Jun
10
Today was a short day of riding- only about 25 miles, but we woke up early and got a great interview with a woman fishing in the lake. She talked passionately all about environmentalists and hunting restrictions in Wyoming… it was definitely worth the late start.
When we finally got on the road, we hit some good headwinds that slowed us down on the rolling hills of this part of Wyoming. Tomorrow should be our last day going South for a little while, so it should also be the last day of consistent headwinds. Thank goodness!
As usual the storms rolled in around 2, but we were already set up and doing work at a little campground in Riverside, WY.
We thought you might enjoy a peak at a phenomenon neither of us had experienced before heading out on this trip: the grocery store taxidermy. Here’s a couple critters keeping watch over the processed meat department:
Mind you, this isn’t some little mom-and-pop grocery, this is a major chain store. Being a temporarily reformed vegetarian (on this kind of trip you eat what you’re served thankfully) this sight is somewhat unsettling for me… but neither of us can figure out exactly why is seems so darn funny! Oh well, tomorrow we push into Colorado. Who knows what new and exciting discoveries we’ll make there!
Jun
09
This section of Wyoming is pretty much rolling hills and grasslands. It makes for really pleasant riding- and we’ve had a really nice tailwind the past couple of days too!
The problem with being out here is that towns are pretty few and far between.
It’s nice because there is very little traffic, but every afternoon we’ve been hitting huge thunder and lightning storms that roll in around 2pm. These storms are no joke- just two counties away from us they have been having tornados in the afternoons! 
So yesterday the giant storm (pictured above) rolls in and catches up to us when we are only about 8 miles away from our planned campground. We start getting hit with driving rain- which is okay, we have good raingear- but then the lightning starts, and let me tell you, on a bike in the middle of these plains, when that thunder cracks and rolls, the hair on your arms stands up and your heart jumps. After one particular crack and flash we both simultaneously decided this was a bad idea, ditched our bikes on the side of the road and headed for a ditch. The storm continued and about once every 5 minutes a car would roll by and one of us would run out trying to flag it down. A cop pulled over and told us he couldn’t do anything for us, but if we wanted, he would drop us off a little further down the road- without our bikes. That seemed like a situational downgrade to us, so we crawled back to our ditch and he drove off.
Finally a pick-up truck pulled over with two kids and a dad. They loaded our bikes into the back (along with poor Alan who couldn’t fit in the cab and so chivalrously rode with the bikes and gear in the pouring rain) and took off. The dad, Jon, flat out refused to drop us off where we wanted to camp. “The only thing in that town is a bar and a lot of nothing”. So he drove us up the road to the next place on our map. It was a restaurant where you could camp if it was open… but it wasn’t. Eventually he dropped us off and we rode a bit before hitting the downtown of Rawlins. To make an already long story a little shorter, as we rode up towards our new campground we heard a piercing whistle and squinted through the driving rain and wind at a man named Jerome who waved at us to come over. We did and he turned out to be a manager at the Best Western Inn in Rawlins. He gave us a free room for the evening, instructed us to warm up in the jacuzzi and enjoy the continental breakfast the next morning. We are eternally grateful. We slept like warm, dry babies and woke up this morning ready to ride.
Today we made it to Saratoga, WY before the lightning started and now we’re holed up in the tent. It’s about 50 degrees outside so we’ve pretty much decided to call it a night. Tomorrow morning we push further south into Colorado (hopefully) and with any luck we’ll get there before the lightning storms start up again!
Jun
07
The Teton mountains are awe-inspiring. They seem to rise out of nowhere and this time of year are covered in glistening snow.
We got to hang out a bit more with Jan and JB in their place at the foot of the mountains- which was fantastic because it was freezing cold and raining/hailing/snowing. Between storms though, the light was just incredible.
We took in a Rodeo in Jackson Hole, WY and Alan grabbed this great shot of the action:
I loved the fury with which they flew out of the shoot. 
Now we’ve headed out into the more prairie-like part of the country and left the Tetons behind. Tomorrow we’ll push further east and our maps show a 26 mile climb. Yikes! But we’re feeling strong and well fed (thanks to Jan and JB) and ready to tackle the cold rain predicted to continue over the next 5 days. Sigh. Good thing we’ve got raingear!
Jun
06
We’ve been in very spotty internet for the past few days, but we left Montana and went through Yellowstone!
What a place. Neither Alan nor I had ever been before and we had the added bonus of having my aunt Jan as a tour guide. Our route has us riding right through the park, but since she lives just south of there, she brought us around so we could see more stuff. The sky was stormy all day and we intermittently had little downpours, but it made for dramatic photography! The colors of Yellowstone are just amazing. The geysers and hot springs produce the most amazing forms of life (thermophiles) and we marveled at the variations.
We even got to see a geyser or two go off.
We had a great day checking out the park, but were exhausted by the end. Fortunately we got to stay in Jan’s friend’s apartment in the park (she’s a PA at the clinic there), so we didn’t have far to go to rest! We had a delicious dinner of white rice (Alan’s been craving it), sauteed spinach, garlic and onion topped with avocado… Jan sure knows how to feed hungry cyclists!