TODAY'S TALES: 

Lazy start this morning.  With such a short day we decided to load luggage at 8:00.  Last night at rap I was greeted with cheers...SLEEP IN!!!!  I told them that we weren't going to open the van until 8:00 so no need to go out early...well, as  you can imagine, 80% of them were standing in line to load at 10 minutes till.  When he did start the loading, it didn't take long for everything to get on the truck and everyone to get on the road.  As it were, everyone got in by 1:00 with the fast riders finishing before noon and our rooms weren't ready until 1:30.  I can't imagine what the riders would have done with their time if I'd said loading would not be until 10:00. 

About 9:00 last night I was laying in bed listening to the thunder clapping and watching the lightening light up the parking lot.  It had all passed through by the time we got up this morning and the weather promised to be perfect on this short day with the wind howling out of the west.  I came out of that one looking like Houdini or a weather soothsayer...How bout that for controlling the weather?  Hey, I might as well take the credit...if the weather had been crappy I'd gotten blamed.  (One more side note...at maintenance time  the sun came back out.  Geeze, I know the riders are wondering how I do that.)

This morning we had nearly 10 miles of right-left/right-left city cycling, the longest stretch without a turn being 2.4 miles.  Last night in route rap, I joked about taking odds that no one would get through the first 5 miles without making a wrong turn.  The riders were through three-quarters of our route sheet before getting out of town, but I only saw a couple folks off route early...good thing I saw them too or they may still be looking for Wall.  When they hit Hwy 1416, just on the outskirts of town, it was up and down over rollers but straight ahead to the SAG Stop in New Underwood.

Today we are back into grasslands with rolling grassy hills and fields of golden wheat dominating the landscape. The road was undulating and in places the rollers were perfectly spaced for effortless climbing. The other dominant items along our route were Wall Drug Store billboards.  We've been seeing them ever since we left Astoria, but now they appear every mile or so--something like the Stuckeys and fireworks signs on the east coast route to Florida.  Each has it's own message, such as "Free Coffee to Honeymooners," or "Classic Western Art at Wall Drug."  Whatever the message, the signs promised a spectacle when ever we got there.

I would like to know how much they've spent on advertising over the years as there must be a million signs all over the world pointing to this place.  It started out as a small drug store that was off the beaten path so it got little or no traffic.  It was the wife's idea to entice travelers with the offer of free ice water.  It caught on when the owner and a friend started putting signs out on the main road to advertise.  Last year we were treated by a visit from the mayor at RAP and he told us that Wall Drug now has a $300,000 annual advertising budget...that's a lot of signs.  By the time they got back from putting out the first signs, people were already lined up and the rest is history...that's the power of advertising a good idea.  They still offer free ice water and they have more than 2 million visitors a year...yep, it all started over a glass of ice water.  Now for THE REST OF THE STORY...Wall is just a spot in the road and would be more aptly named "Hole in the" Wall, but tourism keeps it going.  Only 818 people live in Wall, but the town can seat over three times that in their restaurants and there's over 2,000 available motel rooms.  One other thing I found really interesting is that the high school students come from as far as 75 miles to get to school...and the town doesn't bus.  Kinda puts my dad's walking 3 miles to school in the snow uphill both ways to shame.  One other interesting note...their motto is "Wall, the window to the west."  Hmmm.

Yep, this is a tourist trap...and we are tourists I guess.  Everyone took the afternoon to take in the sights...a couple went to a grasslands museum that also serves as the town's visitor center.  It's really interesting to see how people survived in this area in years past and how they settled in this harsh land.  It was a restful afternoon.  Now hopefully everyone will be rested for a tough day tomorrow...it will be long and windy again.  Hopefully the winds will be at our back or will be light.  But whatever they are...we'll ride.  See you then.

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