Day 88, nothing but fields

I started riding among corn fields and I ended surrounded by corn fields.

And guess what, I saw nothing but corn fields all day.

The first (and only) town I passed through was Midland, South Dakota - a small, quiet community with a nice park to rest my legs.

This park even had a free tent camping area - something I haven't really seen before. I almost wish I would have stayed the night in Midland, just to avail of the camping area, but I still had 30 or 40 miles to ride.

It is nice to see such a well-maintained public area. No RV hookups, no campfire pits, just a flat spot for travelers with tents.

From Midland, I turned north, catching an amazing tailwind. The road looked like this the entire way.

Infinite fields, infinite rollers, infinite road.

Just after turning east again, I ran across this Little Brown Church, just outside of Hayes.

Even more interesting was a single tree standing in the middle of the fields. I never thought a tree would be so interesting, but I hadn't seen one in a few hours.

And this one was captivating; I rested my legs for a couple minutes, just staring at the tree.

Within a few minutes, I passed through Hayes and stopped at the rest area on the side of the road. Little more than a set of picnic tables and two outhouses, it was a perfect place to setup camp. Especially with the potential for rain tonight.

This is where things get interesting. A car pulls up, just as I am finishing eating my dinner. A gentleman gets out, sits on the bench across from me and just starts talking to me.

But he opens with, don't worry, I have prescriptions for all the drugs I have.

Bam, red flag! He told me that he was meeting someone there to discuss some things, and turned the conversation to the story of his life. I rarely spoke a word, as this guy commandeered the entire conversation.

After three hours or so, the sky already dark, he decided to take off - the person he was supposed to meet never showed up. At this point, I contemplated leaving and setting up camp somewhere else. Would anyone else show up?

I opted to stay, not having any energy to move, but tried to hide myself the best I could behind some trees. This experience, by far, was the most unsettled I've felt in the last three months.

On the bright side, he insisted on taking a photo of me with the sunset.

And it was a spectacular sunset.

Joe

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