The morning began 15 miles further down the road since we covered them yesterday. We saw the same beautiful river this time with white pelicans and three elk drinking from it! It was another beautiful day with another reminder of the LORD’s creation! We took off and saw four bikers then another and then another. It must be the morning for biking, and they certainly got an earlier start than we did.
We got to the WY state line and took the mandatory picture. We got back on the bikes and had just worked the lactic acid out of our legs when I heard the fateful pssssssssssssst sound that we hate hearing so much. I guess at least I knew it went flat. Right?!?
There was no doubt what caused the flat. There was a stone that had gone directly into my tire. It was small but quite sharp. I extracted the rock menace and repaired the flat and was back on the road in about 5 minutes. Little things like this are seen as setbacks by those who do not trust the sovereignty of God but to those who see all as from our LORD understand that this was just another divine appointment from our gracious and merciful God! I needed this reminder since without many setbacks for days, even though we pray and thank Him for safety and speed, we often just go throughout the day without a thought that we are totally and utterly dependent upon God for EVERYTHING!!!
While we were changing the tire, we saw and heard the cowboys moving their cows from one pasture field to the next. It almost made me feel like I was in the old west. It was neat to see this part of what I thought of as the past, here in the present!
We were back on the road and enjoyed nice roads and fair winds. Then we came to a hill and I thought I would show you what a 7% grade looks like.
The hills are a little deceiving from this far back but you kind of get an idea of the steepness. This hill is about 2 miles long! It was a nice climb and a nice view from the top. When I got to the top I saw this wind station. On the wind station I noticed something that reminded me of my day s at Fab Masters. The antenna at the top that is running perpendicular to the rest of the large antenna is made at Fab Masters in Marcellus, MI!!! That was neat and I had a little moment of nostalgia. Not enough to wish I was back at work and cut my trip short.
The wind had changed and was now in our faces so we made a few more stops to make the trip seem a little shorter. We came across this field of bailed wheat and enjoyed the view.
We then came into the city of Riverside, WY and looked for a café or something for a snack. The city was filled with old cars and the remainder of the day they passed us on the road.
They were in a car club from CA and they trailered them to WY and were touring the state. I thought it was the second best way to tour the US. The bike being #1 because of the speed at which we are going doesn’t allow us to miss anything and the cars go only about 10mph faster than we. We got our bowl of ice cream and were back on the road.
We met these two riders going west to east on their first trans-con who were excited as we were about seeing and hearing from other bikers.
We fought a slight headwind all the way to Saratoga, WY where we enjoyed lunch at Mom’s Café.
They made the best burger that I have had on the entire trip. It was great and just the fuel I needed to get me the rest of the day. After lunch, I did my routine check of the tires and my rear was low again. We were a little frustrated but changed it. The diagnosis, I think, was that the stone puncture this morning was so big that it exposed some less than smooth parts of the tire and wore a hole in the tube again. We put two pieces of electrical tape over the hole on the inside to make it smooth and were off again. It held fine for the rest of the day.
The ACA (Adventure Cycling Association) maps routed us over I-80, only because it was the only road going from one city to the next, which made me a bit nervous.
Try as we might we did not ever see the speed limit but we did feel quite sage on the road with a nice wide shoulder and almost completely free of debris. The 13 miles of Interstate went quite quickly and I will not feel quite as nervous next time we have to do it.
We got off at Sinclair, which is a factory with a little city attached to it, and had only a few miles to go to our final destination of Rawlins, WY. The trip went quickly.
The fact that my tire was wearing the tube was a concern to me so I decided to look for a bike shop in town and buy a new tire. The bike shop could be seen from our road so we went and bought the tube and just like last night we decided to ride a few more miles to shorten tomorrows ride. Tomorrow had 124 miles planned through mountains and winds so anything we could do to shorten it was only to our own advantage. We called and asked the girls to leave in about 40 minutes to pick us up. In the hour it took for them to meet us we went 19+ miles, thanks to a slight tailwind, a 5 mile downhill, and lots of motivation!
The RV Park where we stayed had a nice mini golf range, so my family enjoyed a little time together before supper and then quickly to bed to prepare for a long day tomorrow.
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