07.19.2023 - casper

so, i committed to making casper, 100 mi away.  but first....

i waited till dark to set my tent up in the park.  there were tractor trailers in the parking lot, down for the night, so i had some confirmation that is what okay, but i wanted to keep a low profile.  i had scoped it out during light and i new there was green grass and sprinkler control system boxes.  so i put my tent up knowing i might get some sprinkler action.  what i hadn't scoped well enough was the head locations.  so of course, in the middle of the night when the sprinklers went off, there was one right in front of my door, washing the inside of the tent.  i reacted quickly: up, tent stakes pulled and tent moved before the third pass.  laughing and cursing at myself, assessing the damage i realized that things were drying pretty quick.  within 30 minutes, with the help of a towel, pretty much everything was dry, i was back in the tent, this time on concrete, and asleep.  2nd run in with a sprinkler system, another partial lesson learned.

up at dawn, over to the all new 24/7travel center for tea and breakfast, then on the road by 7.  from shoshoni to casper is 100 hundred miles.  the only stop between the two is a rest area located exactly halfway between.  there are a couple of community signs along the way, but no visible community.  certainly no stores.  there is water at the rest area.

and this picture pretty well sums up the next 90 miles, except for the slight, annoying headwind.  what?  what happened to my tailwind from yesterday?

there is nothing, and i mean nothing, across long stretches of wyoming.  not even farmhouses. no what else is missing from this picture?  trees.  and, that means shade.  50 miles, 5 hrs on a bike with no where to stop, no shade, until the rest area.  then do it again.

one pleasant interruption was about 20 mi outside shoshoni, i came across i guy standing next to his car holding a bottle of water out to me.  ryan is from pacific city, oregon, on his way to sioux city to ride the 50th anniversary ragbrai, the annual ride across iowa that normally attracts 10-15,000 cyclists. this year they'll be more, including our very own anne victoria. we talked for 15-20 minutes about cycling and touring, i drank 2 bottles of water.

later, 50 miles down the road at the rest area, two young women accosted me.  they were all excited, heading to ragbrai.  they were from hawaii.

uninhabited? i exagerate.   approximately 40 mi. out from shoshoni, there is/was the community of hiland, pop. 10?  i think it's an exaggeration, i don't know where they were.

the only other interuption, which got me off my bike, was hells half acre.  robbie robertson (the band) wrote about it in a song, but i didn't realize it was a real place.  it's actually 300+ acres.  it's oddly separated from people by a six foot chainlink fence with barbed wire on top.  not very inviting to tourists.

finally after 90 miles, casper and the north platte river valley came into view. 

and a very much needed stop at another upscale convenience store where i gulped large quantities of raspberry ice tea and sat in the air conditioning.  felt sooo good to be off the bike.

and then on to warmshower host, john, retired teacher, gardener, tennis player.  and two nights accommodation, with tomorrow a well earned, total rest day.