TRANSAMERICA BICYCLE 2015: Days 55-63: Incredible Wyoming and the value of friendship

Day 55: Hot Sulpher Springs (ish), CO to Walden, CO (54 miles)
Day 56: Walden, CO to Riverside, WY (50 miles)
Day 57: Riverside, WY to Rawlins, WY (62 miles)
Day 58: Rawlins, WY to Jeffrey City, WY (68 miles)
Day 59: Jeffrey City, WY to Lander, WY (58 miles)
Day 60: Lander, WY to Dubois, WY (75 miles)
Day 61: Dubois, WY to 8 miles east of Moran, WY (48 miles)
Day 62: east of Moran to Signal Mountain Campground, Grand Teton National Park (15.7 miles)
Day 63: rest day at the campground

Ear Worms:
Van Morrison: Into the Mystic
Carol King: So Far Away
Celine Dion: It's All Coming Back (thanks so much Brigid, although technically I know I started it)
Bob Seeger - Against The Wind
Aretha Franklin - Riding on the Freeway
Bonnie Raitt - Dimming of the Day
Martha Scanlan - The West was Burning and Up on the Divide
Ferron - ... can't remember the name of the song or really any of the words, just got the melody and her voice...
Alanis Morissette - You Learn
Little Big Town - Tornado
Eagles - Lying Eyes
"Angeline the Baker"
Gladiator Theme Song
my high school fight song "Onward Granite"
Dire Straits - So Far Away from me
Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive
"Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins

Bonnie Tyler - It's A Heartache

Well goodness, I've had a veritable radio going on in my head haven't I?!

ALSO: I know a lot of days have past. If you would like to know more of what I've been up to.. plus a bit of good humor.. check out Dana and McKaylie's blog! There's some gem photos of me there too........ Scroll down to day 58 and go from there!
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=tS&doc_id=15438&v=1Ck

After taking a couple of rest days with friends, I thought it would be hard to get back going on the bike again, but actually it was a pretty easy transition back to the touring life. Maybe this was helped by the fact that I ran into Dana and McKaylie less than an hour into my ride, and we've been together ever since. While we usually cycle seperately during the day, we meet up at our destination and share wherever we are planning on staying. It's been really fun to hang out with them - we giggle a lot, joke about the are respective mosquito stores (yes, again they are turning into tall tale fish stores), and just plain share our biking experience together.

this is what happens when you bike too long

OH WYOMING. Goodness gracious my Montana neighbor to the south. I had no idea. At least I had no idea about the area we've been cycling through. Every single day I've been blown away by the landscape. It's so vast and so vivid in colors and geology. The sagebrush green, the clay red, the grays and browns and sky blue. The signs of huge geologic activity from eons ago, now visible after thousands of years of erosion has exposed the colorful rock. Some unexpected mix of southern Utah and high Rockies mountain scene. And then throw in the pioneer history, the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express, the Overland Trail. One night, as the sun was setting I just went out and looked into the vastness and the setting sun and feeling the wind blow at my back. The swaying grass. The stillness. And I thought about those pioneers who had traveled out here. All those pioneer women and how tough they had to be. And they were all with me in that moment. It's like I could really see those wagon trains right there.

SCENE:
So Lander: Wild West town free-for-all of wonderfulness. Headquarters to NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) and the world's oldest paid rodeo! Combine those two and you have one perfect mix of people in a town of 7,000. I feel a closeness with this town, because it was where my mom first came out west to do a NOLS trip back in the '70's. It's also where she tried to move afterwards, but couldn't find work. ("Just think Coty, if I had found a job there, you might not have been born." ... glad she didn't!)
We landed here on the 4th of July, which pretty much I'm sure is the craziest place to be for that day. Because all fireworks are allowed in the city. Which means I'm pretty sure the residents take this fact up with pride and could probably all have way fancier cars with the dollars they spend on these things. Which means after you've been up at the rodeo and seen the city fireworks from up there, you ride you're bike down the hill and through the city back to your warm showers host's house through pretty much a wild west explosion. Seriously, I was just laughing because at the whole thing. When I got back, McKaylie asked if I still had all my hair (as in did it get singed off)!

rodeo time

and that was just one house...

