South Dakota

Final Day: Almost Arkansas

Published

3 days ago

July 4, 2024

I don’t know what the Internet thinks of my travels, but the pond butterflies at Fort Crowder shooting range found my bicycle (and me) quite interesting:

A few of these scaly-wingers tagged along for a few meters, but they all headed back to the water well before I reached the exit. Too bad—I could have used their help lifting my gear over the gate.

Yesterday was Day 5, the final planned day of my ride from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Bentonville, Arkansas. My dear wife is coming to retrieve me today—we’ll spend this evening and all Friday enjoying the local trails and shops, then head back en auto Saturday. Knowing Wednesday was my last hard day in the saddle, I could give it my all.

Hay hay! It’s America’s birthday! (The photo is from July 3, but the Founders voted for independence July 2 and dated the Declaration July 4, so we should always celebrate Independence for at least three days, right?)

Morning in Pittsburg was humid, and the radar showed rain west. But the sun wasn’t pounding yet, and the wind was down from yesterday, now just light and southwesterly. I think I can, I think I can…

Bike at rest, on good gravel south of Pittsburg, Missouri.

Done with Kansas, now putting Missouri miles on my bike!

Atomic veterans—those are our own guys we nuked.

The Dogwood Trail, by Carl Junction. Nice little gravel alternative, right next to Highway 171, away from traffic, into the fun! Supposed to go right across Center Creek, says Google Maps. There is no bridge on Dogwood Trail crossing Center Creek. The burrs fixed to my leg hairs from hauling my bike up the embankment back to 171 can testify.

…is right next to a gravel bike trail running through Joplin. I like a mix of prairie, forest, and urban post-apocalypse on my bike trails.

Wide clearing around that Joplin trail, easier to see the zombies lurching forth.

South of Joplin, the countryside turns really pretty.

These are exactly the kind of wooded roads I was hoping to find. I could ride country like this all day.

But boy, all those woods and fields and curvy roads do make a guy hungry:

Peking Garden in Neosho, Missouri, re-opened just a month ago.

I don’t Instagram my food much. I just took this photo of plate 1 of 3 and got down to business: lunch buffet and ice-cold lemonade refills.

Fort Crowder shooting range: the sign said Don’t enter during small-arms fire. I didn’t hear any small arms, so in I went. Luckily, south is the downhill direction through the range. Whee!

The trail out, back to more woodsy, curvy country roads.

View from a church camp where I filled my bottles from a blue hydrant and took a final long rest before pushing to Bentonville.

Feet in an unfamiliar position, for a few minutes.

Rocks along US 71. Not as scenic, not as shady, but I was ready to give my keester a rest with smooth pavement.

But then, just past Jane, Missouri, the one real disaster of the trip:

Plam! went my back tire! Grind grind grind went my less protected rim. I braked fast, looked under me, and saw a flat. The instantaneous deflation told me this was no simple thorn prick that my tire slime would fill, no nail or branch jab that I could plug. This was a one-inch tear in my rear tire. I don’t know if I hit some sharp metal or if the tire just gave out from some defect or the heat or the strain, but I didn’t spend a lot of time scanning for the cause. I was done riding. After 460 miles, just ten miles from terminus, not quite to the Arkansas border, I was done.

So, alas, the bicycling portion of my trip was only three states—Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. I don’t get to put any Arkansas miles on the Trek 1120, an otherwise mighty and comfy bike that experienced just one catastrophic failure. And boy, if the bike had to give up, it picked about the best place to quit that it could have, just a short hitch to my intended lodging rather than out in the rain Monday morning in Admire, Kansas, or any place else much farther from where I hoped to be.

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South Dakota

Names Released in Meade County Fatal Crash

Published

46 mins ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Names Released in Meade County Fatal Crash

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The names have been released following a fatal crash in Meade County near Sturgis on the 4th of July.

