Diary

Mileage:  120 miles (194.4 kms)

Elevation Change:  3210 feet (978 meters)

Weather:  sunny and hot, very windy

Morale: tired

Incidents: an antelope ran alongside us for a mile

Daily Summary:

If yesterday was the road to nowhere, today was the Highway to Hell (by AC/DC, of course).  What absolutely desolate territory!  The reason we had such a long day today is that there is absolutely NOTHING in this 120 mile stretch.  The largest town we went through had 50 inhabitants, the smallest had 1!  At the only flush toilet on the route I bought an ice cream bar at the store in order to use it.  There was a  counter full of stuffed rattlesnakes.  The population was 10.  We asked about it.  The old guy said he had lived there for 38 years and had never seen 10 people there.   The big excitement for us was when an antelope ran alongside us for a mile or so.  He was trying to find a way to get through the fence, so just kept going and going right next to us.  He was running faster than our 23 mph at the time.   The elevation chart today is exaggerated.  The route was really very flat.  We were on the road at 5:45, just as the sun peaked over the horizon.  The first half went well, but we were pretty tired on reaching the halfway mark.  At that point, though, a howling wind picked  up directly behind us and we flew the next 30 miles.  The wind was so strong it blew our bike over at the SAG stop.  Then the road turned southeast, though, so the wind was a howling side wind, which was really difficult and exhausting.  We were getting blown all over the road.  We finally made it in around 1:15, and went to get a big plate of Mexican food to refuel.

 

Christopher’s braces had a piece come loose today, so the first thing we did here was find an orthodontist to take a look.  They were very nice, took out the offending wire, and didn’t charge us anything for their trouble.   The ride over there and back caused me to ride an extra 6 kms, which meant I did a double metric century today, so got a certificate for that at Route Rap this evening.  One of the guys leaving the trip today gave Christopher a nice authentic bolo tie from the western outfitter downtown.  Christopher has been doing a great job taking care of people at the SAG stops. 

 

After dinner we went to see the Casper Rockies play the Ogden Raptors on the baseball field right next to the hotel.  Fun, fun, fun.

 

In the pictures below, you see the utter desolation of the ride.  Next, Ray stands at the edge of a gorge where the Indians used to drive the buffalo off the edge in Hell’s Half Acre, Wyoming.  Then, our friend the antelope running next to us.  Finally, Raymond refueling on a mountain of enchiladas and a monster coke.  Well deserved rest day tomorrow!