SCENE:
Jeffrey City, WY:
Population 1982: 6000
Population 2015: 50

I open up the ghost towns of Wyoming book and what do I see? Jeffrey City. I'm staying in a ghost town.
Incredible to really see the bust of a boom town. There is one bar/cafe that has stayed alive, the gathering of locals, where tonight I honestly felt like I was in a movie. The waitress was "out for awhile" so the locals just took over, getting whatever they wanted behind the counter, checking themselves out, including for me. Drunk woman over at the jukebox jamming out with herself. Waitress back now but in the back room with two guys working on getting a sliver out of her foot, she making sounds like she's having a baby. Young mother and smart daughter come in for snacks and cold drinks renovating a house to move out here. Guys sitting around smoking and drinking, young son with his knife around his waist, learning the ways of the world. Taxidermy with locals' hats on them and the wall. This place. The forgotten - but in a good way.

SCENE:
I'm cycling from Lander to Dubois, post 4th of July. It's a socked in day and the rain is starting to settle in. And headwind. And it's a 3000 foot gradual elevation gain the whole way. I pull into the Crowheart general store, having managed 40 miles already of the 75 mile day where Dana, McKaylie, and Brother Dave (another cyclist) have already arrived, "Phew, that was tough," I say. The headwinds are really having their way with me today, and I'm about ready to call it a day. We had heard that in a bind, the volunteer fire department building (the only other building there) would host cyclists. Fortunately, Dana and McKaylie offer to let me ride behind them.. they don't create much of a draft due to them pulling a trailer, but at least it would be a little blockage from the wind. I happily say yes. And so we ride the last 35 miles to Dubois, my day saved. It's maybe 50% the blocking of the wind and 50% just a mental shift and having something to keep up with, but my day is turned around, we laugh at how wet we are getting, stop to stretch our legs, and 35 miles later, pull into Dubois, giddy with the excitement that we had just accomplished a pretty tough day. And then to top it off, we got to sleep in a cozy little cabin at the KOA and watch the US Women's Soccer Team win the world cup! Nothing like watching that for some extra inspiration!

my view for 35 miles... Bessie Bob Barker!

mmmm..... pie and a cozy cabin

SCENE:
We had seen the signs for the Thai restaurant as we made our peddle push down the only 12 miles of interstate we had to cycle this whole trip. Thai food! In a town on the Transamerica! We had to go. But when evening rolled around we could see a big storm rolling in. Can me we make it? Yes we can we decide. But by the time we got out of the hotel, the wind was really blowing. We peddled so hard, rain drips coming and lightening flashing and thunder booming. Dana and McKaylie were pushing the tandem so hard they dropped their chain twice! We grinded up the hill - just barely getting to the Thai place before it really unleashed - even some hail!
And so we enjoyed the best Thai food, just laughing with giddyness, so much adrenaline running through us. All as the rain and hail and wind unleashed itself outside. And then, just as we finished eating, so did the storm, and we cycled over to the park to enjoy an outdoor concert and a little mini carnival! Not a bad day at all.

And so a week has past and I have riden through Colorado and almost all of Wyoming. Hard to believe that I have just about cycled through seven states, three mountain ranges, seen accent changes and store changes (goodbye Dollar General!) I've gone from never having done a bicycle tour to comfortably biking 60-70 miles for multiple days. I'm coming up on the end of my solo trip, which is so hard to believe. Brigid will be joining me near Jackson and we'll head on up into Yellowstone together, so right now I am hanging out at the campground, waiting for her to arrive. I said goodbye to Dana and McKaylie this morning, which was hard for all of us I think. We've had an incredible couple of months leapfrogging each other, and this past week has been really special. Now I will spend the day mentally shifting into another adventure mode. It's going to be a different experience for sure, but two months out here doing my own thing is plenty good, don't you think? And so the adventure continues.

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