Day 22: Medicine Bow to Casper

Woke up at 5 AM with the team committed to being out on the road as early as possible to avoid the afternoon winds. The Virginian agreed to feed us a free breakfast so we headed over there at 6. Breakfast was eggs with biscuits and sausage smothered in gravy. I'm not normally a biscuits and gravy kind of guy, but it's starting to grow on me.

We headed out of the hotel with full stomachs into the chill morning air. It was cold enough that nobody wanted to move very quickly since it only made it colder. But before we left we dedicated our ride to John, who we were told had a terminal form of cancer. We had met him the previous night and he was a very jovial man, who I would not have guessed had been sent home by his doctors with a timeline until he would head downhill. Just after we dedicated the ride to him, he showed up in his truck with a camera in his hand. He wanted to take a picture of us before we left. He was so happy and friendly. And he has cancer. And it sucks. It just sucks.

The ride was going to be somewhere around 95 miles, so the team didn't procrastinate getting on the road. Still so cold, though, that I was loathe to get above ten miles per hour until I warmed up. In the meantime, JJ took off like a rocket and she was just plain gone before I even knew what happened. She had been sitting out for a week due to being side swiped by the smie and her body clearly took well to the rest, even if she didn't want it.

I paced myself at a pretty constant 16 mph or so, which put me at the back end of the pack. I didn't care much since it was going to be a long day both today and tomorrow. Found the rest stop after about 22 miles at a junction. We were presented a choice, we could go right and go 23 miles over what seemed to be gentle slopes and a slight tailwind, or we could go left for 22 miles over what appeared to be slightly steeper hills and a slight crosswind. Both roads would lead to the same junction. Tough choice. Just like the classic poem.

But I went right since it looked pretty much downhill and I always love a tailwind. Besides, what's one more mile when you're doing 95 of them anyway? In the end, it was mostly downhill with some decent climbs, but it did turn west, right into the wind, which had picked up by the time I made it that far. Still, it was a pretty good choice. I found out later that the other route only had a mile or so of hills then it had a very steep downhill that sent the riders screaming down the valley at up to 54 mph. That's insanely fast on a bike. Mario said his bike was shaking all over the place from the speed and the crosswind. My choice did have the added benefit of having several historical and informative kiosks along the way, though.

Left the second rest stop after a few minutes and headed out on my own. Meandered around, fighting a headwind the whole way, but enjoying the terrain and the gently sloping downhill. I knew from the map that the road I was currently on headed west, into the wind, but the last 20 miles would go east and I would have a tailwind. Found Mercedes at the lunch stop, some 64 miles along the way. I think we're all getting better since the lunch stop is usually at the 55 mile mark and yet nobody seemed to mind.

Made my way to the highway junction, coasting down the hills most of the way. Turned onto the highway into Casper and that 10 mph headwind was suddenly a tailwind and my favorite new friend. The terrain went decidedly up over a mountain pass, but I was just zipping along. Paralleled the North Platte river, which supported the Oregon Trail. So of course there were plenty of historical markers to check out.

From all the signs, I gathered that a lot of turmoil used to tear up the region. Interestingly the markers seemed to mourn all the White Men who died in Indian raids, but I never saw one that mentioned how the white man displaced the native Americans from their homelands. Annoyingly one-sided stuff.

Crossed the mountain pass and enjoyed a good five miles or so of downhill coasting. So nice to bike 90 miles and then coast so far into town. Meandered around town on my way to the church. One girl in a car honked at me and waved. Other people slowed down and looked at me. I'm not sure if they're used to seeing people bike through town or what the deal was, but it was noticeable.

Got into the church recreational building early in the afternoon, ate some food, and crashed on the couch. The host came in with her family a short time later and let us customize our breakfast menu. She also had done some research and made some great recommendations for what the team could do on a Saturday night in town. Headed over to the library for e-mail checking, but other than that pretty much just lazed around all day long.

After dinner, I took the time to walk around downtown and look for a wireless internet cafe. Downtown was a quiet affair with the most notable points of interest being all the stuff dedicated to Dick Cheney and the four movie theaters within a block of each other. The movie theaters were all small and each had only a few screens, with one of them being a one screen theater. Meandered around and found the coffee shop I was looking for, headed in and bought some hot chocolate. I promptly burnt the top layer of flesh in my mouth, but there were all sorts of kids around so I couldn't make the face or noises that I wanted to.

I spent the next hour or so typing up journal entries and watching the local people do their thing on a Saturday night. The most notable thing I noticed was the number of kids that were around downtown. Kids no more than ten years old were zipping around on their bikes at 11 PM with seemingly no concerns. The cafe was filled with mostly young women playing cards and giggling. Outside the theaters, families were casually discussing whether to watch the movie playing at this theater or the one across the street. All in all a very relaxed atmosphere, far removed from what I am used to.

Made it back to the home base to find a lot of the team in a circle. Walked over and plopped down to find that everyone was sharing ghost stories. Seems like it's a requirement that large groups must tell ghost stories at some point and I was lucky enough to be there just in time. Good times. Everyone went to bed, some amused, some rolling their eyes, and some a little bit unsettled.