DAY 13 - HUMIDITY STARTS

When we got up this morning, I went outside to get an idea of the temperature.   Immediately I was struck by how similar it felt to home. It was a little overcast which we hadn't seen so far on the trip, but that wasn't it. I soon realized it was the humidity. This was the first day that the air was anything but dry. It certainly impacted us later in the day when the temperature approached 90. 

  Dave and I made it to breakfast first, but after almost two weeks together we know what each other likes so we were able to order for all three.  We each got the big breakfast, eggs, ham, hash browns, toast, coffee, but something else caught our eye - cinnamon rolls. They were warm, covered with icing and delicious. I tried to take a picture that did them justice and I apologize in advance to my brother-in-law Charles who does the photography for my sister's food blog, stylishcuisine.com. 

Breakfast is when we finalize our stopping points. Overnight I received intel from Command Central that gave us the distances between towns, the locations of the grocery stores and the elevation profile for the ride. They also recommend places to stay at the destination location.  Command Central is manned by my three sisters:

Gail in Needham, MA,

Lauren (with her 6 week old son Grant) in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 

and Diane in Manhattan. 

We couldn't do it without them, especially now that the route has changed. 

    Now on to the day. We were on the road by 7:15.  Route 20 in Nebraska is called the Butte to Bridges Byway. We were in the Butte section which can be seen through the retreating morning fog 

   The first push was to Chadron, NE about 30 miles away. Although we planned the route West to East to take advantage of the winds, we had a steady headwind.  With a strong headwind our pace will drop to 13-14 mph, compared to a tailwind when we can easily ride 23-25 and when that is combined with a downhill stretch, 30+ is easy.  We've become accustomed to each other's riding and are very comfortable in a pace line at those speeds. If you want an idea of what that's like, here's some video that Justin shot:

Riding between Fort Robinson, NE and Martin, SD. from Justin on Vimeo.

After Chadron we had a chance to practice as the road turned more north east, with a strong tail wind and sloped downhill.  We were at our lunch stop in Gordon, NE quite quickly, smiling and happy for the change in fortune with the winds. 

    We stopped in the local grocery store, bought the standard staples- lettuce, cheese, turkey, blueberries, bananas, and yogurt. We ate a few streets away at a local park. 

 

A town official came over to chat and made sure we knew we could get water and use the bathrooms in the town office across the street. 

   During lunch we checked the weather as we had heard there were thunderstorms predicted. Indeed, there was severe weather alerts for our area, so Justin made sure neither Dave nor I tried to take a nap and we were off. Our  route now took us north into South Dakota. 

     We took one break in  Batesland, SD.

Although this place doesn't look like much, it was truly an oasis. The heat and humidity had been getting to us and this place was very well air conditioned. We bought some drinks and had a seat at a small table set up inside. 

The proprietor was a very nice woman who was originally from SD but lived for many years in Seattle.  She wanted to hear about our trip and in exchange gave us route and weather advice.  It was then that we received NWS alerts on our phones and we started riding again to beat the storm to Martin, SD. We could see the storm coming but we were successful in avoiding it.

Because of the flash flood warnings we stayed in a motel in town instead of the campsite by the river. There were few good options for food in town, so we hit the grocery store, bought some healthy food and a 6-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and were in for the night. We have to get to bed early as we have a long ride tomorrow (142 miles) and we lose an hour crossing from Mountain into Central time. 

DAY 12 - HOT WINDS AND BEAUTIFUL BUTTES

At about 5 am, thunderstorms rolled in and woke us up. Strong rain and lightning flashes were reason enough to keep us in our tent until about 7 am. After a quick stop at McDonalds for breakfast (literally the only thing open), we finally hit the road around 9 - the latest start yet. There appeared to be a shortcut on the map which avoided a major freeway, so we decided to take it. Unfortunately, about 6 miles in, we discovered it turned to a dirt road. After yesterday, we vowed to avoid unpaved roads at all costs and turned around. After searching for an alternative route around the freeway, we finally started making forward progress at 10:20 am. In the picture below, you can see us getting onto pavement (yes, even when trying to avoid it, dirt roads kept finding us) and heading east!

The day quickly turned hot, but there was little time for frequent stops. We powered in to Lusk, WY for a lunch stop after about 59 miles. We bought a hefty serving and spread out in the local park to pack it in. 

Given our late start, it was already 3:15 by the time we departed Lusk, heading toward Nebraska. Unfortunately, we began experiencing strong cross winds. We altered our typical straight draft pattern to fly more like geese migrating. This worked well, but taking up the whole lane required frequent spotting for cars behind us. 

The scenery was particularly boring today. Maybe we have been spoiled? 

But we did eventually make it to Nebraska! Finally, we are officially in the Midwest! 

