Rawlins, Wyoming

Once again, it's been several days since we were able to find a town big enough to have a library. Heck, it's been several days since we were able to find a town big enough to have anything! We left DuBois and headed for the town of Lander on Saturday. We needed to get there in time to get to a bike shop to get a broken spoke fixed. The man who worked at the bike shop was really nice; he told us he would stay and wait or come back and open up if we didn't get there in time. Of course, it was sort of a matter of pride; we arrived about a half-hour before the shop closed and it took about an hour and a half to do the work. Since Bob really did the repair, after all that he only charged us $4.00!

We stayed in Lander two nights, since we hadn't taken a break like that yet. It was wonderful to have a day just to rest and walk about town. I found out Sunday evening that Ward had spent some time in Lander, too. What a coincidence, since Wyoming is such a large state. We also met up with our friend Rick who has been appearing off and on since the second day of our trip. It turns out that his riding partner sort of went off on his own, so we agreed to meet today (Tuesday) in Rawlins, where he is going to rest for a day and wait for a package from his wife.

Lander was really the last place where we saw any green. As soon as we climbed the road out of town, the landscape started to really "gray" up. We missed Lander right away, since it really was a lovely town with several good restaurants, one right next door to our motel. It had a great atmosphere, including trees, and our tv got many channels.

There doesn't seem to be much more than sagebrush and dirt; the valleys are very broad. By Monday night, we were out of the sight of snow for the first time on the trip. Our destination for Monday night was Jeffery City, not very aptly named. We'd been warned by everyone (including the info on the Adventure Cycling map) that J.C., as the locals call it, is practically a ghost town. Rick, our advance scout, called (oddly enough there is a cell signal there) and said that the bar in town did have pizzas and that he ended up staying in the basement of the Baptist Church. The price was a lecture by the minister and he said he left a donation in the morning. At least there was a shower.

We felt encouraged by this information and set off for J.C. The only stop along the way was Sweetwater Station, where we ate lunch at the convenience store/bar/community center and talked to the lady who owned the place. She said Rick's difficulty with getting a room at the motel in J.C. was due to the fact that the lady who runs the motel is also the fire department dispatcher and there was a fire on the mountain on Sunday.

Fortunately, the fire was out by Sunday night, so that when we arrived at the motel, she was only her normal cranky self, but did take time to sign us up for a room. For $37.10 (cash only, please) we had Room 15. It was everything you might imagine it to be, but it was clean. And, she had told us, when the wind blows just right, you might get a channel on the tv. We did: one channel. Thank God it was PBS and not the Hunting Channel (sorry, Ward). We walked down to the bar (at least it's not hard to find things in that town!) and had a pizza. We had noticed a couple walking ahead of us and figured they must be in the same motel. When we got to the bar there was another loaded bike, so there were five bike tourists in all: the two of us, Roger and his wife Chris from England, and SHANE! Shane was really sort of a homeless person who just rides his bike from place to place. He was on his way to the Rainbow Gathering, so you can just imagine how that conversation went. We did enjoy company for dinner, though, and afterwards went back to the room to watch the channel.

This morning we woke up early and headed for Rawlins, the biggest town we've been in for quite a while. We actually made about half of our miles by 9:30, stopped and ate lunch at Grandma's Cafe. (Grandma was actually quite cranky, too; we seem to have entered the Valley of the Cranky Old Women). Our afternoon ride was a little slower, with a pretty hefty climb before we got into Rawlins.

Rawlins is a big town, at the intersection of Routes 30 (yes, that same one), Interstate 80 and several large Wyoming Roads. We will most likely be in Wyoming for one more night, and then cross into Colorado. I'm hoping for more green. The nights will likely get cold again as we climb toward Hoosier Pass toward Breckenridge. Maybe the women will be less cranky.

It seems that there are some actual towns coming up, so eating and camping will be less of a problem. Can't wait to check another state off my list of "states to be visited."