Casper

Weds 6/23 74 miles to Wright, WY
Thurs 6/24 103 miles to Casper

Fun fact: Wyoming is the least populated state, including Alaska.
While IT would be easy to say that there was a lot of nothing on
Wednesday, we did go by the largest surface area coal mine in North
America. They had trucks that were, no joke, bigger than houses. My
friend Tom in Nebraska told me about this method that they utilize to
replant they grasses and make the site look natural after they
stripped IT of all its worth. If they could do that with this site, IT
would be nothing short of a miracle. Looking at it on google maps
hardly reveals the area that they are mining. Any how, the Thunder
Basin Grasslands were very, very nice. We asked Joan, the woman who
provided shelter from the tornado, what the ride would be like and she
replied 'flat and plain.' Again, the locals experience things
differently than we do. To someone who never seen those mesas, IT was
a jaw dropping day. It seems so natural that we take things for
granted once we're used to them. Oh yeah, and it wasn't flat. Is it
ever? Rarely IT seems.

As Lee said, we hard to go left to go Wright. We pulled into a cookie
cutter neighborhood that was all that Wright consisted of. IT was too
perfect looking; IT was bothersome. After 70+ miles of nothingness,
the only thing around this town was the mine. IT was a first class
kinda town; nice schools, playgrounds, and a new library. Evidently,
all the money came from the mine because there was simply no where
else for it to come from.

We drank tallboy sodas, 16 oz, and watched the sunset over the pond.
That's right, tallboy sodas. After nightfall, we setup our tents
between a row of trees and went unnoticed.

Sunrise comes early out here. We were both up by 5am, not so much by
choice. Retrospectively, IT was a great thing. We got to Midwest, a
town of about 400 people, by lunch time which was our 1/2 way point.
Winds were not favorable as usual. I asked a boy, probably 8 years
old, where the grocery store was. 'I will take you there' he
exclaimed. He was kicking rocks in the front yard when I asked him. I
think we were the highlight of his day. Unfortunately, his chain fell
off his bike after only 1 block. Not much goes through that little
town. I took a few pictures of the houses so I'll be able to remember
they way they lived. Many houses were abandoned. I broke a spoke and
changed IT in 14 minutes (that includes getting IT of the holder on
the chainstay and truing it). Not that I hope to break more spokes,
but I will try to beat my time on the next one. I stopped to change
the spoke at breathe taking view of the Big Horn Mountains. This was
our first siting of snow covered mountains. Lovely!

The southern ride towards Casper was neverending. There is a gigantic
mountain on the south side of town called Casper Mountain. It was such
a tease because it gave us a false sense of nearness. Town must have
been 20 miles off. It's a bit torturous at mile 85 when you felt like
you shouldve been there by now but town is still somewhere off in the
distance. We ran into a cyclist on our way into town who directed is
to a suggested bike shop. For peace of mind, I had the mechanic take
my freehub off, check IT out, and put IT back on. Seeing as the shop
in Valentine didn't charge me any labor or shop fees, I didn't feel so
bad in having to pay to make sure IT was done correctly. Lee greased
his new pedals.

Warmshowers.org is an awesome resource. I have no connections in this
town yet we were greeted with a porkchop dinner, wild rice, veggies,
fresh cookies, ice cream, warm showers, clean sheets and beds, laundry
facilities, and of course more wonderful people who were eager to hear
our stories and share some of their own. IT really makes me want to
ask what motivates them to be so kind to total strangers who only have
stories to repay them with. I will choose not to question it but
rather to simply accept it.

On a down side, I left my fleece lined marmot jacket in the house in
Newcastle. I guess IT was an expendable item really; I can use my rain
coat with arm warmers.

We are told that the next 2 days are going to be the most desolate
areas that we will venture to. I drank 8 bottles of water today. I can
only anticipate that I will continue to need that much in this dry
heat. We have some water reserves as well, no worries. At least enough
for 4 bottles. Another long day tomorrow to Shoshoni, around 100
miles. May the wind be at our backs!

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