At this point in the day, the winds became stronger and now directly east to west, causing a brutal headwind. Our pace markedly decreased, and the day continued to drag on. A much needed long downhill brought us near our destination. 

Finally, after several hours of unexpected extra time on the saddle, we made it to Fort Robinson after 121.6 miles, where Don's sister Diane made a reservation for us at the local lodge. We were more than excited, especially on an exhausting day like today, to be inside and sleeping on real beds. 

We showered, ate some simple but awesome food at the restaurant in the lodge - and headed to bed. The sun caught up with us today, so we will be sure to be using tons of sunblock tomorrow, when we wake up early and do it all again. :)

DAY 11 - DIRT ROADS AND ANTELOPE

We awoke in the tent behind the Bright Spot and were re-welcomed by a hot breakfast and coffee. We got on the road pretty soon, but.. not the most exciting of roads. If you look at highway 20 on a map of Wyoming, you can see how straight it runs but it's hard to understand without experiencing. It's pretty much this:

... for a really long time. Just us, our bikes, a couple cars, and the occasional antelope. What goes through our minds at these times? Well, Don was reminiscing about college, Dave was thinking about his impending move to Denver, and I was oscillating between brainstorming dissertation ideas and thinking about the last time I was traveling across the country (but in a car). The view for the many hours of riding, besides the grassy plains on either side, is something like this:

In any case, we headed from Hiland where we stayed to Casper, WY, where we stopped by a grocery store to get a ton of food and soothe our ravenous hungers. The cashiers at this Albertson's were super friendly, and offered to let us sit upstairs in their break room to eat our brunch. 

From there, we headed a couple miles up the hill into town to pump up our tires at the local bike shop. The people at Ragged Edge Sports were incredibly friendly, and let us use their pumps and even have us a screw that Don was missing from his show. Thanks!

More long straight road for us from Casper heading east, and we eventually got to Glenrock, where we stopped for a cold drink and some help with road advice from some locals at the grocery store. The staff were helpful and even grabbed an atlas from the back to help us on our way, but as always we had to make our own (silly) decision. Stuck with a choice between riding up a hill, on the interstate, or on a dirt road for the last 30ish miles to Douglas, we chose the dirt road.

 

Which, of course, turned out to be the worst kind of dirt road: one that's actually gravel and therefore terrible on our road bikes. Instead of turning around, we kept going, I guess because we're stubborn. The road wound past a power plant and then a river, which at least was pretty (the river, not the power plant).

 

Due to the fairly abandoned nature of the road, there was also a lot of wildlife. Antelope watched us from the field as we rode by slowly. I don't think we realized we'd run into antelope, but they're pretty cool looking.

Probably the highlight of this otherwise way-too-long dirt road: we saw some baby antelope running along a dry creek bed. Not sure this does justice to how cute the tiny little ones were.

However, after they noticed us blocking their usual escape route, they turned around and one of the young ones ran the opposite direction. One of them, though, ran straight into one of the barbed wire fences that lined the fields along this road. He kep struggling against the wire, probably because he was so scared of us. We didn't really know what to so, since it was our presence that was clearly makin him so agitated that he kept getting more stuck! We debated just leaving to let him figure his way (calmly) out of it, or trying to help him. Eventually, Don approached by himself, equipped with our tiny multitool to try and cut the antelope out. Our scissors didn't cut it, so despite the kicking and yelping of the antelope, Don had to manually pull it back through the fence to where it had started. The antelope sprang free and ran off to join the rest of his family. Hopefully that makes up for us scaring him - and maybe even begins to repay the karmic debt we're obviously in from the kindness of the many people who have helped us so far on this trip. Thanks again, kind strangers! We appreciate everything you do.

DAY 10 - ESCAPE FROM THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS.

For those of you who were wondering why we slept in Meeteetse, WY last night instead of Sheridan, I have to back up to our rest day. While we were in Yellowstone feeling very tired,  we looked a few days ahead at our route and noticed an enormous climb through the Big Horn mountains. While doing laundry in the Yellowstone hotel, a couple who had just come through the mountains told us that the roads were treacherous, had little to no shoulder, and were dangerous for bicycles. We asked my sisters in Command Central to look into this, and this is what they sent (remember, we are traveling west to east).

     Already having spent a few days in the mountains, climbing passes over 8000 feet, we didn't want to do another climb, even steeper, over 9000 feet. We reconfigured the route to go south to avoid the Big Horns and will now follow Route 20 east instead of Route 14 east.  My sister Lauren outlined the new route on her atlas and sent photographs so we would have hard copies if we lost cell phone reception. 

     Our day began a little late as we slept in - we needed the sleep. There was a simple but well-stocked continental breakfast at the Oasis which was for motel guests, but campers could participate for a donation.  I had oatmeal, toast with jelly, a hard boiled egg and coffee.   Having had breakfast worked well, as our first town, Thermopolis, was 52 miles away. We finally got going at around 7:30. 

