Day 2.
August 22nd, 2021.
I had purposely planned day 2 to be a mostly uneventful day.
Not for any other reason but for the fact that I had not identified anything of serious interest to route myself through or to.
Today I was headed for Sioux Falls, SD.
My destination being a hotel I had found and stayed in during my 2014 Central States trip.
I awoke with excitement, despite having slept quite heavily. I know that because I did not dream!
With gear packed after a quick breakfast, I grabbed a Luggage Captain and brought all my gear out to the bike and began loading the bike for the day.
A gentleman walked up to me as he was taking his morning cigarette smoke and started conversation with me.
He was very curious about my journey, as I was about his as well.
So after exchanging pleasantries, we began to exchange stories of our individual times on the road.
Apparently, he was a truck driver, transporting a Wind Turbine blade to its final destination on an Indiana Wind Farm.
Today being Sunday was his day to be “off the road” - a break for the whole team as mandated by codes governing the profession.
We chatted for a while and through my questions, he perceived my somewhat above average interest and knowledge in windmill technology (Yes, windmill and not wind turbine. There is a difference!)
During the early part of the 1970’s in Ghana, W. Africa, my brother Pinnock and I were inspired by a windmill project in Arusha, Tanzania to provide water to a much drought-stricken community, built from all locally available materials.
The “can-do” spirit fostered in us by our parents made it obvious to us that we could also do the same.
Starting with the fabrication of our own Anemometer, we plied the Accra-Tema Motorway gathering our own figures to enhance accurate calibrations for readings we would require for measuring the wind speeds in our locale and eventual blade sizing and design of the prototype. (see a photo in my Pacific Northwest 2021 - Album - 1)
He directed me to the truck stop next-door to the hotel where his rig was parked for a close up look at the whole set up.
So finally loaded up, I proceeded across the street to find his rig.
It was at this point I found out that I was in Iowa 80 Truck Stop - The largest truck stop in the world!
What a bonus!
I then realized that I must have been very fatigued in order not to have noticed it last night.
This is why it is so important to know your limits and recognize the onset of fatigue when you are on the road, so as you do not become a danger to yourself.
I have seen and learned so much about this place from documentaries and shows on TV over the recent past.
I treated myself to a full-rounding of the place to get a good feel and visit through the experience of visiting it.
At this truck stop you can find ANYTHING! - and that is not an overstatement!
After meandering my way through the maze of tractor-trailers/18-wheelers, I found his rig way in the eastern end of the truck stop.
Only for me to find out that of 2 different sizes of wind turbines being currently produced for the market today, this one at 54m (177 ft), is the smaller of 2. The longer being 80m (262 ft) in length.
I milled around and eventually struck up a friendship with the remaining crew - the pilot vehicle driver and rear dolly driver who gave me a thorough education on the intricacies of what goes into transporting these blades and the team work and coordination that is involved in the whole process of getting the blade from production facility to final destination.
Parting ways, I flowed through the rest of this massive truck stop back onto the interstate and pointed the ST towards Sioux Falls, SD as instructed by my GPS unit.
Today’s trip called for just over 640km (400 miles) of “road”.
Not long into this leg of the journey, I encountered head winds which gradually increased in strength.
Strength of which began to tell on the ST’s fuel consumption.
At highway speeds where the ST usually returns 45 to 47 mpg, 39 mpg was now the norm.
There was nothing I could do to improve that except to slow down which was really not the desired choice.
With nothing but open land and empty fields around me I made very few photo stops.
I needed to “knock down miles”.
I spent the day fighting the headwind, crossing into South Dakota just before 5:00 p.m.
A little after 6:00 p.m. I pulled into the parking lot of my destined hotel for the night.
So with 400+ miles for the day, I settled in for an early evening after picking up a hamburger loaded with extra onions and tomatoes from the nearby Whataburger fast food establishment.