The Long and Short of It

Day 33 – The Toughest Day of the Trip!!

The sun was the first to greet us as we began to ride this morning but rather than like a sweet morning kiss from my wife it was something more like a my father turning on the lights before I want to wake up on a school day. It was necessary but told of things to come that may be less than pleasant. It was nice to be able to ride in the car for the 19 miles we rode yesterday rather than starting in town. It was also a benefit that for the first 1:20 of the trip we had a tailwind that pushed us almost 30 miles! We felt great. We stopped at the Muddy River Café and tasted Gelato for the first time in our lives! It was great. I asked if they received it directly from Italy. They didn’t. The owner made it right in the back. Oh well, it still was good.
Both of us were much surprised to see that our watches read 11:30 so we quickly got back on the bikes. With 80 more miles we were going to have to ride rather than munch on Gelato. I led and was about to take the wrong road. I chose the road because it was going with the wind but then reality hit when Dad told me that we needed to take the other road. Too bad! It was going into the wind and the wind was getting stronger.
We had two stretches of about 40 miles to go so we buckled down and endured the headwind to a Historic Site called “Split Rock”. Since riding the bike was becoming a chore rather than a love today, I decided to climb the rock and feel accomplished!

The road was calling and the wind was laughing at us, but we needed to get to lunch, so we got back on the road. At 10-12 mph we would have lunch in about 3.5 hrs. It didn’t actually take us that long, even though it felt like it and enjoyed the sight of Jeffery City, WY as it drew closer on the horizon.

As the door swung open to the Split Rock Café, we were greeted with a nice young, and I mean young, man asking us if we needed anything. I asked for a Gatorade and he promptly brought us cold drinks! He offered us Italian or Chicken and Swiss sandwiches. We both chose the Chicken. He warmed them up for us. Brought us water with ice and we enjoyed the pleasant conversation with him for about a half hour.

The irony about this town for me was that on the counter sat a book named “The Ghost Towns of Wyoming”. The city that we were eating in was on the list. In the 80s, the uranium mine shut down and therefore the town did as well. The empty barracks for the workers were still there but no people to sleep in them.

The k-6 school teaches only 11 students but they are like family. When high school comes they must travel 60 miles one way to Lander, WY. It was sad so I loved sitting and conversing with the young man and his brother who came in later. The sister came in a little later and that made three young kids under the age of 12 running this restaurant. I am sure that they had an adult who owned the place but we didn’t see them during our lunch. So if any of you are traveling west on state route 287 in WY between Muddy River Junction and Lander, stop by and enjoy the lunch at the Split Rock Café and say “Hello” to my three newly made friends. You will not regret the company or the experience that awaits you! The café has been open for 70 years and they are the only business that has not shut its doors in 2007.
Our blustery day continued and we made bad time but we were making slow steady progress. We watched our cyclometers and they finally told us that we were 40 miles to go to Lander, WY. Soon after we pulled into the city of Sweetwater Junction, WY. The city received its name when the pioneers were traveling across the west they came to the river and began to drink. They all remarked that the water was so sweet. They then found that their donkey that was carrying the sugar had made his way into the river and the sugar was dissolving into the river and down stream to where the people were drinking. Hence, the Sweetwater River.

We trudged up the hills into the wind when I saw the most beautiful scenery of the day! You say, “You dummy! You should have gone ten more feet forward and get that stupid sign out of the way.” I would say that this sign was the best scenery that I saw all day!! At this point in the day I needed this to give my poor legs a little bit of a rest! We flew down the five miles and enjoyed every spin of the wheel!

With about 18 miles left we stopped, looked at the map, got some fuel and electrolytes, and strapped our endurance helmets on and set out for our final leg of our trip. We got 9 miles out of the way and about to go down another hill, when a very familiar white Yukon could be seen approaching. The girls had been very nicely communicating with us all day that they wanted to come and bring us some food and water since there had been nothing since 2:00 and it was now past 6:00. They had just gone to the store and bought some heaven on a rind and brought it to us. It was the most refreshing watermelon I have ever had and there was never a point in my life where I appreciated it more! We soaked in all of the hydration and rest that we could and with news that we had only 9 miles to go were a little encouraged especially since about 5 of them were down hill.

The emotional lift did not last long since we had to pedal for all we were worth just to maintain a medium speed while going downhill! It was terrible and I found myself not getting frustrated but getting angry. The LORD came in His soft and gracious way and reminded me that I had no reason to be angry and every reason to be thankful. I then decided to thank God for everything I could think of. The wind. The downhill. Safety. Health to do this everyday. I felt very bad and am glad that the LORD didn’t take all of those things away since I was displaying such ungratitude!
We got to the bottom of the hill and came to an intersection. Left would have taken us again directly into the wind and right would have taken us with the wind. We turned right!!!!! It was awesome and mentally I felt ready for tomorrows ride.