Math.Guy on 2 Wheels: July 31: Ride to Presho, and time for swimming

She is called Dignity

Today, I rode to Presho, after two rest days in Chamberlain. I did quite a bit of sightseeing on my rest days, and most of the photos on this page were taken there. The first place I wanted to check out was St. Joseph’s Indian School. Along with Boystown in Omaha, SJIS was one of my top goals to see while on this trip. Included on the campus is a very nice museum dedicated to the Lakota Sioux. I spent a couple hours there going through the exhibits which described the lifestyle of the Lakota Sioux in the early 1800’s when Lewis & Clark made their expedition of discovery. The Indians were totally dependent upon the buffalo, and the plains in this area were home to thousands of them. I have not yet seen any. Eventually almost all of their land was claimed by the US government, and the Indians were moved from place to place, a very sad story. Another interesting place on the campus is the chapel where the children attend Mass. While there I met a husband and wife. The wife attended SJIS around 1960.

My other tourist highlight is the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center which is part of a rest area on Interstate 90. The area is dominated by the statue named Dignity which is shone above. You can get an idea of the size of the statue, when you compare the size of people, on the extreme left edge of the photo. Inside the rest area building is another nice museum which depicts the life of the members on the expedition. Very interesting, and I spent two hours here as well.

After a couple rest days, my body was ready to resume the ride, so today I left Chamberlain, and headed west along the Interstate to Presho. Technically Presho is not on the Lewis & Clark route. Instead of west I should have traveled north out of Chamberlain. However, I was advised that due to Covid, the Indian Reservations are locked down, and outsiders, like me, are not being permitted to travel though them. Bikes are allowed on interstate highways in SD, and I did ride on I-90 for 9 miles today. The rest of the ride was along a frontage Highway very close to I-90, and I had the road mostly to myself. Except ironically, wide load semis weren’t permitted on I-90, so those trucks had to use my road.

Compared to previous days, the ride was pleasantly uneventful. I did notice that now new crops were showing up in the fields, including wheat, sunflowers and sorghum. I got a much better picture of sunflowers today. I arrived in Presho before 2:00PM, so I as able to avoid the worst of the heat. Presho is small, and only has one paved street which is Main St. All the rest are dirt roads. The temps got up to 91 again but I beat the heat by taking a swim in the local city pool. Impressive facility for a town that does not have paved streets. The deep end is 12 feet deep and has both low and high diving boards. My swim session was cut short due to an impending storm, and just like in the 1960’s in Medford, we were whistled out of the pool at the first rumble of thunder.

Tomorrow I will continue my ride to Pierre, using the route suggested by a couple officers of the SD state patrol who happened to be having supper at the same Dairy Queen restaurant as me.