Gearing up for a whole week in Wyoming, we were excited to see all it had to offer. Our week started off by traveling to Dubois where we went to the National Bighorn Sheep Museum and grabbed lunch at a great burger and milkshake shop. After that, we settled in at a lodge where we enjoyed another relaxing rest day along with some much appreciated beds and showers.
During the day, Paula noticed some large cracks in the rim on her back wheel. After some investigation, it came to light that REI had not included the correct quality rim for her bike when she purchased it. Because Wyoming only has so many bike shops, we put together a plan to stay in Lander, WY for a few days while we got that fixed.
While in Lander, we stayed at the beautiful city park where tent camping was free and very convenient to the center of the town. During our first full day after arriving in Lander, we sat at a local bakery and planned out the rest of the trip. Having the destinations and mileage planned out to Yorktown made everything feel real and exciting.
After some running around that day to different places — for those of you who don’t know, Taco Johns is bad and please save yourself and do not go — we still had yet to hear that Paula’s rom had arrived. Unfortunately, it was incorrectly sorted and even with overnight shipping it was held back another day. We went bowling in the evening and had a bad experience with rude owners. Their “bike rack” was plastic and secured by a single link chain and when we asked if we could put our bikes in a more secure area, we were answered with scoffs and begrudging “yes”es.
The next day, we took a more relaxed approach and hung out with movies and snacks. Paula’s part arrived in the late afternoon and we didn’t feel good about riding at night so we sighed and pushed it back another day. It was fine though, because as we headed back to our tent with Paula’s newly repaired bicycle we ran into Adam — a cyclist who we met back in Yellowstone who is doing the same trip. He’s a nice guy in his mid thirties and it was good to see a friendly face.
The next few days we continued riding peripherally with Adam as our destinations and mileage were similar. We were so excited to finally leave Lander and get back on the saddle. We stayed in this barely existent town Jeffrey City outside of their church. It was very .. erm… rustic camping with no water or bathrooms. We made do with what water we had (luckily we had extra) and politely watered the sagebrush that Wyoming is so infamous for.
From there we rode to Rawlins, WY and met some strong winds as we approached our living arrangements for the evening. We stayed in a wonderful Fairfield Inn my uncle in Colorado booked for us. We treated ourselves to some McDonalds and milkshakes before settling in.
The next morning we rode later in the morning to Saratoga, WY. We were camping right along the lake but rode into town to check out some free hot springs. The hottest pool was 115 degrees Fahrenheit and Paula and I both came out half cooked through. We heard there was a grocery store in town and we went, thrilled to get some fresh food for dinner. We bought grapes, GoGurt (not “fresh food” but still perishable and delicious), and strips of steak to cook with bell peppers and cheese. It was a beautiful day and we were able to do so many fun things we hadn’t been able to do for a long time. Even though the week was slower than expected, we were glad to finish it in such a beautiful, fun way.
A Funny Moment of the Week: I discovered in Saratoga that Paula eats GoGurts in such a strange way. Something about them makes her enter a different dimension. We were sitting there eating and talking and laughing and all of a sudden, she picks up a GoGurt and the second the skinny tube touches her lips, an animal awakens. Her eyes glazed over as she slowly pushed the yogurt up the tube and her breathing deepened intensely. Needless to say, I saw this and immediately erupted into crying laughter as I tried to explain to her what she was doing. I have to say that pointing out how ridiculous she appeared was worth losing the privilege to see her eat GoGurts ever again in the future.
What We’ve Learned: This week, unfortunately I have to change this segment to what I’VE learned. When we were staying in Lander, we went to a local bakery to plan the rest of the trip — as I mentioned. What I refrained from mentioning was that as we arrived with bags all on my bike, I attempted to put my front wheel into the provided bike rack. Well, I did a bad job and because there was so much weight on my bike, I watched in slow motion as the bike fell and my front wheel bent an arbitrary amount.
Luckily, a bike shop in town was able to replace my front wheel and all was swell, but come on. What kind of absentminded idiot thinks it’s a good idea to put their bike shoddily into a bike rack while they have 30 pounds on the back!? Chloe Myers. That’s who. But alas, it’s all amount learning and I can swear on my mother’s grave that you will never catch me making a mistake like that a second time.