Day 74 (7/29): Selby to Onida, SD

Mileage: 60.5; 2,160 total



This was a relatively fast ride, with light tailwinds. But by the mid-afternoon it had gotten quite, hot, in the low 90's, and I was glad to call it a day.



There is a little hotel in Onida, but no one was at the desk when I arrived. A woman at the restaurant next door told me that the hotel owner would be out harvesting wheat, and that the hotel was likely all booked up with workers who had come into town for the harvest. But she put me in touch with a woman who had a small house for rent, for $35 for the night, so I had good lodging for $10 less than I would have paid at the hotel!



Onida is a nice little town of about 700 people, with one restaurant. I had a good dinner there, and breakfast the next morning. Most of the other patrons appeared to be people working on the wheat harvest, but as I was finishing breakfast I got involved talking with a man and a woman at a nearby table, and joined them for a couple of more cups of coffee. Then answered various naive questions that I had about farming. The man said he had lived near Onida for 70 years, and had never seen such a good year for the crops: wheat, corn, sunflowers, and soybeans were all doing exceptionally well.



In the course of our conversation the woman, Barbara, asked what I had done before retiring, and when I said I had been a consulting actuary she knew exactly what an actuary is. It turns out that for more than 40 years Barbara has been either the manager or president of the Central Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, which provides coverage to about 600 farmers in the area. So we concluded our breakfast talk with a discussion of the serious risk of hail, aggregate stop loss reinsurance, and the need for adequate surplus.