     Because the route is now new to us, we've had my sisters measure out distances of 110-130 miles to get is to Milwaukee on the correct day. They send us suggestions for places to eat and an overview of the terrain.

     As you can see, it was mostly downhill to Thermopolis and this morning we had a tailwind. That combination had us averaging just under 24 mph, getting us to Thermopolis in just over two hours.

   Thermopolis is famous for its hot springs and has a relatively large tourist complex set up around it. Although there were plenty of places to eat, we decided to hit the grocery store which we prefer. We stuck to our staples, yogurt, cherries, plums, turkey breast, and cheese.   Dave and I also bought some local snack cakes which pushed us over the edge into a food coma on the sidewalk that runs along the side of the store. Justin let us sleep for about 20 minutes before waking us up and getting us moving. 

     The highlight of today's ride was biking through the wind river canyon. It follows the river and is the exit through the Big Horn mountains that arc southwest around Thermopolis. The scenery was spectacular.

   

    Exiting the canyon took us through through a series of tunnels. We did well, no competition from cars and very high speed.

    Once through, we took a quick break in a park by the river. Shade is hard to find along the road and this park looked very inviting. As we ate protein bars and drank water, an official vehicle pulled up,

 and the park ranger got out: "Do you know you're in a Wyoming State park?"  I wondered what we could have possibly done wrong this time. He quickly explained that this was a day use park and that we should have paid a fee before sitting down. He then said he would waive the fee as it was obvious to him we were just passing through. As it turns out he is a cyclist also and asked us a bunch of questions about our bikes and the trip. He said he wished he was our age as he would like to have come along.  A few miles down the road when we were cycling again, he passed us, honked the horn and gave us a big wave. 

     Getting to Shoshoni was a climb, but we had a tailwind which made things nice. Unfortunately at Shoshoni we would make a 90'degree turn east and the tail wing would become a cross wind. We are quickly learning that winds can have a very big impact on the amount of miles we can do, and after asking many of the locals, it is difficult to predict the direction or the speed. The ride to Hiland was very difficult. The crosswind became a little more of a headwind and we estimated it between 20 and 30 knots. The road was straight with little variation in terrain.

We passed the sign below.

Our ride for today was 124 miles and we were really feeling it as we approached our stopping point, Steelman's Brite Spot, in the town of Hiland, population 10.

It's a bar, store, restaurant, and motel, but they let campers like us set up a tent in the field behind the motel. The inside of the restaurant/store was fascinating. Stuffed rattlesnakes for sale at the main counter, stickers everywhere and a small dinner/breakfast menu. 

Bob, the owner, was great. He made us dinner, let us charge our devices, choose the TV channel and engaged us in conversation. After we ate, we set up the tent

 and came back to the bar for a few beers. Bob told us what it was like to own his place and gave us a picture of life in a small town of 10. We asked him if he knew the other 9, but he said that number was fluid. 

    After the beers, we said goodnight, got into the tent at 9:30 with it not yet dark, and rested up for another day. Breakfast is served at 6am, and we plan to be his first customers. 

DAY 9 - DESCENDING FROM THE MOUNTAINS

Today started off with an early rise from our beautiful hotel on Lake Yellowstone. Although it was nearly impossible to leave the bed, we were on our bikes by 6:20am pedaling in the frigid mountain air. Justin's bike computer read 42 degrees! The ride out included the most beautiful scenery so far. 

An epic early morning climb through mountains and sulfur steam led to an impressive 3500 foot descent to Cody, WY. Just before Cody, we came across a series of tunnels, which were very narrow, dark, and without shoulders. We decided to plunge headfirst and pedal our asses off so that cars wouldn't come up from begins and try to pass us. Fortunately, we were able to keep up a pace over 40 mph and made it through the tunnels without being passed. 

In Cody, the temperature soared into the 90s. We stopped for a much needed late lunch and decided to kill sometime before getting back on the road since we had made such good time in the morning. We cleaned our bikes outside of a kmart when we found the only bike shop in town closed. 

The temperature only got hotter, and with only 32 miles left in the day, we decided to escape the heat and watch a movie. We shoved our bikes in a closet at the theatre and spent a luxurious 3 hours in plush seats and AC. Transformers is a terrible movie, unless you are trying to maximize your time in a cool dark environment. 

 

Our last stretch brought us to Meeteetse, WY, a small town southeast of Cody. On this part of the ride, the hills were lit up by the setting sun. The landscape was vastly different from the morning's. At this point in the trip we took a moment to celebrate reaching 1000 miles! 

We set up our tent, grabbed a shower at the RV park, and had dinner at a little mom and pop's place. Now, off for some solid sleep.