Burke, South Dakota

Hello all! We're here in Burke taking a day off due to the weather. It was freezing and rainy when we woke up, now its sunny and warm. Silly weather. We'll be in Pierre in a couple of days, then its onward and upward into North Dakota and Montana! It's beautiful here. So many hills (which are actually quite easy to climb) which means a lot of big views and so much sky! Besides the crappy weather we've had we're loving it. I keep trying to take pictures, but through the camera it just looks bad. It's like taking a picture of the ocean. We'll describe it all in great detail to everyone when we get home :). We've also had some nice tailwinds swooping us down the roads.

The veggie restaurant in Omaha was just wonderful. Dylan had a reuben (which gives the Chicago Diner some competiton) and I had eggplant parmesan, followed by a slice of chocolate tofu cheesecake. Yum! We didn't get to see too much of Omaha unfortunately. We ran out of time after doing all the necessaries (including laundry :)) and went back to our campground for dinner. Iowa was pretty and fun to bike through-very flat-with the exception of Sioux City, where we got extremely lost and the wind attacked us. After a very long stressful day we elected to stay in a cheap motel instead of bike 15 more miles to the next campground. Since then we've been a lot stricter with our budget-watching our food expenses and we've had great luck on free camping. I don't think we've had to pay for camping for the last 5 nights! We keep running into Justin! We have very like minds when it comes to camping spots. We got to bike with him for a day a couple days ago, then played a few games of rummy. Last night we happened to meet AGAIN at the campground here! Today he went off trail to see the badlands, so unfortunately I think our time together might be over. But who knows, at this rate I'm sure we'll see him at least one more time.

Dylan and I both can't wait to get back on the trail. While we like our break days, We'd always rather be biking. I can't imagine what it will be like to get home and NOT be required to bike every day. I'm sure we still will, but we've gotten so accustomed to going at least 50 miles in a day It'll be wierd to change those habits. We've also begun to dislike cities. It's rare that we get somewhere with over 1,000 people, and we've started to like it this way. We're also loving being able, no, required, to eat the amount of food we've been eating. It is rad.

Ok everyone! It's picture time! I finally got some pictures on a cd and sent it off to my mom, now here they are for your eyes! (they're kind of out of order, unfortunately)


Heres me running through a field on our first day


We forgot silverware, so we ate with bike tools the first day.


Our bikes with Lewis and Clark.


Dylan by a field on his birthday.


We made it!


Elly On the road.


Dylan on the road.


Trail food.


Fixing a spoke.


Bike hostel in Tebbets.


Armadillo skeleton.


Dylan and Justin.


Kansas!


Dylan building a fire.


Iowa!


Lunch on the Missouri.


These signs keep us company along the way.


Nebraska!


Loess Hills.


Bike superhero.


Klaus und Heidi.

Ok thats it for now. There are a lot more on the flickr page...link at the toip of this page!

we love you!