Let's see...there's Purple Rain, Rhapsody in the Rain, Singing in the Rain, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, and so on and so on. You get the idea. It rained! Almost all day.Algona, Iowa, to Mitchell, South Dakota

260 Miles

1160 Total Miles

Let's see...there's Purple Rain, Rhapsody in the Rain, Singing in the Rain, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, and so on and so on. You get the idea. It rained! Almost all day.

The band Garbage did a song called "I'm Only Happy When It Rains." So we might as well be happy. And we are.

We left Algona before 8:00 am, which is a bit early for your road jockeys. We loaded up our bikes in the company of several other bikers who were in town for the ABATE rally. They were moving very slowly, apparently the victims of the revelry we so judiciously avoided last night.

Packing our bikes at the Motel 8 in Algona, Iowa

Prior to our departure we checked in with our innkeeper, Nicky Patel. Nicky fired up his web browser so we could check on the weather. We were sorry we asked. Let's mention it one more time: rain.

We geared up and took off to darkly overcast skies.

Our ride down Highway 18 was uneventful, but dry for about two hours. Then it started raining. OK, no more about the rain.

We stopped for a quick c-store lunch of fried everything and coffee. We didn't do much sightseeing because of the rain. Sorry, it had to be mentioned.

A traffic stop in downtown Spenser, Iowa

During our c-store stop we approached a local and asked for the best route to Grand Rapids, South Dakota. We took off full of hope; hope that they were good directions. An hour later, after finding ourselves in a downpour in the middle of nowhere, Nelson claimed, "That guy who gave us directions was a messenger from Hell." We then decided to get on the interstate and drive on to Mitchell, South Dakota.

Once on the South Dakota interstate we hunkered down and took possession of the right lane. An hour later we arrived in Mitchell.

Mitchell, by the way, has a huge Cabela's, which for the uninitiated, is the mother church of hunting and fishing paraphernalia. We had to stop. Nelson needed waterproof socks (his boots leak), Cleve wanted to look around and Bo spent most of his time in the parking lot because he knew if he went inside for too long he would buy a bunch of stuff he didn't need.

After the Cabela's orgy, we made our way to the Hampton Inn, which has high-speed internet and happens to be close to Cabela's.

Tomorrow we head for Rapid City, which will be home base for a few days. The Rapid City area boasts Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Sturgis, Deadwood and the Custer Battlefield. We plan to visit them all and tell you folks all about it.

Pray for good weather.

A late addition:

It took us a few days to find an adaptor to pull the photos off Cleve's camera. Pictured are your worthy explorers at the time of departure on July 2.