August 20, 2024 – The Qualms

    I woke up around 7:00am this morning, but it was raining pretty heavy. My feet were wet. Water got into the tent from the wind, I guess. No biggie. I dried my feet off, and went right back to sleep. The rain is so peaceful as it pitter-patters on the rain fly of the tent. I slept for another two hours. I woke up around 9:00am, and about that time, the rain stopped. After packing up my gear, I rode slightly uphill to God's Country Campground store. I met the owners of the campground, Lee and Trudy Qualm. We talked for a while about my journey and also about their journey. They run the campground, and they are also farmers. I believe they raise hay. I'm not sure what else they grow. As we were talking in the store, a young man named Shaw came inside. He bought a soda and a couple packs of Little Debbie donuts. Shaw is a heavy equipment operator that works out of Platte, SD. Trudy wanted me to share Jesus and the Gospel with Shaw. I tried to, but the conversation drifted elsewhere. Shaw must have been on break from work because it was already around 10:00am. He went back to work, just up the road. “Time to go play in the dirt,” he said as he walked out the door. Lee left also, and he shook my hand as he walked out the door. Trudy, on the other hand gave me a large gift for my trip! She handed me a $100 bill and said that God told her to give it to me. Then, she prayed over me. Wowweeee!!! What a blessing, Trudy, Lee, and Shaw were to me today! Thank you, Mrs. Trudy! After praying over me, Mrs. Trudy told me that Mr. Lee and her son were converting a grain bin into a cabin. The newly restored grain-o-cabin was just up the road on John Qualm Road. The road was named after Lee's grandfather. He was farmer back in the day.

    Now, Mrs. Trudy and Mr. Lee live and work on John Qualm Road. Pretty neat! Mrs. Trudy tried to get me to stop by the cabin, but I really needed to get down the road. It was already 10:30am by this time, and I had only pedaled a ½ mile. She also wanted me to get in touch with a pastor of a church in Chamberlain, named Travis. I tried contacting him, but it went straight to his voicemail. If he tried calling me back, I didn't get it because I have no reception where I am at. I was hopefully going to stay the night at his church, but I bypassed Chamberlain and went straight to Fort Thompson on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. The reason why I bypassed Chamberlain is because I had an awesome, super strong tail wind pushing me north all day, Even though I didn't start riding until about 10:45am, when I left Mrs. Trudy and God's Country Campground, I still made about 75 miles. Overall, it was a really great day of riding on the flats and some in the rough country by the Missouri River. I am not camping at the Big Bend Dam Campground (on the Fort Thompson side of the river). It is still super windy (almost violent gusts of wind), but I managed to set up my tent. My front tire went flat again. Another thorn punctured the tube in a different place. I patched it, but I still think there is a slight leak somewhere else on the tube. The rubber is super thin on the tire, so the smallest thorn can stick through the rubber and puncture the tube. If the tire is flat in the morning, I guess I'll put a new tube in the tire. Fingers crossed that it get me to Pierre some 60 odd miles away from here I really must replace this tire with a new one. And with that being said, it is now dark. Good night and God bless!