Iowa in the Rearview Mirror: Hello South Dakota and the Woitte family



I pedaled across the Big Sioux River into South Dakota today - after taking a swim.

THE HEAT INDEX WAS 118.

I kept wondering why it seemed so hard to pedal today.

I PEDALED across the bridge over the Big Sioux River this afternoon, so now I’m in Tea, South Dakota, enjoying the hospitality of the Woitte family. I’ll tell you more about them in a moment; but trust me, it’s still hot. 

As far as Iowa goes, a newspaperman told me the other day that the state has the third oldest population, with Florida naturally first.

The main problem, of course, is that so many young people leave in search of work. All I can say is the people who remain seem universally nice.

First, a sad note. I don’t follow the news much, pedaling across the states, but saw a copy of People magazine while doing my laundry a few days back. It was sad to see that Trouble, Leona Helmsley’s old pet bit the Big Dog Biscuit and passed on to a better place at age 12.

His place on earth wasn’t too bad either.

You may recall that Helmsley took over her husband's hotel chain when he died and employees promptly tagged the old witch with the nickname “The Queen of Mean.” So, you figure she didn’t have many friends and when she died, she left most of her fortune to Trouble, $12 million.

A judge later knocked it down to $2 million, but Trouble took his defeat with equanimity and never uttered a “woof” in complaint. He ate well in his final years, enjoyed $8,000 worth of grooming annually to take care of his fluffy white locks and was guarded 24-hours-a-day by a security detail, at an annual cost of $100,000.

I was a little behind schedule getting into South Dakota because I felt beat the last two days and decided to quit early both nights. Two days ago, I almost ran into problems when I overstayed at dinner after sitting down with a great group of people at a bar and grill in Bancroft, Iowa (population 700). I kept talking and listening and procrastinating until finally I had to pedal like Hades the last two hours before dark to find a place to camp.

I blame Tony Berte, who started it all, inviting me to join the group after he heard about my ride. He even bought me a drink (Mountain Dew). 

I try never to pedal and imbibe.

The group included his wife Sue, a nurse, Rick and Bertie Hagedorn, she’s another nurse, and some other very nice individuals who I’ve gotten a little mixed up. Sue and Bertie told me conditions in the nursing profession have improved since they started. I do have that straight, at least.

Wayne Amy, I think, was the truck driver and a jovial soul. There was a red-bearded fellow across the table, but I could never hear what he said and a nice woman sitting directly to my right who used to do some farming. She said land is now selling in Iowa for $8,900 per acre; but farmers are getting high prices and the weather this year has been good. Most farmers are smiling.

At one point, they asked me if I didn’t get cooked in the heat, while riding, and I said, yes, but it was probably hotter doing farm work. Rick soon set me straight. He said a farmer could get $7 per bushel for corn these days and the yield per acre can be 200 bushels. He’s not a farmer but drives a machine that lays down fertilizer in the fields. And it’s air-conditioned and has auto-drive that will steer you straight each time you crisscross the field. 

Air-conditioned! Of course. 

As I keep saying, you learn the nuances of life in this country, when you get out and go for a ride.

The problem is: how anyone new could ever afford enough land or the equipment, when Rick says, “You can’t buy a new tractor for less than six figures.” Farms are either passed down in the family or big corporations take over and consolidate.

I apologize for mixing names: but Julie Amy, if you’re checking this blog like you said you would, it’s legit. Your kind donation of $30 will go straight to JDRF.

So, “Pedal on!” Isn’t that the line from Wayne’s World?

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church - Bancroft, Iowa.

(I should have checked it out; but I was in a hurry.)

POSTSCRIPT: Right before I got to Bancroft, I met another distance rider, a fellow named Phil Hinrichs, a retired EPA specialist from Dayton, Ohio. Phil has made seventeen cross-country trips and estimates he’s done 260,000 miles since 1976.

Earlier this evening Eric and Gala Woitte picked me up on the side of the road and took me to their home for dinner. Gala helps run a JDRF organization in this area and the Woitte’s middle child, Lexi, is a type-1 diabetic herself. (They also have two sons, Kenny, the oldest, and Mason, 14.)

Lexi is a pleasant young lady with a ready laugh – and really the whole family is nice. But since this is a blog about diabetics, we’ll focus on the girl. She’s going to be a junior at Teddy Roosevelt High in Sioux Falls this coming year. It’s a big consolidated school, with plenty of class options, and she’s already thinking very seriously about going into nursing someday. She hasn’t always been the “perfect diabetic.” There was a time when she let her A1C count get up to 11; but it’s good now and she’s working very hard in school. She says she remembers spending hours on homework last year and wondering “when is it ever going to end.”

But she still did it. She works as a volunteer at a nearby hospital, runs track (100 meters and 200 meters) and won a beauty pageant last year, Miss South Dakota Junior Sweetheart. She’s unassuming and didn’t tell me about her win. I just happened to see a picture her parents have hanging in the kitchen. She’s only sixteen but she has long experience with diabetes, having been diagnosed when she was eighteen months old. She also remembers getting in trouble when she was little because she kept eating glucose tablets when she didn’t need them because they were so good.

She strikes me as a cheerful person, and when I ask her if she thinks she is she says yes, and her dad readily agrees. She “reads a lot,” vampire romances among others, and loves the Harry Potter movies, but hasn’t read the books. She tells me she goes to Christian Youth Group every Wednesday and adds, “I just love it.” She does admit, however, that on one occasion on her way there she turned her car in front of an oncoming truck and both vehicles were totaled.

Yet almost no harm done to the occupants.

Lexi and dad, Eric Woitte. The name is pronounced "White."

Gala herself is off at class tonight (she’s studying for her nursing license) and Eric has been helping me with a variety of computer problems. He has to talk to me like I’m an overgrown kindergartner, because when it comes to computers, I’m pathetic. But he keeps smiling. Mason tells me he is doing roofing part time this summer, a good job for one his age, and he and I talk about the Marine Corps, which he thinks he may join. Kenny and his girlfriend are going to a movie and I am relaxing, out of the heat.

Phil is a serious rider. And I mean: serious!

Trip #17.

POSTSCRIPT: Right before I got to Bancroft, I met another distance rider, a fellow named Phil Hinrichs, a retired EPA specialist from Dayton, Ohio. Phil has made seventeen cross-country trips and estimates he’s done 260,000 miles since 1976.

Western Iowa - pool party for cows.

Eat big and stay slim - pedal 2,000 miles!

If you would like to donate to help find a cure for type-1 diabetes please click HERE!

(This single click takes you to my fund-raising page. There, click again on "donate to this event." Then click "Biking and Painting for Diabetes."