The Rise Up Ride: Day 14, Lazy Day at the KOA
Date: 6 May 2021
Start Location: Kennebec, SD
End Location: Kennebec, SD
Distance: 0 km
My new super-lightweight camp chair arrived by UPS at the KOA. Tony, the owner and the UPS driver had problems finding the package in the truck since they were looking for a camp chair and there was only this tiny, short little envelope with my name on it. At 615 grams (1.4 lbs) and 11x11x30 cm (4.3x4.3x11.8 inches) the Helinox Ground Chair's tag line is "sitting is believing." The chair absolutely passes the "Kimo's Touring Corollary to the Marie Kondo Rule."
Does the utility of this item in my panniers outweigh its gravity?
That old T6 compression deformity, from doing a header off of a horse in 1984, is fine on a bike, when I do heaps of yoga or sitting reclined. This new chair gives me and my old thoracic spine great joy.
Clean laundry, new gear, clean chain, shopping done, and my plan is set for the next three days. Tomorrow, I'm riding parallel to Interstate 90 to the Super 8 as a 6° (feels like 1°) storm moves in on Friday night. With rain in the forecast for all day Saturday, but with a tailwind, I'm going to layer up and head through the wet to the Stroppel Hotel and Mineral Baths in Midland, where $55 gets me a room and a soak. Then, with favorable winds showing up in my Windfinder app, I'll do a longer leap across the Badlands to Wall, South Dakota on Sunday.
The US Postal System sucks worse these days than ever. After turning our apartment upside down looking for my lifetime US Park System Senior Pass, I reluctantly ordered a replacement and got the special USPS delivery. The card, which gets me free access and reduced camping fees at the US National Parks, arrived late, the day after I left home. @paminnyc forwarded it by two-day guaranteed delivery to the Kennebec KOA post office box. Four days later it isn't here. Maybe in the morning.
