get a move on and ventured into Tyler, Minnesota.