Rapid City

I'm on a guest computer in a library that only gives me thiry minutes on the computer, so this may be cut short.
Last I wrote I was in mitchell. Now I am in rapid City, hoping to get into the Black Hills National Forest today.
I've had my longest day since I last wrote, a solid 80 miles. This is my estimate using my maps, as my spedometer/odometer is currently out of commision. I've got a coupl esweet adventures to relate since Mitchell. First, my near deadly brush with soDak wildlife.

On that 80 mile day, pedaling with a light tailwind over the rolling hills between Vivian and Cactus Flat, i was relaxed. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to what was resideing on the shoulder. I was taking in the sights, enjoying the views of towns in the distance when I got to the top of hills. All that jazz. Hence, I didn't see the prairie rattlesnake that was basking on the shoulder until I was about five feet from the thing. There is a fair amount of rubbish on the sides of highways, so It's easy to not notice something in the distance. The following happened very quickly; the snake(which was big) coiled up, I couldn't swerve at all becuase of the load on my front wheel, the snake opened its mouth and made a hissing noise, I pulled my feet out of my toe clips and lifted them as high as could I could, the snake lunged, mouth open fangs exposed, I yell things, and mirqculously unskathed roll down the hill with a fair amount of adreniline in my viens. th eonly reason I didn't get bit was the fact that my legs were lifted entirely above my top tube. I watched that snake strike thin air(or maybe the bike) right where my right calf would have been. The next day I made it into the Badlands National Park and checked out the visitor center. There I checked a snake guide and found that my scaly nemisis was a Prairie Rattlesnake. Well!
My time is running out! I'll see if I can get back on after logging out.