Day 61 1880 Town (Belvidere) to Murdo SD 38km

Waking up in a thunderstorm shaken tent has a relieving touch, especially when you notice that your 'on tour' home isn't floating in one of the puddles that surround your camping spot. We decide for a slow start into this short riding day and start our engines with a reading session. An autobiography of a Native American woman (Lakota) has captured our keen interest to learn and understand more about Native American life in the 20th century. The book provides us with a powerful and also quite disturbing view from the inside about life as a Lakota woman on a South Dakota reservation. We both agree that the read is an essential step in building our own relationship with this state and that it will complete and complement the pictures and emotions that we will connect with this part of our journey. We scrap the idea to have breakfast at the tourist trap '1880 Town' and rather support the business of our campground hosts from Puerto Rico. And it turns out to be much more entertaining as well. The entire dining room falls almost into complete silence when a Sturgis bound motorcyclist from Massachusetts loudly repeats what he just heard from Louise: "What?! You are riding a bicycle from Seattle to Boston?! Are you crazy?!" We enjoy the movie star like moment with a smile and happily engage in the question time that follows over eggs, toast and pancakes. It's funny. Touring cyclists in South Dakota seem to be as rare of a sighting as a mountain lion at Mount Rushmore. The short ride today is easy and comfortable enough to practice some German along the way and to test our memories of all 50 American states. Apologies to Indiana - the only one that we missed. Our final destination for today is the sleepy town of Murdo, nestling right beside the busy Interstate 90, hoping for some tired drivers to stop in for a coffee or some car fanatics to visit the Pioneer Auto Museum. We feel a bit sleepy, too. Rightly so since we lost one hour when crossing into the Central Time zone. But somehow we know that the remaining days in South Dakota will keep us entertained - in one way or another... Although possibly not from the monotonous scenery!