today saw 21.9 miles with 41,019 steps...findings for the day: 1 rather beat up quarter, 1 football, 1 magnetic door sign "Lincoln Welding", 1 goofy die with face card stuff on it and 1 Barbie cowboy boot...wildlife sighted: 3 deer...the day dawned even windier than yesterday, sure glad it is a tail-wind...went on some back roads and for a time even on gravel roads...did another 3 miles on the freeway, with the tail-wind I would have been able to spread my jacket and be in Minnesota in ten minutes!!!...the wind blew all day with intermittent sun, a few rain drop, a few snow flakes and WIND and MORE WIND!!!, in fact as I sit here the coach is rocking and making all sorts of wind initiated noises...finished up o the west side of Rapid City and then scouted out the journey for tomorrow as well as a place to stay...I will move the coach first thing in the morning and go put in another 20 and change...after the walk today we drove around downtown Sturgis looking for a "restrictive diet" restaurant, nope only the Chinese joint and I won't do that two days in a row, so we came home and grazed through the fridge...problems getting parts for the motor home in a timely manner so it may very well be that the repairs get postponed for a while, that will be a "game day"decision...did a wee bit of cleaning in the motor home before it drove me to drink MORE heavily...thanks to the Baumgartners for stopping by and chatting, thanks Della for the kind words and the thanks of the day goes to Jeanie of Jeanie's Kitchen-ette in Black Hawk, SD, not only did she give me great directions to get through Rapid City BUT she gave me a BIG bowl of clam chowder to take home, YUM on a cold windy day such as today...forecast tomorrow is much of the same although Rapid City might ONLY be 20-30 mph instead of 30-40 mph...thought a great deal of Josh Peppers over the last couple of days, I whine over a couple of feet that are a wee bit sore, at least I have both of mine to hurt...not that I pack around the martyr mantle each day BUT (so I guess I do!!!) as I think of all of the honorees of this excursion I ask myself "How would Josh approach today?" or "What would Carla do?" or "How does Fred think of his life as a veteran and a cancer survivor?", thoughts and questions such as those and a thousand just like them make the journey a wee bit more meaningful than just one foot in front of another and repeat several million times!!!...well off to sleep listening to the wind howl its way across Sturgis, through the rows and rows of grave markers at the Black Hills National Cemetery and down 1-90 past Rapid City...see ya'll down the road...cheers!!!