Snake Creek Recreation Area to Chaimberlain, SD- Day 16- 45.70 mi.

SpokeWrench said today... "In Indiana, you would call today a windstorm, but in South Dakota, they just call it Wednesday."

We got another late start today. We wanted to start early because high winds were predicted for this afternoon. When my cell phone alarm rang at 5:15, simultaneously it began to rain along with thunder and lightning...not so conducive to cooking breakfast and packing our things, so we rolled over in our sleeping bags and slept for another hour and a half. By then the rain had stopped, so we got up, had breakfast, packed up, and left by 8:45. (No matter how hard we try, it still takes two hours to get out of a campsite.) At 10:30, the National Weather Service came on our two-way radios and issued a high wind advisory from 3:00 p.m. to midnight today. They predicted west winds to exceed 35-40 mph with gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour when the front passes through the area. Our route today is mostly northerly but I was bothered because the last 8 miles or so we would be heading due west. That would put us in the right time frame for those 50 mph winds to be directly in our faces. We tried very hard to beat the cold front to our destination of Chamberlain, but by 11:30 there was already 20-25 mph winds from the northwest. This made a quartering headwind that slowed us to 9-10 mph. We were not making very good time. On top of that, there were no restaurants in the entire 45 mile route, so it was necessary for me to cook a package of ramen, literally on the roadside. Predictably, we came to that last 8 miles at just about 2:30...and for once the weather service was on the money. Right on queue, the sky became partly cloudy and the wind picked up from 20 mph to what I would estimate at 30-40 mph with higher gusts, straight in our faces. That last 8 miles, took us almost 2 hours to ride. On the flat stretches we were lucky to make 5 mph (not much faster than walking) and even that took all the strength we could muster. The gusts would almost completely stall us. We just put our bikes in the lowest "granny" gear we had and pushed forward. When we finally did arrive at Chamberlain, I couldn't see how our tent could hold up under this kind of wind, so we opted for a motel, hoping the winds would calm down by tomorrow. So here we are at the AmericInn working on the blog. At dusk tonight the wind did start to calm down. Hopefully it will allow us to continue tomorrow. I have read in the Lewis and Clark journals, that they also experienced these kinds of winds and in their bulky boats, and it made it nearly impossible for them to continue until more favorable winds came along.
Seventh Grade Question:
The name of the town we are staying in tonight reminds Spokewrench of a former famous NBA player. What was his full name and what was one of his major accomplishments?

-ClarkWheel