The Department of Public Safety release reads as follows…

What: Two-vehicle fatal crash

Where: SD Highway 34, mile marker 38, two miles east of Sturgis, SD

When: 10:10 a.m., Monday, July 1, 2024

Vehicle 1: 2017 Chevrolet Silverado

Driver 1: John Joseph Lundin, 82-year-old male from Sturgis, SD, fatal injuries

Seatbelt Use: No

Vehicle 2: 2005 Dodge Ram 2500

Driver 2: Jerry Lee Seaman, a 72-year-old male from Newell, SD, serious, non-life-threatening injuries

Seatbelt Use: Yes

Passenger 1: Dixie Lee Seaman, 72-year-old female from Newell, SD, with serious, non-life-threatening injuries

Seatbelt Use: No

Meade County, S.D.- An 82-year-old man died July 4 from injuries sustained in a two-vehicle crash July 1 near Sturgis, SD.

Preliminary crash information indicates John J. Lundin, the driver of a 2017 Chevrolet Silverado, was traveling eastbound on SD Highway 34 near mile marker 38. At the same time, Jerry L. Seaman, the driver of a 2005 Dodge Ram 2500, was traveling westbound on SD Highway 34. While initiating a left-hand turn into a gas station, Lundin turned in front of the Dodge Ram and the vehicles collided head-on. The driver and passenger of the Dodge Ram were transported to a nearby hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries. Lundin was life-flighted to a Rapid City hospital, where he passed away July 4 from his injuries.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. All information released so far is only preliminary.

The Highway Patrol is an agency of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.

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South Dakota

Company applies to build 68-turbine, $261 million wind project in northeast SD • South Dakota Searchlight

Published

8 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Company applies to build 68-turbine, $261 million wind project in northeast SD • South Dakota Searchlight

An energy company has applied to construct another wind farm in northeastern South Dakota.

The company is Chicago-based Invenergy. It wants to build up to 68 turbines through its South Dakota subsidiary, Deuel Harvest Wind Energy South. The turbines would be spread across 54 square miles of privately owned land near the small town of Brandt in Deuel County. The project’s estimated cost is $621 million.

The “south” in the project’s name distinguishes it from the 109-turbine Deuel Harvest Wind Farm, which Invenergy completed in 2021 and sold to Atlanta-based Southern Power.

The new project would be located about six miles south of the existing Deuel Harvest wind farm. Another wind farm, Tatanka Ridge, is adjacent to the southwest edge of the proposed project area. If the new project is approved and built, it would raise the number of wind turbines in Deuel County to 233.

The new project could deliver up to 250 megawatts of electricity. South Dakota ranks 13th in the nation with 3,462 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity, according to the American Wind Power Association.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission issued a public notice Wednesday about Invenergy’s application. People with a direct interest in the project have until Aug. 27 to apply for “intervenor” status, which would allow them to participate in hearings, file motions, request facts or documents, and engage in other aspects of the permitting process.

The new application says Invenergy will not use eminent domain, which is a legal procedure to obtain land from unwilling landowners.

“South Deuel Wind has entered into long-term, voluntary lease and easement agreements for the placement of Project Facilities with private landowners within the Project Area,” the application says.

Invenergy estimates the project will generate payments to landowners totaling $78 million over the next 30 years, and property tax revenue generated for local governments will total $38 million during the same period. The project is expected to create 243 jobs during construction and eight long-term operational jobs.

While Invenergy was working on its previous project, some local residents challenged special exception permits issued to the company by Deuel County. The permits were ultimately upheld by the state Supreme Court.

Deuel Harvest Wind Energy South project map

The Deuel Harvest Wind Energy South project map. (Courtesy of South Dakota Public Utilities Commission)

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South Dakota

Update: Missing 17-year-old in Turner County located in Yankton

Published

15 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Update: Missing 17-year-old in Turner County located in Yankton

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Update: 17-year-old Vevon McGee was located in Yankton Saturday around 6:15 pm, which is nearly 50 miles from where he went missing.

Previous story…

The search is on for a missing person in Turner County. Tevon McGee went missing Friday night around 11:00 pm.

He is 17 years old and has the development of an 8-year-old.

He was last seen near Marion wearing the same shirt as the one on the missing poster.

Agencies searching for missing 17 year old in Turner County(Cordell Wright)

The Turner County Sheriff’s Office and the other local rescue agencies are assisting with the search effort.

Those with information are asked to call the Turner County Sheriff’s Office at (605) 297-3225

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